Odds and Ends

[slvr_phoenix]

So I'm booting up my machine this morning because a power failure shut it down on me. (And I was actually close to 4 months of 24/7 runtime without even a reboot in WinXP. Grrrr.)

A few minutes after Windows kicks in, my Asus Probe is telling me that my -5 volt line is way off. At first I was concerned. Since usually hardware problems relate to dust buildup, I cracked open my case and blew the hell out of it. The dust buildup wasn't too bad, but no dust is good dust. (Well, except maybe pixie dust, so long as it has nothing to do with hard drives...)

Anywho, I get it up and running again and all is good. It got me to thinking though. Does anyone know if anything actually uses the -5v line anyway? I mean hell, my power supply only carries half an amp on that line, so it sure as hell can't be of much use to anything...

<A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/171.htm" target="_new">The corpse you find may be your own.</A> - Black Mage

 

[Crashman]

I think it might be used for something in power management?

<font color=blue>By now you're probably wishing you had ask more questions first!</font color=blue>

 

[wolverinero79]

I don't know much about motherboards and the electricity running through them. What is the 5v line it mentions? It doesn't mean the lines that carry 5v from the power supply, does it (those are used for devices). It's the 5v piece of the long plug that gives power to the mobo, right (because there are different lines bringing different amounts of voltage through the main mobo power line)? What on the mobo uses the 5v connector (i think mine is actually at 5.9 and my computer is not having any problems)?

Athlons and Pentiums are just melted rock. Who’s rock is better? Who cares, let’s play some games

 

[Crashman]

No, he means the -5v, as in the 5v lower than the ground lines. It's only used by something on the board, to my knowledge.

<font color=blue>By now you're probably wishing you had ask more questions first!</font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

Nowdays I think people mostly only use minus voltages for doing analog stuff (maybe video or something), but I think in the old days some of the comm. stuff required minus voltages not too sure though...

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Yep. That crazy -5v line, not the +5v line.

<A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/171.htm" target="_new">The corpse you find may be your own.</A> - Black Mage

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Huh. I guess that makes sense.

**really big shrug**

Beats me. All I could figure is that it was either there just purely out of tradition (like maybe at one point in the distance past it was actually used, but these days no one uses it for squat) or the motherboard uses it for something. With only a half an amp though, it sure can't be used for much these days. Heh heh. I guess analog stuff kind of makes sense. **big shrug**

<A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/171.htm" target="_new">The corpse you find may be your own.</A> - Black Mage