Can someone explain the onboard LED meanings for the X58?

[savatage79]

The manual is just very vague. Ive had my machine since about mid year, been running perfect and still is. Except i just noticed tonight a red LED flashing slowly while playing dragon age. Now the system felt fine, nothing out of place in terms of smoothness. Just a fan runnin pretty steadily.

It may be coming on at other times when im gaming, and ive been on games recently for 2 4 6 hours at times and things run fine. So im sure its not anything critical.

I have realtemp and check the temp, and only thing i wonder is if the LED is just an indication of the system a little warm...is that what it is mainly?

Its the LED on the top left kinda of the Extreme X58 board.

I just really want to know what LEDs mean what, so if someone could give me a quick briefing id appreciate it.

 

[chunkymonster]

The red flashing LED on your mobo is the countdown timer for the self destruct sequence. Quickly shut down your system and get as far away from the computer as possible. The blast radius of the typical mobo is at least 100ft. You might want to grab any valuables of small furry animals while running out the door lest you seal their doom!

Seriously tho...how can anyone answer your question without knowing what mobo you have? If you are serious about getting help or having your question answered, it is a good idea to list your system specs; make and model of your components!

 

[bilbat]

Let's narrow it down a bit:

Group A, B, C, D, or E??

 

[savatage79]

Let's narrow it down a bit:
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/351/0138i.jpg
Group A, B, C, D, or E??

My bad on that really, i just assumed that the X58 was a good indication. I have the gigabyte extreme X58 model, i seen others just mention it as an X58 and figured thatd be precise enough.

In this machine im running an i7 920, 8 gb ram, and a gtx 295.

As i said i see no performance droppage, the machine runs things like butter...but it does get a little warm at times, 79-82 degrees at most ever no matter what im running.

But its just there is zero explaining anywhere from gigabyte on what the freakin LEDs mean, its so stupid...just horrible. On that reason alone is why i may go back to ASUS when i upgrade again one day.

From the layout you posted, id say its up near CPU voltage, the blinking is kinda above to the top left of the processor on my gigabyte extreme x58. Id guess thats the voltage.

Im pretty sure, from what i know...that its most likely nothing, but i just hate not knowing what the LEDs mean on this board really, gigabyte on their site and in their manual just doesnt have much to say.

 

[pepperman]

When you say your cpu gets up to 79-82 degrees, is that Celsius? If so, regardless of what the LED means, your cpu is overheating. If you are running stock cooler, you may want to reseat the cooler or upgrade to an aftermarket cooler, or you could try undervolting.

 

[savatage79]

Yea its the stock cooler which i got to change eventually.

But most of the heat is attributed to my room, i try to keep it pretty cool but weve had the heat on so it gets a little warmer in here.

Generally when im runnin games its about 60ish, and is leveled off there. When i idle its in the mid to low 50s. But i run my games maxed generally and if its a little warmer in the room thats when it hits about 78 or 79 or so, but it levels off...it goes no further really.

I know i need a better cooler, but ive read people in the past say that the CPUs and what not can withstand the heat alot more these days but if it crept into the 90s or 100 by chance, id be alot more concerned.

Wouldnt i see a droppage in performance if it were truely overheating to the point of concern?

 

[pepperman]

CPU's are still very limited by temperature (except laptop cpus, but we're talking about desktop ones); GPU's, however, do have the ability to function at up to 100 C for long periods of time. Your cpu in particular will take damage if it goes over 68 C, so I recommend you get a new cooler/reseat your current cooler asap.

The temperature protection for cpu's is usually around 90 or 100 C, depending on the cpu (though sometimes you can adjust warning temps in BIOS). At the point when the cpu reaches the threshold, it will either throttle itself or shutdown, depending on the design and the temperature.

 

[savatage79]

Well heres what we got...i cracked it all open and just found a good bit of dust and i ended up reseating the heatsink. But i am gonna buy a new one, something alot better being this is stock. But it seemed to clear up my issue, i blew out quite a bit of dust and just got everything lookin brand new again, it was mainly the heatsink fan that grabbed a good bit of dust.

I will say, just as a side note that ive heard and read a bunch of things on the CPU side of heat and i am not disagreeing that they can damage, but ive heard more on the side of them gettnig above 80 and you may really have some issues.

With everything cleaned out and the heatsink reseated, now im around 64 or so degrees which is where it was formerly from what i recall.

But yea im gonna get this week or next a nice new heatsink and get that alot lower. Id like it to be in the high 40s or mid 50s when gamin hard.

But im just glad that i figured out my issue until i get that new sink.

Edit: All i know is i think i may of been on the down spiral for disaster if i didnt reseat my heatsink and get this opened today.

 

[cal8949]

http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2009/02/26/intel-core-i7-temperatures/
a very interesting article on core i7 temp

it explains the i7 more tolerant to higher temps then the core 2's and other cpu's , i like to keep my i7 around 75c on full load and they say any thing below 80c should be safe

when i was researching how to oc the i7 it seamed like a lot of overclockers were comfortable at running their i7's at 75c full load, but of course the lower temp the better

 

[savatage79]

http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2009/02/26/intel-core-i7-temperatures/
a very interesting article on core i7 temp

it explains the i7 more tolerant to higher temps then the core 2's and other cpu's , i like to keep my i7 around 75c on full load and they say any thing below 80c should be safe

when i was researching how to oc the i7 it seamed like a lot of overclockers were comfortable at running their i7's at 75c full load, but of course the lower temp the better

There we go, yea thats the kind of article i was referring too. It just seemed that they can definitly handle a little heat and now that i found out dust and a reseat was my issue, its now staying in the 60s pretty much on full loads. But even when it would touch into 71 72, i never really worried being i still think that it was fairly low. I would think there would be signs of performance droppage if 70 degrees or 72 degrees was hurtin it.

But like you said, lower is better no doubt.

 

[pepperman]

Intel has since that ^blog released their temperature specs for the i7, which is represented by the "thermal specification" on this page . They have also released other documents regarding the technical specifications of core i7 cpus. In short, the cpu shouldn't exceed 68 C, and the individual core temps shouldn't exceed 73 C.

 

[savatage79]

Intel has since that ^blog released their temperature specs for the i7, which is represented by the "thermal specification" on this page . They have also released other documents regarding the technical specifications of core i7 cpus. In short, the cpu shouldn't exceed 68 C, and the individual core temps shouldn't exceed 73 C.

Idling around 40 now, and on a load hitting about 62. So thats not bad as of late, got a new Heatsink ordered as is though to get it even lower.