Is there a PSU testing device or program
- Thread starter Vanilla
- Start date
Man of Honour
OCCT has a punishing PSU load test that will load your components to draw the maximum power they are able to from the PSU but the only real way to test a PSU's rails is with a expensive test unit or with a multimeter.
Yes, and testing with just a multimeter with the PSU forced on won't be useful test as it would just show the voltages the supply outputs when there is no load.
Hardware monitoring tools logging to a file or second monitor might be of some use though. Couple that with OCCT or something which causes your crash, and you *might* be able to see for example the 12V dropping just before your crash. Or you *might* not, but fairly easy to try.
Those relatively cheap "PSU testers" which you can buy basically just makes it easier to see the no-load voltages, so again not very useful.
To really test a supply needs at minimum a load. Preferably a scope at the same time. Really something for PSU hardware review sites.
Man of Honour
I should have made it clear that I meant use the multimeter with OCCT loading the psu. Using a multimeter on a psu with no load would be pretty pointless.
Ah, that makes a lot more sense.
Those cheap little PSU testers:
might actually be useful for that if only they had a pass-through. As it, all the ones I've seen are a joke.
Seldom watch Youtube tech stars, but I did watch some of those recent Gigabyte PSU firework ones. The amount of equipment you need to do this properly is daunting.
Man of Honour
Like you say, something like that with a pass-through would be perfect to enable end users to test their psu's under load. I am surprised nobody has launched one as not everyone has access to a multimeter or how to use one correctly. It probably wouldn't be that cheap as they would need to include a basic set of cables but I would buy one.
And still wouldn't tell anything about ripple, which needs oscilloscope.Those cheap little PSU testers:
might actually be useful for that if only they had a pass-through. As it, all the ones I've seen are a joke.
Though top level multimeters costing couple times the good PSU have AC bandwidth toward 100kHz and might be able to give some rough ripple results.
Man of Honour
How ironic that I really could do with Kompucare's invention right now. I have started playing Railroad Empire again and for such a simple game it really loads the pc up compared to other games. I am hitting up to 330w at the wall when playing it. I believe I am suffering from the dreaded RTX3000 power surge problem. Every now and then when playing the computer shuts down and reboots, it's extremely random and sometimes I can go all day with no hard crash yet another day it can be within 10 minutes of starting the game. Event viewer shows the dreaded Power Kernel 41 error. I have reset the cpu to stock, the memory is running its XMP profile and the gpu has never been overclocked. I have the latest motherboard bios, all the latest drivers and windows 10 is fully up to date. The gpu is powered from two seperate pci-e leads. Temps are not a factor as I am on custom water cooling and temps are extremely low. Specs are in my siggy. I loaded OCCT up and selected the PSU torture test which loads everything up to 100% and saw 458w at the wall. While it was running I got my multimeter out and while using pin 3 for the ground tested the other pins and all were well within the limits apart from pin 11 which I believe should be the second +12v pin but was only showing 8.63v both loaded and at idle. I am not sure about this pin because I tested my old spare psu and that only showed 8.68v on pin 11. I have a 2021 Corsair RM850x on the way but that won't be here until Monday at the earliest. @EsaT I was just wondering about that pin 11, should it be showing 12v or not?
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It should be 12V.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_unit_(computer)#Wiring_diagrams
With CPU VRM having own power cable there usually isn't much load on ATX connector's 12V.
But Amperes suck lot power from slot, so maybe that's behind the issue.
Man of Honour
Many thanks for the confirmation. The pci-e slot is only reading 11.623v which is on the low side but within the 5% tolerance. With the spikes these RTX3000 cards suffer from hopefully the replacement PSU will fix my problems. I have a RMA approved for the Project 7 but as it's end of life I will most likely get a refund for it..