IntelActive Monitor indicating power problem

[yogibrahma]

:confused:
Hi All ,

I recently downloaded and installed Intel Active Monitor ( ver 1.2.1 ) .I am facing the following problem on my system:

1. Whenever I boot the system cold , I find the Monitor giving alert for one of the power zones crossing the threshold limits . One of the Voltmeters( not the CPU Core OR the CPU I/O ) indicate a voltage of 0.63 V as against the recommended(green) value of 11 - 13 volts.

2. However , on restarting , the sys behaves totally normal and there are no problems.

3. I want to know if anything appears seriously wrong with my sys and what action should be taken from my side in order to rectify .Or should i continue to restart , after every cold boot,to restore normalcy.

2. I have Intel(R) Desktop Board D850MV based system with following details:

Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1700MHz
Bus speed 400 MHz
Form factor ZIF Socket
Stepping 10

Physical memory 128 MB RAM
Memory speed PC600
Memory type Other, RAMBUS
Form factor RIMM
BIOS date 03/28/2002
BIOS size 512 KB
BIOS version P10 (MV85010A.86A.0025.P10.0203282158)

Can any one help.Thanks in advance.

[Mick_D]

Apparantly upgrading Intel Active Monitor from a prior version or upgading the OS from Win NT or Win 2000 to Win XP can cause problems. There is a patch available from Intel you can download. Here is the link to the page with information and link to download the patch.

http://developer.intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm

Hope this helps.

[yogibrahma]

Hi Mick,

This patch is required only in cases of upgradation s to XP.

However I have ME and the version of monitor downloaded and installed is suitable for my OS.

I think that the issue possibly is voltage fluctuations in the power supply since the problem is occurring only after cold boots and these normally take place after fresh 'switching on' of power. Once the voltage stabilises the problem does not occur.

Anyway am still investigating and shall revert back.

Any and all ideas welcome.

[Mick_D]

Sorry, I should have made the assumption of OS being XP. Do you have a decent voltmeter and know how to measure voltage at the power connector to the mobo?

[yogibrahma]

No,neither do I have a voltmeter nor do I know how to use it with a mobo.

It is ,however strange that the problem is exactly repetitive .Every time the monitor records a vltage(+12 V) going outside recommended value and bad voltage value is always indicated as + 0.63 V.

Anything else,pal.

[Mick_D]

1. Voltage readings from onboard sensors can be innacurate. The sensor itself on the motherboard may be going bad and is taking two boots before giving the correct reading. A voltage measurement on the +12V line (pin 10 yellow wire) on the ATX power connector is the only way to know for sure.

2. Your power supply may be going bad and is taking some time or a second boot to supply the +12V in the acceptable range. If this is true, continuing to boot twice is subjecting your motherboard to wide voltage variances and voltage fluctuations will damage the componants on the board or the motherboard itself. You could buy a new power supply, install it, and see if this fixes the problem. If the problem still exists then you'll have a spare PSU.:)

3. Your motherboard itself may be heading south or just needs a good cleaning. Open the case and carefully vacuum all dust bunnies. Unhook the power connectors, cables, clean and reattach. Inspect the motherboard visually for leaking or bulging capacitors. The leaking eletrolyte will look like rust flaking or building up on the top of the capacitors. If you find bad capacitors you'll need a motherboard sometime soon.

Some options for ya. Hope they help pal. :D

[yogibrahma]

:)
I think I have it licked.

1. Uninstalled the Monitor.
2. Installed Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility.
3. Reinstalled the Monitor after unloading a fresh copy from Intel site.

Problen not recurred since then.Let us hope it continues that way.

Thanks a lot for your support and inputs.

[CuratoR]

Thats probably a false alarm. You may want to use a more reliable monitoring tool, etc Motherboard Monitor 5(though alex has stopped its development, its still useful and one of the best).