Problem with a pentium 4's Core voltage

What power supply are you using?

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

What is your 12V rail at? The P4 draws power primarily through the 12V rail; I've seen a lot of reports of P4 systems with the 12V rails stretched so thin they're actually running at 11V. If your 12V rail is below 11.75, you should start worrying about insufficent power.

Also, you <i>did</i> make sure to have at least two power connections plugging into the motherboard?

<i>If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does it still cost four figures to fix?

Hmm, the P4 uses the 12V rail and the Athlon uses the 5V rail, hmm......

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

ugh, thought I posted this, but guess it didnt go through..
My power supply's specs are at http://www.antec-inc.com/product/powers/p303xp_spe.html

as for the 12v rail thing, Im not quiet sure..kinda new at this stuff

How many CD-ROM drives, DVD-ROM drives, hard drives, and floppy drives do you have? Please list off some of the other components in your system.

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

Get yourself a copy of <A HREF="http://mbm.livewiredev.com" target="_new">Motherboard Monitor</A>; it should be able to track your 12V level. Feel free to ask if you need help setting it up...you just might not want to ask me, because I haven't used it in ages.  

<i>If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does it still cost four figures to fix?

<b>CD-ROM</b>: 40x
<b>CD-RW</b>: 2x/16x or something like that..
<b>hard drive</b>: 13gig 7200 rpm WesternDigital
<b>soundcard</b>: SoundBlaster Audigy gamer
<b>videocard</b>: VisionTek Geforce3(dunno what Ti version, it was one of the original G3s, before they came out with the titanium crap
generic 3.5' floppy drive

Ill try to figure out the Motherboard Monitor tonight, thanks for link

You have a great deal of components that are drawing off your 12 volt line. As an experiment please try unplugging the power to your CD-ROM and CD-RW drives. (Do this with your system off!) Then check to see if the voltage level on your 12 volt line increases.

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

Just don't forget to plug your computer back after unplugging them :tongue:

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>
Don't step in the sarcasm!

For some reason that I have yet to see an explanation, the TH7II's Bios voltage setting and the actual voltage are always off, with the actual voltage being lower. If you are having errors then just up the bios setting manually and then check the voltage after rebooting.

ok, ill try the unplugging of the cdrw first. If that doesnt up the voltage ill try upping the voltage in the bios, Ill just go a step at a time and see if that raises the voltage that is reported by the program

I tried unplugging my cdrw and that didnt help, so I went to my bios and upped it to 1.775, and MotherBoardMonitor said the voltage was only at 1.65(started out at 1.63), so I upped the bios voltage setting one more notch to 1.8 and now it jumps around 1.67 to 1.71..should I go up another notch to 1.825?..just asking because the last thing i want to do is fry my cpu or something

Yes, that's true. Although my KT7a-RAID was the same way, just not to as much of an extent. Not a big deal, you just have to set the voltage a bit higher.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>
Don't step in the sarcasm!

Here's the real question.....

everyone’s saying to check this and check that...which is fine, BUT, is your system suffering from any instability???

If MBM 5 is reading a core voltage on 1.63v and there is no issues with stability, leave it.....the less voltage the CPU uses, the less heat output it creates, therefore the cooler the CPU will run...which is better....so again, if your not suffering from random lockups, crashes, spontaneous reboots etc, than set the voltage in the bios back to default and let the sucker run like that.......All agree with me?!?


-MeTaL RoCkEr

My <font color=red>Z28</font color=red> can take your <font color=blue>P4</font color=blue> off the line!

well, this all started when I started playing a very computer intensive game, Tribes 2. I was getting around 20 fps with a p4 1.7, g3 and 520 ram, and people with 1ghz p4s with a geforce 3 were getting around 70 with the same graphic settings i have. I either think it has to do with the cpu or graphics card, but this voltage thing makes me think it might be the cpu

Your numbers are way off, as Intel never made a 1Ghz P4 part of any kind, and it's impossible to have 520MB of ram (installed and working on a P4 OR Athlon), but I understand what you are trying to say.......

