>Some of the newer CPU's (Athlons and P4's) really suck down the power.
>(Worst case is 80watts for just the Athlon CPU itself.)  If the +12v,
>+5v or +3.3v supplies can't supply the current needed you'll see
>intermittent problems whenever something tries to use a bit of extra
>current from the weak rail.  For example, things such as a disk-arm
>seek or a disk spinning up would cause a bit more of a load on the
>+12.  I had a problem where my board (running -current) locked up once
>when I did an "ls -lag /u/src" (a directory with a few hundred source
>trees.)  I suspected a +12v problem, and knew the Antec 300w supply
>was a bit on the weak side for an Athlon, so I replaced it.
>

This seems to ring the bell because I have put another hdd into the system
making it 4 altogether. And the soft data errors suddenly coming back. So I
think you are right. When error there is large data transfer there are a lot
of data movement hence also a lot of demand on the hard drive and power
requirement. I was suspecting the channel of the card. In fact it should be
the other culprit.

So how do I fix it? As you say I can't just get a bigger power supply?

How do I measure or benchmark power supply?

David