NEW USER - HARDWARE FAILURE - PLEASE HELP

[Cruelty]

Originally Posted by Cosmo

I have now re-applied some new thermal grease to my processor - the core looks to be OK.

What heatsink do you use? Maybe it is not big enough for this CPU?

I have also added another case cooling fan - although if anything this seems to have made it run hotter?

Overall, this is a good idea, but I understand that it didn't help in your case... where did you put the additional fan (front, back, top)? Does it exhaust the hot air out of case or blows cool air into the case? Besides it shouldn't really matter as you run your PC with cover taken off...

When I first power the machine up (from being left off overnight) & go into my BIOS to check the temps - it is already showing 50 Degrees C - when it loads windows and I check the temp with my SuperUtilities it goes to 58 - 60. The Nvidia GeForce 6600 window shows a GPU core temp of 50 degrees C (is this measuring the same thing?)

The nVidia GPU reading is something different from your CPU reading. However, if the GPU temp = 50C (looks reasonable), then try if CPU heatsink is at least as hot as GPU heatsink. If it is cooler then I would suspect that your "superutility" has some problems reporting correct temperatures. Alternatively you may check temperatures using Everest (I wouldn't believe it too much though), and what is more important find the type and model of your monitoring hardware - you should be able to download necessary utilities from vendor's WWW.

I have run the Windows Memory Diagnostic on the extended test - all with no faults.

You may also try an S&M application (look around in this hardware forum for link I have supplied). This allows maximum stress test of several system components (including RAM and PSU) - generally the system gets hotter than when running prime95 tests.

I have found a website that states the AMD Athlon max core Temp is 85 Degrees - Does this relate to what it runs at? The web site is here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...onxp-3000.html

This is max temperature, in reality temp > 65C equals problems. I have had an Athlon XP some time ago, however the maximum temperature I got under stress was ~63C - it was still stable then. However your problem is that your CPU runs almost at this temp at idle (!) with your case cover removed (!) - BTW: what is the ambient temperature?

[ColdFury]

Keep in mind most GPUs run a lot hotter than normal CPUs. Right now mine is running at a toasty 70C and I would shut off my system if my CPU got that hot.

[Cosmo]

Hi moo

Here is picture of heatsink & fan attached - I removed it in the earlier photo for clarity for the processor.

Hi cruelty

Not sure what heatsink I'm using - it was the one supplied and looks very similar to the one in the photo that moo supplied.

As you can see in the earlier photo's there are now 2 case cooling fans - one above the other at the rear of the machine. the are both drawing air from outside and blowing over the motherboard - this is how I was told to install them - Is this correct?

You say:
"and what is more important find the type and model of your monitoring hardware - you should be able to download necessary utilities from vendor's WWW." (sorry don't know how to get the "quotes box" as you use when responding).

Sorry - could you explain a bit more - the SuperUtilities program that the screen shots I have posted from are from my motherboard cd - is this what you mean?

The ambient temp is 21 Degrees C (I also have a case temp on the front of my PC showing 26 Degrees) and yes the CPU temp shows as 50 Degrees in the BIOS as soon as I power on - currently the Super Utilities is showing 61 Degrees & Everest is also showing 61 Degrees.

I will try & track down the S&M application you mention and test with that (providing it's really easy to follow of course!)

As always thanks very much for all your feedback - I may just set light to this thing & go and buy a new one..... If only I had enough money...... Ho Hum.

Thanks Guy's (& Gals?) will check in again soon........

[Cosmo]

hi

Just thought I'd put up the sensor test report from Everest to see if this helps with any diagnosis:

Field Value
Sensor Properties
Sensor Type ITE IT8705F (ISA 290h)
GPU Sensor Type Driver (NV-DRV)

Temperatures
Aux 58 °C (136 °F)
GPU 50 °C (122 °F)
Hitachi HDS722580VLAT20 37 °C (99 °F)
SAMSUNG SP1203N 37 °C (99 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 5819 RPM
Chassis 2722 RPM

Voltage Values
CPU Core 1.57 V
+2.5 V 3.17 V
+3.3 V 2.96 V
+5 V 5.05 V
+12 V 9.79 V
+5 V Standby 2.10 V
Debug Info F 1D 3E FF
Debug Info T 58 00 00
Debug Info V 62 C6 B9 BC 99 63 5A (47)


I have notived that the +12V appears to be only showing 9.79 & the +3.3V showing 2.96 - is this significant? They all appear to be stable except the +12V which is fluctuating between 9 & 10.3V & the +5V standby which goes from 1.5 - 4.62 - these are changing approx every second. sorry I don't know if this is normal.

[Cruelty]

Let's do it step by step:

Sensor Type ITE IT8705F (ISA 290h)

This information led me here. Download this file and install smartguardian monitoring utility.

Cooling Fans

When the case is open the cooling fans configuration does not affect the system temperature. However if you close the case, the better configuration would be to remove bottom rear fan and place it at bottom front of your case (there are two "slots" for it) - this fan should be blowing air INTO the case. The other fan at the rear of your case should be reversed so that it blows hot air OUT of the case.

