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Athlon64 System overheating, need help

M

m0tion

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 24, 2001
Messages
381
When I turn the computer on I am able to go into BIOS for just a short period of time, then the computer turns off on it's own. If I try to boot it up again it turns on and then off again before it is even able to post. I've verified that the heatsink is installed correctly (mounted 3 seperate times). Each time I removed and re-applied thermal grease (brand new Arctic Aluminum). If I wait a long period of time in between trying to boot I can get back into BIOS for a short time, as soon as I get in the CPU temp is around 42C and quickly rises to ~60C before the computer turns itself off again. I put a temp probe into the pins of the heatsink and it never gets above 33C. System only has MB, CPU, RAM, Video installed. I believe it's overheating and shutting itself down (good), but I don't understand why... All specs are below:

Ambient Temp = 27C
5V RAIL = 5.14V
3.3V RAIL = 3.41V
12V RAIL = 11.74V
Heatsink = Swiftech MCX6400-V
Motherboard = Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 (NForce3 Ultra)
CPU = Athlon64 3000+ (Winchester)
RAM = Patriot 512MB PC4000 (1 stick)
VIDEO = AGP GeForce4 Ti4200
PS = Coolmax 450W

I've been building PCs for a long time now, but I'm stumped. I need some suggestions. Is it definately overheating or could this possibly be something else?
 
I've seen this same problem with the same motherboard and the problem was the PSU and I think it is the PSU in this case too. try a different PSU.
 
Ph0s5ph0L1p1D said:
I've seen this same problem with the same motherboard and the problem was the PSU and I think it is the PSU in this case too. try a different PSU.
Click to expand...
I'd say it's your PSU also. Your 12V rail is low. You're not running enough to really stress the PSU. With what you're using your 12V rail shoud be up around 11.88 or better. I'm not a fan of Coolmax at all.
 
Ok, I agree, the 12V rail does seem quite low considering what's connected to the PSU, but how does this explain the climbing temperature? Also, if it was the PSU, wouldn't it have troubles booting up peroid, not just after it's been on for a minute or two? The fact that if I waited a period of time between attempts I could get into BIOS, but if I attempted back to back it wouldn't even post it what initially lead me to think it was a heat issue.
 
I agree your 12v rail is a little low, should be around 11.92-12.14..

Maybe update your bios, some mb read temps too high..
 
The PSU that came with my case (some 350W piece) had 12v rails that low....11.75, but it ran fine. Just diddn't OC for shit :p Not without upping voltages anyway, which made the 12v rail even more sick looking. Idunno, maybe your fan atop the heatsink isn't doing the job?
 
Fan is a 92MM Vantec stealth. Even though this is a low CFM fan I don't think the temps should get as high as they are. Keep in mind this is stock speed and stock voltage. I have almost an identical HSF on an Athlon XP 2400+ Mobile (MCX462-V and 92mm stealth) and it idles at around 35C when clocked at 2400MHz! I just don't know, I would have thought this 90nm core would be cooler than the Athlon XP.
 
have you tried resetting the cmos? i was messing with my rig the other day and when i went to turn it on, as soon as the monitor pops out of standby the whole thing would just power off.. it had to be the worst thin ever because i had no clue what was going on... i cleared my cmos and everything went back to normal... did you try this?
 
I remounted the heatsink once again and I am now getting (somewhat) more reasonable temps. The computer has stopped locking up and I can actually use it (somewhat), but I still have a pretty large problem. I left it on over-night in BIOS just idling to see what the temps would look like in the morning. When I got up it was 50C in the bios and the thermal probe I had shoved into the heatsink pins read 39C. I really think something has to be wrong, this is totally idling for over 8 hours and the CPU temp is 50c?! I'm inclinded to believe the BIOS reading is pretty accurate because of what the heatsink temperature was and I think that a dT of 11C doesn't seem unreasonable between the heatsink and the actual core (is it?). Heh, I swear I have this exact same setup on an Athlon XP thats overclocked to hell and it idles at 30C. Does the Athlon 64 REALLY put out that much more heat?
 
You aren't necessarily idling your CPU when in the BIOS. On my Epox 9NDA3+, when I sit in the BIOS monitoring my temps my 3200+ (90nm) will max out temps at 49-50C. Found out this is my max load temp. I know this because when I boot into Windows and start my temp monitor program it goes down slowly from 50C to 39C after sitting in the BIOS. When running full load for 10-15 minutes my temp will go back up to 50C.

I was hoping mine would run cooler than it does.
 
CoolerMaster Praetorian case
all 4 80mm stock fans connected to Vantec fan controller and running at about 9-10 volts
Epox 9NDA3+
A64 3200+ (currently running at 240x10)
XP-90 w/ Panaflow M1A 92mm (pulling air up from heatsink)
410W PCP&C Silencer
2x512MB Mushkin PC3200
ATI 9800pro with Arctic Cooling silencer on it
2x80GB WD hard drives
Plextor CD-RW
Pioneer DVD-ROM
Audigy2
CoolerMaster Aurora cold cathode tubes

That's everything that's generating heat... or removing it :)

One thing about this Praetorian case... there isn't a lot of clearance between the fan on the heatsink and the side of the case. I'd say maybe 3 inches. That's probably not helping and is why I set the fan blowing away from the heatsink instead of towards it. The area it's pulling air from from is better situated to recieve the cool air from the 2 front intake fans. At least that's the theory I was going by.
 
I don't know if you mentioned this or not (skimmed thru and diddn't see it) but have you checked for any BIOS updates? I know alot of the A64's need bios updates to read the temps correctly...my board read TERRIBLE temps on the 1.0 BIOS....1.4 reads them correctly from what I can gather. Check that, and also, what thermal compound are you using? AS5 shouldn't be 'lathered' on A64's due to the heatspreader....should only use a small dot in the middle and let the heatsink squash it into place.

Just a couple ideas.
 
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