K7SEM overheating? Help!

[Guest]

I recently purchased a barebones system to replace my ancient Pentium 133, but since budget was a concern, i went for the cheap options and as it turns out, that was a bad choice.

I got a K7SEM, AMD Th 1.13 Ghz w/Cooler Master Coppermine Cooling fan, 256 Mb of Micron pc133 SDRAM, a 2 inch Cooler Master Case Fan and a Mid Tower with 300 W power supply. This was the basic system that I bought already assembled, to which I added SoundBlaster Live!, a Maxtor 40G 7200 HDD and a Teac CDW54E. Definitely not a dream configuration but I thought it would serve my needs.

Now it seems like the system has temperature problems. It freezes every ten minutes or so, so I run Sandra diagnostics and it came out with a temperature warning. The mobo heats up to 65º and CPU up to 60º (the Bios reports lower results, but still over the 50º range). I am no engineer but I am assuming that either the fans are not doing their job properly or the mobo just can´t handle the cpu because it´s 266Mhz. Sandra did report a FSB problem. I was wondering is somebody can lend a hand helping configure the system for stable performance. Should I replace the fans? I already changed the case fan position to suck fresh air into the case instead of exhausting, because the power supply is exhausting itself, but it doesn´t seem to make any difference at all. Should I just switch to a different mobo altogether? Is there any chance any of the parts is defective?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[tilepusher]

Hey S,

Just my take on your problem. Replace the Cooler Master HSF with a T.I. Dr Thermal V77L HSF($18 @ newegg.com), before installing new HSF clean CPU with Alcohol and apply Artic Silver II or III thermal grease as per website instructions, DO NOT cover the whole wafer with a ton of Grease! Read the website first! Modify your case if you have to, or add one intake fan in the front of case & one exhaust fan at rear of case. Don't worry about a SiSoft Sandra FSB problem, it doesn't matter which T-bird you use in your system, both will run at 200 mhz FSB, not 266. Check your Bios setup for bad settings & off voltages(you might have to replace your PS, many cheap PS's can't supply the Athlon's enough clean power). Read the AMD site for thermal solutions & reccomended PS's. Good Luck

Peace Out.................tile

Just waiting for the next "Big" thing like everyone else?

 

[Guest]

Just after posting I found some older posts regarding the use of this mobo with Athlon CPUs and it seems like this is definitely a bad choice in motherboard. So I might just go ahead and get a replacement, since I´ve only had this system for a few days. I need to decide whether it is better just to stick with it and change the fan arrangement as you suggest and avoid all the hassle. Or change the whole thing: mobo, power supply and fans included. Thanks for the advice.

 

[4Ryan6]

Your motherboard should not be hotter than the processor, something is wrong with the MB change out the MB.