Super Hot AMD X2 5000+ ... Help!

[dev1se]

Right hope some of you guys can help me out here.... cos its cost me a fortune so far and still no joy

Bought my 5000+ CPU a few months ago, noticed it ran hot with the stock cooler fitted (55'c when idle)

Decided to buy another cooler, one of them Zalman circular jobbo's with all the flashy LED's in it... still at 55'c (albeit a little quieter)

Still not happy though... my old (and faster) E6600 ran at a cool 25'c - 30'c on idle using watercooling... so I thought ok lets stick watercooling on this and see if it helps.

But nothing... its still running at 55'c, with the ThermalTake Bigwater 760... and under full-load its shooting up as high as 85'c...

Currently spent £50 on heatsinks, £80 on watercooling.... for this I couldve bought a much better CPU... so obviously slightly pis$ed off.

Ive gone through all the usual checks of making sure there's enough but not too much thermal paste applied... so why's this mediocre performing CPU running as though its overclocked to the nines?

Anyone else having similar problems?

 

[coret]

Which temperature monitoring program are you using? Sounds like it may simply be reading wrong ... to check ... when it's on, put your finger on the waterblock or heatsink and feel how hot it is. If under load it actually is hitting 85, then your finger will be able to tell =)

 

[yomamafor1]

In addition to what Coret says, also check if your heatsink / waterblock is seated right. It could be that the heatsink was not properly seated.

 

[dev1se]

Using Everest Ultimate Edition to monitor in Windows, and used the BIOS temps aswell, both around 55'c - 60'c.

As for seeing if its seated right... its kinda hard to tell but I suspect this could be the problem. There's nothing to obstruct it in any way however....

 

[nukchebi0]

Why did you buy the +5000 if you already had an E6600?

 

[yomamafor1]

Using Everest Ultimate Edition to monitor in Windows, and used the BIOS temps aswell, both around 55'c - 60'c.

As for seeing if its seated right... its kinda hard to tell but I suspect this could be the problem. There's nothing to obstruct it in any way however....

Did you use thermal compound? You should take the heatsink off, and if possible, clean the surface of the processor and the block, and re-apply thermal compound.

 

[choirbass]

it does seem that the readings might be incorrect, might need to update your bios possibly... im not even sure current amd cpus are capable of going up to 85C without at least crashing below that. i remember s462 athlon xps were capable of up to 85C and 90C depending on the model. but for 65/90nm, even 85C seems a bit over its max thermal rating. 90nm X2s were rated up to ~65C and ~70C, depending on the model. so, maybe just updating your bios if possible might fix the reading, and you may find your temperatures really are lower what theyre showing, even dramatically lower. especially if youve taken the necessary measures to ensure desired temperatures.

 

[bitrate]

Run CoreTemp and check the results.

http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/CoreTemp/

My X2 5000+ gets 35'C on idle, and no higher than 51'C under load. This is with the stock cooler.

 

[dev1se]

Why did you buy the +5000 if you already had an E6600?

Unfortunate story actually..

Had a 7900GTX in my old system, wanted to upgrade so sold it, but the guy who bought it said it didnt work. So gave him his money back, put it in my machine again, worked fine.

Strange.

So tried it in my friends machine, didnt work in his.

Or any of my other mates. So I was stuck with this 7900GTX that would only work with the motherboard I had.

So I figured if I was going to get rid of this graphics card I'd have to sell the motherboard and CPU along with it... I did get a good price however which paid for my new components but admittedly I wish I'd still got my E6600

 

[dev1se]

Did you use thermal compound? You should take the heatsink off, and if possible, clean the surface of the processor and the block, and re-apply thermal compound.

Done all that before making this post.... thats where I thought it best to ask people with better knowledge than me...

Using arctic silver compound, really thin layer of it. cheers for your time though!

 

[dev1se]

it does seem that the readings might be incorrect, might need to update your bios possibly... im not even sure current amd cpus are capable of going up to 85C without at least crashing below that. i remember s462 athlon xps were capable of up to 85C and 90C depending on the model. but for 65/90nm, even 85C seems a bit over its max thermal rating. 90nm X2s were rated up to ~65C and ~70C, depending on the model. so, maybe just updating your bios if possible might fix the reading, and you may find your temperatures really are lower what theyre showing, even dramatically lower. especially if youve taken the necessary measures to ensure desired temperatures.

