Very Frustrated, Please Help

[lindros11]

Ok, I will try to keep this as short as possible while including all details. I am ripping my hair out trying to solve this.

About a year ago I built a PC for a friend. I have built 15 systems so far, with no problems.(Both AMD and Pentium, but mostly AMD's). Here are the components.

Asus A7V266-E MB
AMD Athlon XP 1700
256 PC2100 DDR
Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Onbboard C-media Audio
Maxtor 60 G 7200 HD
Toshiba DVD
Acer CD-RW
3COM 10/100 Nic

About 6 months ago the PC would not boot. It would just loop thru reading the HD, then the 2 CD Roms. It would never get to video, and would endlessly loop thru just detecting the drives.

Upon inspection, I discovered one of the blades on the CPU fan had broken and the fan had stopped working. So I knew I prob had to replace both the CPU and the MB. But I called the company I buy my parts from and they told me to ship them the MB and CPU and RAM. I did. The replaced the CPU. I got it all back together and began monitoring the temp and voltages. His CPU temps were constantly running at 55+ C and the +12V was running in the high 12's. (12.98 - 12.9) Is this safe???

Well, after 3 weeks, the PC broke in the same way I previously mentioned. (Oh yea, I had replaced the heatsink and fan with a Thermaltake Tornado 7 (Did I get the name right?). Well I informed them of this, and they asked me to reship them the system. Well, I forgot to uninstall the thermaltake before shipping, and with the weight of that heatsink, the CPU was damaged in the shipping. So they replaced the CPU and tested the PC at their site, claiming all values were within acceptable limits. I got the system back, and found the numbers to be unacceptable. CPU still running iin the upper 50's with no load, and would reach the low 60's with a load. +12V still running up near 13. (Values monitored in the BIOS and thru AsusProbe, latest version 2.19)

Thru all the problems the MB was never replaced. So, still under warranty, I called my salesman and asked for an exchange, which he did gladly. The brand new MB still had the same results.

Tonight I went out and bought a brand new 400W powersupply. A Powermax. This seemed to help my CPU temp, as it is running at 47C with no load, and low 50's with.

But, the core V is running at 1.84 even tho it is set at 1.75, and the +12V is running at 13.6 - 13.9. Isn't this dangerously high??? I am very worried it is damaging the system.

I have been dealing with this for months, and every component that efects temp and voltage has been replaced. The MB, CPU, Powersupply have all been replaced.

So that is my dilema. I have tried everything I could think of. I have flashed the bios as well. One, is the core V and +12 voltage running as high as they are dangerous? (I tend to think it is). And 2, if so, with everything being replaced, WHAT could be causing this???

Thanx for reading and any advice offered. I may have left some details out, if I remember, I will add to this post.

 

[o1die]

I think your problem is the asus probe. Don't place too much faith in the readings. I rely on the bios hardware monitor. I use version 2.17 for my p4s533, and the readings are 12 degrees celcius below another board I used, the msi 645e-max. Don't know which is more accurate. As long as the system is stable, I don't worry. Just be sure your heatsink is attatched properly, and use a very thin layer of thermal paste the first time you re-install it for any reason. I use a single edge razor blade to get the thinnest possible coating for both the heatsink and cpu core.

 

[Civilized]

One thing you have to remember....not all power supplies will provide you with enough power on the +12V rail....the athlon and the p4 run entirely on the +12V rail so seeing high numbers on this rail can be expected entirely. Generic power supplies only offer 10A-12A on this rail which is not enough to keep a faster more power hungry system stable....while quality power supplies such as antec and enermax will offer 18A-24A.....under heavy loads a weak 12V rail will cause spontaneous reboots etc...in other words just because it offers 450watts of peak power doesnt mean its puts the power on the rails that are actually being used....

But after saying all of this...I dont think it would cause your system not to boot at all....the only time I have ever had a system do what you are describing was from a bad stick of memory and once from a hardware conflict.....
I would suggest you take out every thing that is not essiental to boot (you prob already did this) and then try again...take out one stick of memory at a time ify ou have more than one.....try a pci video card if you have one or just another video card to see if you have some weird video conflict...basically just plug and chug until you narrow down probable causes because there isnt too many =]

 

[Civilized]

here is a good read..
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/guides/power/default.asp

 

[lindros11]

So then my question is this. Is getting a reading of 13.6 thru 13.9 V on the +12V setting safe, if it is indeed accurate? The Bios readings, although a little lower, are still 13.4 - 13.6V. So is this safe?

And what about the Core voltage reading I am getting at 1.84. Is this safe for the CPU when it is set for 1.75V?

The system seems to be stable, and the temperatures are acceptable, but this system has seemed stable before. So I basically need to know if seeing those Voltage numbers where they are safe, or risky.

I have built 10 other AMD systems and have never seen values that high. So it has me worried.