Thunderbird 1.2GHz overheating

[Guest]

Asus A7A266 motherboard with Thunderbird 1.2GHZ 266 CPU. After using for about an hour Asus PC Probe reports 66 degrees C (150 F) for CPU temperature and 36C for the MB. Is this normal? Went back to dealer 4 trips already and he replaced power supply to AMD certified one, then replaced heatsink to a dual fan ORB (didn't work), and finally today replaced the ORB by an AMD certified heatsink for the 1.4GHz Duron. Still it feels like I bought a good heater not a new computer! Today I asked the tech to add a fan at the font of the case to blow air in and reverse the one at the back of the case to blow air out - both are standard 80mm fans. I think though the one in the front can't be doing much since the front panel prenvents vetilation and the one in the back is sitting in front of a grill. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[Kelledin]

One thing I hear a lot is that the ASUSProbe is notoriously inaccurate. Software monitors in general tend to be so, but the ASUSProbe takes inaccuracy to an extreme. I'd say get yourself a real temperature probe (a lot of digital multimeters have them).

Also, what exact HS/F do you have now? Does it have thermal tape or thermal grease?

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[noko]

You may also be running at a higher voltage then you need for your cpu. Check voltage via bios and adjust down as necessary. On my Iwill when it is set at 1.75v it indicates 1.85v, I've had it operating with a setting of 1.65 to get 1.75v indicated. Now I have the bios set at 1.7v with indicated voltage at 1.78 by bios since I am overclocked from 1.2 to 1.4ghz. Trying decreasing cpu voltage in small increments until unstable then go back up one, this has a big effect on temperature.

 

[HarleyMYK]

See other discussions on this topic. Read AMD's web page.
I believe they state max ambient temperature 45C, max chip temperature 90 or 95C. The also recommend no intake fans, and that power have inlet at bottom and exhaust out the back. Make certain that your exhaust fan is not trying to blow through one of those grids of punched holes - it should be one big hole to get good flow.

 

[Guest]

These are good ideas. My back fan is blowing through a metal grid with holes and that doesn't look too efficient. What's the easiest way to cut the case?
My intake fan in the front faces the front platic panel so I'm not sure if it is doing anything. Checking Asus Probe it is indicating 70 C (158 F)!!! The room feels like an oven too. Part of the problem might be that the case goes into a cabinet in my desk with all three sides except the back closed. This wasn't a problem with my older PC but perhaps the new ones can't sit in a cabinet.

 

[Guest]

The cooler is a "heavy-duty" AMD certified for the 1.4GHz Duron. I think the name is EKL. I didn't see the tech install it so I'm not sure if he used grease or thermal tape. I'm thinking of taking the case cover off and deal with dust rather than run the CPU at 70 degrees as it is doing now!

 

[noko]

A hole cutter and a drill press. Unfortunately I didn't have a drill press, so I drilled holes for the circle and chisel out the rest, ground/file smooth. It actually turned out pretty good. Look at the hole here:

<A HREF="http://home.cfl.rr.com/noko/Cpuexhport2.jpg" target="_new">Drilled and chisel hole cut in case</A>

Good enough to cover with a louver vent.

 

[Guest]

The tech said that Asus Support told him that the AsusProbe actually shows temperature 20 degress LESS than correct one if you are running version 1002 of the BIOS. I flashed my BIOS to latest version (1004) and that's supposed to be accurate. I wish it wasn't as the 158 degress F it is reporting now is way too high, but I can feel the heat from the CPU case and it is hot. Is it supposed to be running this high? If you have 1.2 GHz thunderbird 266, Asus A7A266 MB and flashed your BIOS to latest versrion can you please post the temperature. Thanks.