20FPS.......I don't think its possible to get 20FPS.......something Software orientated is definitely messed up......

Have you tried installing nVidia Reference drivers for your GeForce 3??? you can download them at <A HREF="http://www.nvidia.com" target="_new"> nVidia's Website </A>....

But 20FPS??? I think my AXP 1600+ Oc'd to 1900+ with a TNT2 32MB card could do better than that, so therefore there is something seriously wrong here.....hmmmm.....

try updating your video drivers (and make sure all other drivers are installed correctly, etc. than post back....

BTW, your CPU isn't overheating by any chance is it???? Because when P4's get really hot, they throttle down (as if the HSF fell off type situation, this is ONLY for the extreme case...)

So basically what im saying is this, is the HSF attached to your P4??? as that would explain why you’re only getting 20FPS in Tribes 2....




-MeTaL RoCkEr

My <font color=red>Z28</font color=red> can take your <font color=blue>P4</font color=blue> off the line!

Have you installed the latest Detonator drivers for your video card? What OS are you using?



There was never a Pentium 4 1GHz. Perhaps you are talking about a Pentium III machine? Perhaps you are talking about a Pentium 4 1.4GHz?

At any rate, the core voltage of your processor being a little low would not affect performance at all.

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

ugh, sorry, meant a p3 1ghz..

But I do have the latest det, and my processor doesnt overheat from what Ive seen from watching these monitor programs. Ive also never experienced any hard locks or sudden reboots either.

btw, my OS is xp pro, if that helps at all

And again, thanks for all your help so far, and any more ya give me guys

Did you install XP Pro from scratch on your Pentium 4 1.7GHz system or have you since changed your motherboard and/or processor after installing your operating system?

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

ya, when I got a new motherboard and processor I formated and reinstalled xp

Interesting. Please run a few of the popular benchmarking applications so we can tell if your results are approximately where they should be for a processor of your class. This will help us to determine if there really is something wrong with your system, or if it may be a glitch in the application.

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

I got 3DMARK2001, and it gave me 4452 marks. Where can I get other benchmarkers other than this one?..if you want me to run more tests

We should assume he was reading "520" off his bootup screen, which is really 512 =) Although only the original posted could verify that =)

Jesus saves, but Mario scores!!!

Try games and SiSoft's Sandra (find in a Yahoo search).

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>
Don't step in the sarcasm!

ya lol, i meant 520..i knew it was 5 something =Þ

getting the other benchmarks

CPU Multimedia Benchmark: Integer iSSE2 6768 it/s, Floating-Point iSSE2 8209 it/s

And comparing it to a Pentium4 1.6ghz, it is about where it should be. So does that mean that my video card could be the problem?

more likely bad drivers.

I love helping people in Toms Forums... It reinforces my intellectual superiority! :smile:

Im pretty sure its not the drivers, Ive tried just about everything, from the latest release, beta, and old detenator drivers

What are your total system specs? What type of RAM are you using?

I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I had thought.

using Rdram(please, no lectures, one time thing=)

Abit TH7II RAID motherboard
pentium 4 1.7ghz
Visiontek Geforce 3
Soundblaseter Audigy gamer

Why would we lecture? RDRAM is currently the best memory technology for the Pentium 4. I would be lecturing you if you had chosen DDR.  

You may want to try uninstalling your video card drivers, setting your video card to use the standard VGA drivers, rebooting, and then installing the very latest Detonator drivers. This should refresh the drivers in case something was corrupted.

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

done, and no help =[

What steps or procedure are you going through when you uninstall the dets?

Also, what programs do you have running in the background?

Blah, Blah Blahh, Blahh, blahh blah blahh, blah blah.

This may or may not be helpful. After you installed XP did you go and get all the critical updates and service packs(if there are any) through Windows Update. I seem to think Win2k had some that affected games. Nobody has mentioned that so far for XP so probably not.

<font color=green>"No Thoroughbred for you! Come back, 2 weeks."</font color=green>

Please download <A HREF="http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/san_dem/html/dload.ht..." target="_new">Sisoft Sandra</A> and run the following benchmarks(<B> on the toolbar); CPU Arithmetic, CPU Multimedia, and Memory Bandwidth. Each should result in two numbers. Please post these numbers here so we can determine if your CPU/mobo performance is about right.

