accessory power issue

[Babrbarossa]

Today I put another 120mm LED fan into my p180, along with a blue cathode-- I piggybacked them both into the power connector up near the front which already had a couple og things on it, and when I turn it on, the cathode only lights up half-way, and the fan doesn't start on its own on the low setting (three setting switch). I assume that there must not be enough juice to run those few thing plugged in there -- is that the problem? if so, I can't seem to find anywhere else to plug it in. the excess wiring is stuffed behind the psu and I don't want to have to remove it if I don't need to-- I'm not sure if there are more connectors back in there anyway.

 

[Babrbarossa]

Well I answered that question, but it raised another. I found another power connector, and plugged the fan and cathode into it and they work great. But this worries me that the other connector isn't getting enough power. The two rear fans are plugged into it, and I notice that they too have trouble starting up on the low setting. I wonder why this connection is underpowered.

 

[Gav]

It's fairly common for bigger diameter fans to have trouble starting on low settings as it's hard for them to overcome the inertia of starting to spin from a dead stop so I wouldn't worry to much about that.

The only way to test your pouwer output on that cable would be to probe it with a multimeter. If like playing around with hardware I would recommend getting one. They are really good at helping to diagnose problems and you can usually get one fairly cheap from Home Depot, Canadian Tire or Radioshack when they are on sale.

 

[Babrbarossa]

Ok thanks-- I have stumbled on another worry though-- sandra sytem monitor reports that my +12V voltage is 10.64!! Shouldn't this be at least 11.8???

 

[sswilson]

It should be, but don't trust sandra alone.

Is there mobo monitoring software for your mobo? It at least should be close if it's designed for the sensors on your mobo.

 

[Gav]

This is not the best way either but go into the BIOS and see what the 12volt shows up at in there.

I've see differences of .5-1volts from the BIOS reading to my multimeter reading.

 

[Misoprostol]

Definitely best thing to do is grab a multimeter. They're like $10 from CDN tire.

 

[Babrbarossa]

I checked in the bios, and was pleased to see that it was 12.25.

 

[sswilson]

That's a reasonably good measure.

IIRC most mobos run at around 30% cpu (or more) while in bios setup screen so you're even getting a bit of "on load" reading there.

Have you checked to see if there are any speedfan user definitions for your specific mobo?

 

[Supergrover]

I checked in the bios, and was pleased to see that it was 12.25.

I dont trust anything but my MM, my old abit was 1.0v off in the bios and guru, the wifes gigabyte flux's allover the place according to software but on the MM it barely moves.
Dont trust software........ever.
Just my option.