I used to run a 1.3GHz Duron on a Shuttle motherboard (don't remember the model) until it died and I upgraded to an Athlon XP 3000+ on a Shuttle AN35N board. Well one day I decided to clean out the dust from my case, so I removed the heatsink from my processor to clean it better and outside of my case. Long story short, those stupid heatsinks of old are a PITA, and it didn't secure perfectly. When I slept that night it fell off of the socket and my CPU liquified.

SO I upgraded to a Sempron64 3000+ on an aBit NV8 board. But that doesn't have anything to do with this story.

Although the socket was a little darkened (read: some black, but mostly yellowed instead of white) I thought I should give the board a second chance just in case. I needed a Neverwinter Nights server machine, and I thought that another Duron 1.3GHz would do the trick. I searched far and wide for an affordable Duron 1.3GHz CPU but found nothing. Instead I ended up picking up an Athlon 1.3GHz.

Now I'm having heat problems. This Athlon is running 130F idle, 155F loaded, with a system temp of never under 95F. My Duron ran around 115F idle, 130F tops full load in the same case, with the heatsink I was using for the Athlon XP 3000+. I though to myself "Fine, I'll underclock it or reduce the voltage and see how that works", but I can't. I think I got a locked CPU, as the FSB is greyed out in my BIOS, and I can't find a voltage option (I could have sworn I had these options for my Athlon XP on the same board!.

I want to know what I'm doing wrong. And also, if anyone has any suggestions as to which temperature monitor works on this particular Shuttle board, please let me know. Motherboard Monitor and Speedfan register stupid temps (like -140C and stuff).

I'm of the opinion, that your on-board CPU sensor also bore the brunt of the 'meltdown' as you put it, such a condition will also effect any third party software

If you're a 'dab hand' @ soldering... I'd replace the thermal sensor, it's a 2 legged 'capacitor like' unit situated in 'the well' bordered by the CPU's zif socket


BTW the Athlon 1.3Ghz runs @ a higher voltage than it's Barton cored bretheren

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Well I'm pretty sure that the thermal sensor works, for 3 reasons:

1) It fluctuates correctly to load changes

2) I can feel hot air coming out of the fan slots

3) When I play CPU intensive games on it, it will overheat and restart, usually over 155F still when I get to BIOS.

And I kinda thought that the Duron used more power, but that's not relevant here, since I'm using the board that the 3000+ was on, not the original 1.3Ghz Duron.

Oh I'm not saying that it doesn't work... just that it's thermal sensitivity may be off...

As for the 1.3Ghz Duron... my typo (now fixed), I meant the 1.3Ghz Athlon (and Palomino's) have a higher Vcore (1.75v) than the later T'bred-Barton-Sempron processors, wattage output of the 'C' class 1.33Ghz Athlons (*266fsb) was around 75w... not too sure about the earlier series

In your BIOS, are you selecting the 'user define feature' before attempting to tweak settings?

Things also worth checking...

* Is your heatsink seated properly?
* did you use enough/too much thermal paste?
* is the heatsink rated for the Athlon ie. (Morgan core) Duron 1.3 is rated @ 60w approx.
* is the fan CFM sufficient?
* does the case have adequate ventilation/fans? (perhaps run it with case open to test)

My Athlon 1100 @ 1210Mhz idles around 42c & heats up to 48-52c running F@H 24/7 (it's summer here)


EDIT:



Here's what I mean about heatsinks... the larger aluminium unit on the left is for the early Athlon class processors, the remaining two were purchased with Duron 800/750's respectively... personally whoever fitted the extreme right heatsink to a 1.75v processor was preoccupied only with budget, I wouldn't even use 'that' on my K62 processors

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The heatsink on the CPU is actually much bigger than the one on the far left. It's about the same width, but it's taller; much taller. I have 2 side fans (blowing out) and 2 read fans (1 on the PSU, on below it blowing in). The air can be felt strongly for about 2 feet away on the side, and it's above body temperature. The heatsink is really hot to the touch. And yes, the heatsink fan is spinning (fortunately the Shuttle boards have an option to shut down immediately if the CPU fan stops so I never have to worry regardless). Also, I'm used to the PSU being hotter than the air coming out of the side fans, but this isn't the case. The PSU is probably 3/4 the temp of the air coming out the sides.

As for the user define setting, the only ones I have access to are the RAM timings and voltages, which is rudimentary at best. Since I'm running 2 sticks of DDR333 and 1 DDR400, I know they're outrunning my CPU. I could have sworn there were more settings in BIOS when I had my 3000+ XP on it though; a lot more.

As soon as I take the case off it feels like a jungle in there. No air flows at all, really. That's why I like this case: air comes through the back, hits the CPU and video card, then gets sucked to the side fans that blow the hot air out pretty well. It's just that [content edited] CPU is like a bonfire.

PS It's winter here and my apt is far from warm. Running a fan into my case may fix the heat issue some, but it will freeze me while I use the comp. The side fans to make great foot warmers, though. (case is on the floor by my feet)

Hmmm... most perplexing, going by your description the heatsink is well seated (tested by touch of heatsink & heat it's generating) and seems to be absorbing 'same' from processor die (thus thermal compound is NOT insulating)

I'll have to resort to theories now... you say the motherboard was previously damaged, is it possible the voltage regulators were the cause or effected in some way... resulting in an 'unnatural' out-of-spec Vcore?

The logic is sound enough... processors recieving too much voltage must expell unused current in the form of heat (wattage) radiated

Thing is there is a pin in the ZIF socket where you can actually test the Vcore sent by the motherboard, but I don't know where it is... and I was unsuccessful in googling it

Perhaps one of our esteemed forum members could shed some light on this?

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For whatever reason my CMOS doesn't show vCore. But here's the idle temps/voltages on the PC Health screen

Current System Temp: 36C/96F
Current CPU1 Temperature: 63C/145F
Current CPUFAN1 Speed: 4821RPM
+3.3VIN: 3.24V
+5V: 4.78V
+12V: 12.09V
-5V: -5.25V
VBAT(V): 3.15V
5VSB(V): 5.51V

I hope that gives some insight.

Did 'that' motherboard display Vcore in CMOS prior to the meltdown?

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I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure I could set everything from FSB and multiplier to vCore, but now I can't. I figured it was because I got a locked processor, though I'm not certain I did or not.

When somebody refers to an AMD processor being 'locked' they actually mean the multiplier is set, on older processors 'the pencil trick, speed strips & the wire trick... were the answer to this, next AMD 'locked' the multiplier internally, so unless you picked up an 'unlocked variant' (a few of the early release units), you were plum outta' luck

The more we go into this boards behaviour... the more I feel confident that the problem is voltage regulation, with heat a by-product of too high a Vcore being supplied to the processor

If you were able to run this 'Athlon' in another board as an experiement, you could rule out either way the processor OR motherboard as the guilty party

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Unfortunately I don't have another working board to put it on. I suppose as long as all I am doing is what I have been doing (only surfing and hosting my NWN server 24/7) it's not hurting anything. I just thought I'd come in here and get people's opinions as to what I could to to lower the temps.

quote:

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Originally posted by: Laramon Unfortunately I don't have another working board to put it on. I suppose as long as all I am doing is what I have been doing (only surfing and hosting my NWN server 24/7) it's not hurting anything. I just thought I'd come in here and get people's opinions as to what I could to to lower the temps.

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I have seen this once before, my chaintech 7NJL3 was damaged, and I lost all board controls, and about everything else. Try reflashing the bios, taht might fix some stuff, its at least a shot.

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