I think I need to try what you're saying here... thing is, Sapphire's BIOS support isnt upto much good... if anyone knows of a place where I can find an updated BIOS for the Sapphire Crossfire Pure AM2RD580 board it'd be massively appreciated!

Run CoreTemp and check the results.

http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/CoreTemp/

My X2 5000+ gets 35'C on idle, and no higher than 51'C under load. This is with the stock cooler.

Cant get the program to run on my machine, says there isnt the necessary driver. Could be 64-bit Vista to blame!

 

[choirbass]

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/support/drivers.php

the correct bios should be listed there (even a relatively current one within the last few months, be sure to back up your current bios when it asks you to). also, if your vista install doesnt contain the necessary driver, amd has one you can download from their site. however, if vista does contain the necessary driver, then choosing a compatability mode when running core temp might work.

 

[bitrate]

The ALCPU Forum has a sticky about the Vista driver issue:

http://www.alcpu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=211

 

[dev1se]

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/support/drivers.php

the correct bios should be listed there (even a relatively current one within the last few months, be sure to back up your current bios when it asks you to). also, if your vista install doesnt contain the necessary driver, amd has one you can download from their site. however, if vista does contain the necessary driver, then choosing a compatability mode when running core temp might work.

cheers... the only problem now is actually flashing the thing! never done this before and tried running AWDFLASH that came with the .zip only to find its not supporting 64BIT Vista yet.

I just want some piece of mind that ive not blown £130 and hours of my time on cooling products for nothing!

 

[dev1se]

The ALCPU Forum has a sticky about the Vista driver issue:

http://www.alcpu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=211

Got that working cheers, says

Core 1: 10'c
Core 2: 24'c

Nothing to worry about really but still I think this BIOS needs a look at!

 

[randomizer]

Got that working cheers, says

Core 1: 10'c <-----
Core 2: 24'c

Nothing to worry about really but still I think this BIOS needs a look at!

Something about that first temp doesn't seem right ( ) unless you live in sub-zero temps.

 

[dev1se]

Screenshot for ya, sometimes goes to -1'c

Which also gives reason for me to believe that I need to sort this BIOS out.

No idea what I need for it though.

 

[dev1se]

ok flashed by BIOS... Still same temps...

 

[randomizer]

Then the sensors themselves may be faulty, coz you aren't getting sub-zero temps lol. The only way to know really is to see if you get crashes or artifacting under heavy stress, this will show up if you are having temp problems. Shutdowns will not indicate anything, because if the sensor read 85C when it is only 50C, it will still shutdown. Also, as suggested before, feel the HS and see if it's warm. It should be relatively warm under full load after some time, and if it's cold, then it isn't seeted right, if its really hot, well then you probably have bad airflow, but at least you have good contact.

If you notice no problems at all, I would disable the shutdown protection just because you don't want the interruption. But only do this when you are very sure that the problem is sensor error.

 

[dev1se]

Felt the heatsink even after its shutdown and never felt any heat on it TBH! I think the whole thing needs taking apart and redoing and hopefully when put back together the problem is solved. It may be that the heatsink isnt seated right but its gonna be difficult to find that out!

 

[dev1se]

Ok been to town and bought a rather clever looking waterblock for my cooling kit, and its dropped my CPU down to 42-44'c idle... which is a good 10'c, but I suspect that the CPU could be buggered with its diode, luckily I'll be upgrading to the 6400+ shortly which will hopefully have no such thermal problems! Think its my CPU to blame because checked absolutely everything when fitting this new waterblock... it was seated perfectly and thermal paste applied as it should be. Cheers for your help though folks, and the model of the Waterblock i just got is:
http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Liguid/Upgrade/cl-w0092/cl-w0092.asp

Well worth it if you ask me, a clear 10'c temp reduction from the old block!
I can only wonder what kind of temps you'd get with this block on a Core2 Duo CPU.

 

[dev1se]

Something else Ive just noticed.... and very strange.

I have 2 installs of Vista on my machine, Vista Premium 64bit and Vista Ultimate 32bit.

In Ultimate 32 bit, the CPU's down at 42'c-45'c idle.
In Premium 64 bit, the CPU's temp is back up at 55'c-60'c idle.

Anyone here know anything about why this could be?
Think I'm reverting back to 32 bit.

 

[dev1se]

Problem sorted.
It were the CPU after all..... Replaced it with the much better performing 6400+ Black Edition and its idling at 27'c... very nice indeed.

So eBay it is for my old 5000+, hopefully someone who's not fussed about temperatures will make a rediculously high bid for it.