Stable or not?

I'm having a few probs w/ my machine...i'm not sure it's stable. I ran Orthos last night for 12 hrs, no errors whatsoever. The machine is an e8400 OCed to 4.0ghz, temps seem like they might be a bit high. I was using SmartGuardian to test the temps. Idle is around 55c, load is around 80c (!!!). Mind you, ambient in this room is kinda hot right now, don't have an AC yet and its like 85 degrees out. Chip is cooled w/ a TRUE120 and AS5...shouldn't my temps be a bit better?

The problems I'm having are:

1. Sometimes I'll restart my machine from Windows (Vista Ultimate x64), and it will just turn off instead.

2. Sometimes I'll restart and it just won't POST after restarting.

3. Sometimes my sound will "Freeze," and just stutter forever...seems to happen mostly when Winamp is open tho...might be a winamp issue?

PS: Forgot to mention...the TRUE seems a bit "loose." The screws are tightened all the way, but it still sorta just floats on the CPU...is this normal?

Do those problems happen when its not oc'd?

And yeah, your temps are way too high (tho it could be the software reading them wrong).

well...the sound issue seems to happen all the time. The other issues only happen when it's OCed. Here's my OC settings (its a DFI LP LT X48-T2RS)

CPU FSB: 445
RAM Ratio: 333:667 (to rule the RAM out...this is slow)
CPU VID (VCORE) - 1.29375
CPU VTT - 1.30
NB CORE - 1.504
SB CORE - 1.64
DRAM Volt - 2.15 (RAM rated at 2.1)
GTL REF - 80, 80, 94

Now like I said...it's very stable, it seems to run Orthos for as long as it wants (last run was about 10 hrs, no errors). Its just HOT. Right now, I'm not OCed...RealTemp is reading AVG. Core Temps of 44C under no load...and this is not overclocked...just doesn't seem right to me. Load temps w/ Orthos with no OC are around 53C.

Any idea what could be wrong? I just remounted the TRUE...still seems a bit loose, but not very...you can definitely rotate it though.

run occt if you get 6 hours stable then its not your oc

Try going back to 3.8?

What kind of fan are you using on your TRUE 120? Yes those temps are really high, you're reading your temps with realtemp right?

Any idea what could be wrong? I just remounted the TRUE...still seems a bit loose, but not very...you can definitely rotate it though.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you need the penny and-or washer mod for the TRUE. Find it here.

Your temps are way too hot. I'm not sure what fan you're running, but get something decent on there.

damn...and i already had it off once today...tempted to take it off again. Also, are the temp. sensors for the cores accurate at all? They always seem to be 10c off from one another

I think you have your VIT and MCH (Northbridge) set much too high; and maybe that is what's causing your temps to be too high. 80c under load is too close to TJMax (95degress). I've got the same CPU, and can overclock at 4ghz with 1.37 MCH and 1.16 VIT. Then increase your Vcore to about 1.37. My temps under load (Orthos) @ 4ghz never gets higher than the mid-high 60s (Real Temp), and mid-high 50s in Crysis.

So it seems to be stable now at:

FSB: 445 (4.0ghz)
VCore: 1.26250
VTT: 1.114
All other voltages stock, RAM clocked down to 333/667

Temps: (realtemp)

Core1: 48 (Idle) 63 (Load)
Core2: 44 (Idle) 46 (Load)

(gotta be a sensor messed up somewhere)

Temps: (everest)

CPU: 40 (Idle) 41 (Load)
Core 1: 59 (Idle) 74 (Load)
Core 2: 54 (Idle) 63 (Load)

Which temps are right? Any of em?

That's good for just 1.26 Vcore. Are you Orthos stable? I have to go to 1.38 Vcore for 4ghz to pass all the Orthos stress tests.
Real Temp is best for the e8400; but those temps are high for idle. Mine are low to high 30s (idle) depending on the ambient temp. You may want to make sure that your CPU cooler is seated properly.

yeah it ended up failing orthos about 3 hrs in. So its kinda stable, but not really. Right now I set it back to 3.6 w/ stock voltage on everything and it's been running 64-bit Prime95 on both cores for about 6 hours now...not bad. I wanted to start from scratch to make sure I'm not messing anything up.

While the temps themselves may not be right on, the temperature differences between cores at load, indicates incorrect mounting pressures.

This is the type of thing the penny mod solves.