Q9550 burning - fan steady below 2000 rpm

[yackyack]

I have built a new PC for HD video editing. The motherboard is P5Q-Pro, and the CPU Q9550 2.83 Ghz with boxed fan.

When I do cpu intensive work like HD video conversion and rendering, the cpu temperature increases (expected) but the fan does not pick up and increase the cooling, it remains almost steady at 18xx rpm (never exceeds 200 rpm). Eventually the system shuts down.

I would expect the boxed cpu fan to go considerably faster as the cpu heats up. A somehow suspects this be a bios/driver problem - any comments ?

My bios is 1104, the chipset driver 9.0.0.1009

Could also be related to a bad mount of the cpu fan, but I doubt it given the symptoms.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[Zecow]

check the bios if the thermal sensor is disabled. whats the max RPM for the stock fans tho...

 

[Homeboy2]

thats an old bios, mine came with 1306, i flashed to 1406. doubt thats yer problem tho.

 

[mi1ez]

Shouldn't the stock cooler go up to about 3600?

I second checking the BIOS to see if it's using the temperature to control the fan speed, or if the HSF is hooked to a case fan header, or not pushed fully down. My 4870 ran permanently at 100% until I noticed I'd knocked the fan plug/header while installing.

 

[yackyack]

Thanks all, at work now but will check the bios settings later.

Homeboy2 - my mistake (typo), the bios is 1404 (dated June 2008).

mi1ez - I am reading the cpu fan speed in the PC probe window "cpu fan speed", to me this indicates that it is connected properly but I may overlook something?

 

[yackyack]

Tried to go through the bios documentation to find where I set cpu temp / fan speed dependency. Only place I come up with is

Power->Hardware Monitor->CPU Q-Fan Control

and

Power->Hardware Monitor->CPU Fan Profile

Is this the place to look ?

Thanks,

 

[yackyack]

Ok,
Checked the HSF - it is connected to the fan header. Also looked in the bios and I can only find the above 2 settings. Setting Q-Fan Controll on and CPU Fan Profile to turbo does not change anything.

So I am stuck for the moment - suggestions are very welcome

 

[Kari]

have you actually checked the temps at all, download realtemp or something...

about the fan headers, if the header on the mobo is a 4 pin one, then it can't controll a 3 pin fan, AFAIK.
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-012074.htm

this was posted on another forum

The 4-pin fan headers are for PWM (pulse width modulation) fans. The speed of PWM fans can be controlled by software (usually the motherboard BIOS).

The pin layout for the 4-pin PWM headers are:

Pin 1 = +12V
Pin 2 = GND
Pin 3 = Speed sensor
Pin 4 = PWM pulse

4-pin PWM headers are backwards compatible for 3-pin fans, ie. a 3-pin fan can still operate in a 4-pin header - you can read the fan's RPM (via software) but you can't control its speed.

 

[yackyack]

Thanks Kari,
Not at home right now but will check later. However, when I entered the bios menu and monitored the cpu temp and the fan speed it appeared as the speed was controlled. The cpu fan started round 1400 rpm and then increased slowly towards 1875 (not 100% sure this is the actual number) and it stayed there even though the cpu temp climbed to 70+ C.

 

[Kari]

so the fan has likely 4 pins as well...

 

[yackyack]

Back home checking the fan and the header - both have 4 pins.

I am using the ASUS utility "PC Probe II" for measuring the temperature as well as the fan speed. When I add load to the system the temp increases and after the load is stopped the cpu cools slowly down. Have checked both values in the bios as well. Also, as the system shuts down if I let the workload continue I think there is a pretty good indication it overheats.

Any suggestions ?

 

[spathotan]

PCprobe is worthless, dont go by that. Use Coretemp or Realtemp.

 

[yackyack]

Ok, got realtemp showing 53, 47, 55, 55 C when idle. Pressing "Test Sensors" I get a message saying the test shows a warning sign that one or more of my sensors may be stuck and will not provide accurate idle temps. It also says that Intel does not recommend using the sensors for idle temp reporting so properly this is ok ?

Addling load to the system instantly increases the temps.

I was thinking to check the appliance of the fan to the cpu - but I guess removing the fan will show that some of the standard paste on the stock fan is left on the cpu itself and need be removed. Subsequently I will need to apply other thermal material before re-mounting the fan.

What is the recommended method to remove the excess thermal material from the cpu ?
What material should be re-applied ? How ?

Is this approach a good idea? Or should I pursue other paths first ?

Thanks

 

[yackyack]

Played a bit with some of the motherboard utilities, one of them is an "overclock guide" which has a fan control mechanism. Calibration involves setting cpu fan speed in 10% intervals and doing so set the max fan speed to 1875.

So I am thinking the fan will not go any faster than this by design and it therefore should be able to cool the cpu with this speed. Perhaps the heat sink is not mounted properly.

I am ready to either remount it with thermal paste or replace the heat sink and fan. I know the cpu will need cleansing either way.

What is the most reasonable approach - the objective is getting the system to run under heavy load, noise is secondary.

 

[yackyack]

Got it figered out - turned out to be a bad mount of the heat sink. After fixing it realtemp shows 38-40 C idle and 68-70 under full load.

Thanks for all the input

 

[roofus]

glad you figured it out yack. i had the same issue with a 3110 on a DFI board a while back and when i removed the heatsink it was evident it was making flush contact. your idle temp is well in the accepted range but im surprised it isnt just a little lower.

 

[yackyack]

yea, so am I - thinking about replacing the stock with a Xigmatek HDT-S1283....

 

[shep66]

Hi all, thanks for the help too. My CPU maxxed out at 99C+ tonight while playing Fallout 3 (system froze). I have the same problem as described earlier. My gear is:

Asus P5Q SE
Intel Q9550
Corsair 750W TX
NVidia GeForce GTX275
4GB Corsair RAM

My fan speed is constantly around 1200rpm and doesn't seem to ramp up when the load increases. From what Kari said if I have only 3 wires - which I do - but a 4-pin connector (not sure yet about that bit) the fan speed will be reported correctly but I won't be able to control the speed? Yackyack - I take it re-mounting the sink & fan has sorted the problem for good? I may have to look at that next but hopefully not considering the grief I had getting the rotter to go in (all to do with not having enough space between mobo and case down the middle and having to loosen half the screws).

I downloaded Realtemp and all 4 cores are now hovering around 32C - they're like naughty kids who only act up when you're not looking...