Quick question ... relatively.

So here's the deal ... client with a Dell Inspiron 580. Locking up now and again, acting strange in general for a new machine, purchased last March just recently setting it up.
All looks good, all diagnostics check out fine... BUT ... I run SIW and the sensors tell me that the 12V rail is running at 3.6V in an idle state... running Orthos and it'll jump to 4.7 or so max.
Dell says the issues with the computer are software related ... as far as the power supply, their take on that is that if the system starts up then the power supply is fine and dandy. Regardless of what the 12V rail is doing.... hummmm.
I'm curious what folks here think... is SIW hosed up and just reading the sensors wrong???? So what do we think?

I suspect that it is just reading the sensors wrong, it isn't that uncommon for that to happen. I'm pretty sure that Dell are correct on this, that if the 12volt rail really was that low then the computer wouldn't start. The only way to be absolutely certain though, is to check the rail with a multimeter. You can use a spare Molex connector to check.

yeah, that was my next deal... check it for real and call it good.