Oh, and the reason I wanted to know about the RAM was to make certain you weren't using SDR SDRAM (i845). Ray's right, RDRAM is the current performance king for P4.

I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I had thought.

I go through whatever the readme that comes with the drivers tells me to. So far with XP that has been just to do the basic thing of going to the driver update thing and putting the drivers in.

As for programs I have running in the background, its only the stuff that xp starts out with as default(except that net messenger.)

Results of SiSoftware Sandra:
<b>CPU Arithmetic</b>: Dhrystone ALU 3688 MIPS
Whetstone FPU/iSSE2 874/2063 MFLOPS

<b>CPU Multi-Media</b>: Integer iSSE2 6670 it/s
Floating-Point iSSE2 8092 it/s

<b>Memory Bandwidth</b>: RAM Int Buffered iSSE2 Bandwidth 2381 MB/s
RAM Float Buffered iSSE2 Bandwidth 2384 MB/s

And with the comparison that you can do with it, it does show that my system is about on par of what it should be. Think it is something to do with my video card/the way it is set up?

I know its getting repeditive, but thanks again guys, I have no clue where else I could ask. First computer that ive built by completly, previously had manufactured ones, and Im used to the "tech" support they offered..Thanks again. If this does turn out to be a video card problem, should I move the thread to a more apropriate forum, or is this board fine?

And I do have all the critical updates, and there isnt a service pack yet.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by KevinS on 03/07/02 10:42 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Are you uninstalling the old drivers first?

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

before I wasnt, now I am. But it didnt help any, well, any that I noticed.

I assume you have tried uninstalling the game and then installing it again from scratch?

-Raystonn


= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

I believe the recommended way to uninstall vid drivers in XP is to goto control panel-add remove programs-select nvidia drivers and choose to uninstall. This is the only way to purge the registry of the entries. Try that and upon reboot goto device manager-display adapters-update drivers.

Grats Kenvin, you have a uber 1.7

That sucker will OC to 2.4+Ghz, its a backfill btw.

Nothing wrong with your CPU, thats how much voltage it draws at 1.7Ghz enjoy overclocking it.

Proving once again that <A HREF="http://www.zombo.com" target="_new">anything is possible</A>.

You're not much help.
Can't you read? His getting 20fps in games that his P3 friends are getting 70fps.
The voltage could be his problem. How about a little help for the guy?

<font color=green>"No Thoroughbred for you! Come back, 2 weeks."</font color=green>

whats the best benchmark utility to test my video card? So I can see if its something to do with it, instead of my cpu

Fugger, the 1.7 is a Willamette, not a Northwood. I doubt it would OC that high very easily.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>
Don't step in the sarcasm!

Yep, wilmette 1.7 backfill.

I have seen quite a few of these already. even tho he has a diff problem, that CPU is uber and overclocks nicely.

I was reading the thread topic, low voltage... The CPU draws that much power, nothing wrong with it. That CPU will overclock nicely based upon other 1.7Ghz wilmette backfills I have seen.

Proving once again that <A HREF="http://www.zombo.com" target="_new">anything is possible</A>.

Do you have FSAA turned on? its on by default sometimes.

Also under more 3D settings, set for best performance.

Proving once again that <A HREF="http://www.zombo.com" target="_new">anything is possible</A>.

I have turned off FSAA before, and left it off, but that only helped my fps by around 5 or so. As for setting everything for best performance, it raises me up to around 50, but the game is way to ugly to play. I think that they made the game very computer intensive, and they threw in the option to tone it down at the very end. Because if you turn everything below 3/4ths of the max the game looks like crap. Everything is a dull shade of grey or brown and a polygon count of about 5 on the screen at any one time =Þ

But I talked to couple other people today, and one with about the same settings for graphics that I have was getting around 40 frames per second on average, and he has an athlon 800mhz with a geforce256.(Im not sure of the name of the cpu, but I know it was 800 mhz.)