Voltage Values
CPU Core 1.57 V
+2.5 V 3.17 V
+3.3 V 2.96 V
+5 V 5.05 V
+12 V 9.79 V
+5 V Standby 2.10 V[

If you confirm those values with smartguardian utility, then this would be REALLY BAD! 12V rail is way below ATX specification, also 3.3V and other voltages are far from being normal - this would signify that your PSU is bad! If you have any access to any other PSU, then it may be a good idea to replace it and check if that helped.
One more question what is your motherboard model? I see on the chipset cooler that it is a Winfast motherboard, however I was not able to find any similar motherboard on their WWW.

[moo]

Think i found your problem


Quote from above

As you can see in the earlier photo's there are now 2 case cooling fans - one above the other at the rear of the machine. the are both drawing air from outside and blowing over the motherboard - this is how I was told to install them - Is this correct?


This is incorrect ATX has an airflow pattern that must be fallowed for good cooling

http://mersenneforum.org/attachment....tachmentid=616

pls look at cheesy drawing at link above


Airflow starts at the front of the case and heats up goes towards cpu were it will then be cycled though cpu and out psu and rear fans
this allows for more airflow your working agnist the system reverse your case fans so they are drawing air out of the case and pushing it into room.


also clean your heatsink with compressed air it looks dusty inside. Does the heat sink have a copper base jw its a better thermal transfer material.
Also i might susgest some rounded ide cables there better for airflow.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...=31702&CatId=0

[Cosmo]

Hi cruelty

I have downloaded the smartguardian utility as suggested - but as soon as I ran it I got an error message saying my processor temp was 70 Degrees and my PC shut itself down. When I re-booted I checked the temp in the BIOS which was showing 60 Degrees. I tried running again and I got the same error message and decided to turn off the PC manually this time. I then re-booted and tested the temp on my superutilities program which showed 61 degrees. This is where it stayed until I ran the smartguardian again.

I have since followed yours and moo's advice and installed 1 cooling fan on the front blowing into the computer and the one on the rear blowing out. I have not yet tried the smartguardian with this set-up. Currently the temp according to the superutilities is showing 59 Degrees - so doesn't appear to have made that much difference. (Everest is showing 58 degrees).

My Mother board is a Winfast K7S741MG-6L made by Foxconn, it can be found on this page:

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/produc...me=K7S741MG-6L

I will endeavour to try and run the smartguardian again and post the results.

Unfortunately I dont have access to another PSU without going out to buy one

Hi moo

As mentioned to cruelty I have installed the fans as per your instructions (the diagram was brilliant by the way ) but this seems to have made very little difference (59 degrees at time of writing) and yes there is a large copper base to the heatsink. I have since re-cleaned this with compressed air and some pipe cleaners - it's like brand new again.

I can't thank you all enough for spending so much of your time in trying to help me sort this out - it is very much appreciated.

As I said, I will try and run the smartguardian program again and see if I can get any info from it - if so I will post as soon as.

BTW - does the fan on top of the processor blow cool air onto it or remove warm air from it? again apologies for being a bit of a div....

[Cosmo]

I have just tried to run smartguardian again and got the same error - I had my superutilities window open at the same time and it jumped from 59 Degrees to 70 degrees as soon as smartguardian was opened. Is this a spurious reading or do I need to calibrate this program somehow?

I re-booted straight away and am back to 59 degrees again (according to BIOS, Everset & SuperUtilities).

I also touched the side of the heatsink and this seemed very cool - (would it appear warm if the CPU was overheating or would it not be noticable on the heatsink?)

I don't think I should attempt to run smartguardian again until I get some feedback from yourselves........

[Cruelty]

If the heatsink is not even warm to the touch, and the reported temperature is ~60C, then either sensor is dead or the heatsink has not been mounted properly (direction) and therefore there is a limited contact between CPU and heatsink. It also could be that the metal spring used to attach heatsink to CPU socket is not doing its job - again affecting contact between CPU and HSF...
Another problem is related to Voltages - does smartguardian display any info on it? If 12V is at ~10, 3.3V is below 3V and other voltages also look wrong, then most likely you have a faulty PSU - do you have a warranty for it or some other PC to check it with?

[Cosmo]

Hi Cruelty

The spring holding the heatsink is fairly strong and takes a bit of pressure to get it locked on - I wasn't aware there was a right & wrong way to install the heatsink. Could you advise & whether the cpu fan should be blowing onto heatsink or blowing away to remove heat??

I ignored the warning on smartguardian this time enough to get a screen shot.

However when I ran smartguardian just now to take a screen shot (I forgot I couldn't upload pics from my webcam - it said the following:


VCore: 1,56V SB3V: 2.32V
+2.5V: 3.16V -12V: -18.98V
VCC3: 2.84V SB5V: 2.06V
VCC: 5.02V VBATT: 3.23V
+12V: 8.57V

I then took the JPeg screen shot as attatched approx 5 mins later and as you can see there are many different values.

If I run my superutilities now it is still showing 79 Degrees and giving me a warning - although I'm not sure if it is actually that hot or not? it appears it has taken this info from smartguardian?

Unfortunately I have no warranty as the PC is 2 years old and no other PC to test against - only my son's laptop.

I am completely baffled as to these various readings and hope you can shed some light given the photo's enclosed.

[Cosmo]

PS - All voltages according to the utilities that came with the motherboard seem to be OK:
VCoreA: 1.56
+3.3V: 3.16
+5V: 5.08
+12V: 12.05

Please see attatched photo