On 5/16/2014 11:24 AM, DoN. Nichols wrote:

Out of curiosity -- how old in the 9V battery which runs it? If it
gets too low, readings can be quite unpredictable.
Brand new, outside of my pocket and DSLR cameras, I removed all
batteries before shipping. It's brand new.


And has there been any leakage in the battery compartment?
External dirt from typical handling, but the internals look nice and
clean, no corrosion visible anywhere.


IIRC, your model of Fluke has a piano-key switch running along one
edge. The slightly high on the 12V and the very high on the 5V
suggests that the leakage affected the circuitry related to the
0-10V range, and that you used a different range for the 12V
measurement. In particular, look around the 10V switch to see
whether there is any contamination in there.
Used same range for all measurements. The 20v range switch is now flaky
however, and won't always stay in. This was never a problem before the
move, and I don't know if it affects anything.

I'll bet that the power supply is fine.
The meter now reads nearly correct on a 9v battery now, but of course is
still highly suspect. Checking the PS again, I'm getting around 13vdc on
the 5v line and 6vdc on the 12v line. Bought a replacement and paying
the shipping, might as well use it!


Your original post suggested that there was more than one drive
involved. Could it be that they are connected to different interface
cables than they were originally, so it is trying to boot off a
secondary drive? (Did you *mark* which drive was which when
disassembling and packing?)
Only one ribbon cable for the HDDs and I marked which connector went to
which drive.


Just for the fun of it -- with the probes disconnected, does it show
a voltage measurement anyway?
Powers up and reads 0.00


And as another possibility -- are you by any chance fairly close to a
radio or TV transmitter? High levels of RFI can confuse these
meters.
Nah, nearest transmitter is probably a 40 minute drive. I'm really in
the sticks, this is sheep, wheat, and canola country.


My own favorite meter (now obsolete) is the Fluke model 27. A bit
bigger than the Fluke 77 which I first had, but it has a lower
pitched beep which I can hear for continuity tests.
The lower pitch would benefit me too, I'll add that one to my search
list. I'm sure some of the import stuff is good, but since I'm not up
snuff enough to diagnose issues, I prefer to pay for known quality meters.

Your in depth and thoughtful replies are always welcome and appreciated!

Jon