Computer power supplies are sophisticated devices.... they turn AC Power
into DC and provide power incrementally.With the power supply connected to
something...like a fan or a hard drive put a meter on the power leads. If
the power supply is sitting on a bench running nothing you will get a 0
reading because there is no load for the PS to meet. If you have something
running...like your normal PC then the Red should give you 5 ....5.02 volts
DC and the yellow 12...12.08. ...It should not wavier....and never go below
5 and 12 volts DC.

Are you using a Cyrix Chip by any chance....there was an issue concerning
spontaneous reboot with early Cyrix 686 CPUs. Does this reboot only occur
in Windows or will it occur from a Dos boot disk. If it only occurs in
Windows I would suspect software or memory chips. To test this boot from a
floppy and run the burn in program BurnIn...which can be obtained from the
PCBUILD web site...Let it run for a couple of days and see if your PC
reboots. If it doesn't then your problem may be a Windows <software>
problem. Another thing you should try is plugging your PC into another
circuit in your house ....you may have a flaky circuit breaker. I have a PC
that will reboot whenever there is any small change in voltage...this
doesn't happen very often but when the Electric company is working in the
neighborhood or there are big power demands on the utility company the PC
will suddenly start to reboot. I have learned to keep it off until things
settle down. The other PCs will keep running like nothing has happened but
this particular PC requires a very clean and steady 115 AC power supply. I
have started shopping for a UPS for this particular PC......you might also
consider  this.

m


>
>    My system keeps rebooting and so far I have heard that it is a Power
>Supply problem.  Yet the company I ordered it from sent me a new Mobo
>instead of a new P.S.  Is there a way I can test the power supply without
>swapping in a new one and doing the trial and error method?  If so, what
>should I look for?  It is a 235 watt P.S connected to a FIC VB-601 BX Mobo.
>I want to make sure it isn't just a matter of swapping out the P.S before I
>do the MObo swap.  SO if I could get some feedback that would be great.
>
>Thanks,
>Michi Imamura

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