 

[noko]

Leave your case open to see what temperture does with good air flow available to the cpu. If the temperture is still high then something is wrong with the T-Bird to HSF heat transfer. Unless the probe is way off. My experiment with taking the cpu hot air and directly exhausting it outside the case has been very successful. Why pump hot air inside the case and dilute with cooler air which when mixed is just warm air? Isolate the heat source (cpu) transfer that heat outside the case allowing much cooler air to keep the cpu cool. You must have a HSF where the fan sucks from the cpu heat sink then blow out of the cpu fan. On another thought, if you have a cpu fans that blow air into the heat sink then it would be possible to port outside air from the case directly to the cpu fan, allowing the cpu fan to always have the coolest air. Except this method will still have the problem of heating up everything else in the case. You can look at my other post if you are interested towards the end to see what I am talking about.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by noko on 07/01/01 00:53 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

I have the same setup as you, and had the same inital problems. here was my solution. to bring my system down form idles of 65c or so. Get a larger case, i had many problems with the origonal Midtower that came with my board.. the powersupply was actually way too close than should be thus creating alot more heat. the intake on my case was also blocked, thus leading to more heat etc.. you can probably accomplish some better temps with your case modding but i would still recommend going out and getting a nice full tower if for nothing else than the room they provide.. also GET a real HSF... people here seem to like the volcano II, personally I use a Coolermaster heatsink for the Tbirds, make sure you have a decent amount of thermal paste.. also the new case has 4 80 mm fans.. and has cool it down to about 45c. this would seem to still be a bit high but the asus probe is actually about 7c too high. so it's just about right on.

also make sure your HSF is seating properly!

hope that helps,
Paul

 

[Guest]

I'm using motherboard monitor 5 and getting readings of 57-60C idle temps. My case temp is 28-30C. The core voltage in my bios is set at 1.75.

 

[Guest]

Is there a way to tell if its seated properly with out taking it off? How much force shuld it take to seat? I installed a processor for the first time last night, and I really had to work hard to get it seated, and the clips to engage. I'm worrying that I damaged the core, even though it seems to be working fine. Sissoft sandra shows all the right numbers for chip speed and on die cache. I just didn't expect to have to try so hard to seat a heatsink fan, and since I've heard that amd chips can be fragile, that's why I'm worried.

 

[lhgpoobaa]

yes. asus probe kinda sucks.
mine was overreading my core temp by 8-10 deg C!
my core is running at 57-59 full load, according to MotherBoard Monitor (MBM)
i suggest you download that freeware program.
its very niceand looks better than ausuprobe.
(asusprobe also kept reading my voltages wrong, and dropping out)

My Hamster doesnt like sarcasm. He may very well bite you in your hard to reach places!

 

[Guest]

Are you running latest BIOS version for the Asus board? On mine AsusProbe shows a CPU temp of 62 C while MBM 5 is showing 68 C !!! Before flashing the BIOS the AsusProbe was showing much lower temperatures than what it is showing now. Not sure what to believe. One thing for sure is that I can feel a lot of heat coming from the CPU case (I removed the covers to lower the temperature from 70 C).
Both programs agree on the VCORE (1.81), CPU fan speed (4623) and power fan speed (2909).

 

[lhgpoobaa]

yes... i had the latest verson 2.14.something for probe and 5 for mbm.
here are a list of following readings i got (case closed scenario)
3 sets of numbers corresponding to bios, mbm then anal probe
mobo temp
35, 36, 36-37
core temp (full load)
56, 56-59, 64-67
core voltage (set to 1.65V in bios)
1.70, 1.702, 1.705 (all reading about +0.05)
+3.3 voltage setting (ram?)
3.45, 3.50, 3.51
fanspeed (winfop32-1 should be 4600)
4480-4550, 4450-4500, 4400-4500

as u can see there is a wide range of variables... between bios and the reporting programs. generally i think its best to believe what the bios says.... its closer to the "action"
and i KNOW asusuprobe isnt working well cauz of:
A. reading drop out every so often, including core voltage, yet computer still goes fine.
B. i have put my fingers (carefully) all over the heatsink... and no way it feels like 67 C under load
C. ive read a few other posts on asus related sites... many others think that asusprobe is sucky. seen the options page interface of it? very sloppy programming.

Hamster signing off *pawprint*



My Hamster doesnt like sarcasm. He may very well bite you in your hard to reach places!