Problems reading NB temperature - Pegatron m2n78-la

[paul-e-wog]

Hi all,
This problem has been stumping me for the last couple weeks.
Some background to begin with: (you can skip to the >>>> if you're not interested, it is mostly unnecessary)

I started messing around with my friend's computer when I found out she was interested in doing some major performance upgrades. I installed some temperature monitoring programs, and found that speedfan reported the northbridge temperature as 117 degrees -- Celsius. I dismissed it as a program/sensor error and told her to not worry about it--I couldn't believe any chip would run that hot, idle.

A few days later, it started worrying me that I may have dismissed the problem too soon; I took off the case and touched the heatsink, and sure enough, it seared my finger in less than a second. I rummaged around in my box and found a suitable new heatsink, much beefier and taller than the old one, did some slight modifications and put on the new heatsink with AS5. The temps dropped to normal ranges, something like 45C idle, 60C furmark load. For good measure, I put on a little Asus blower fan and the temps dropped further to something like 38C idle 45 load.

Now, I want to note that although the new heatsink certainly had much more surface area, and was taller, I feel that a good portion of the problem was the TIM on the stock HS; it was that pink gluey thermal adhesive stuff. It was browned around the chipset mounting area, and the foam pads around the HS were dark brown (usually they are white-ish).

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Fast forward a few days later, I install an 8800GT from [H] FS/FT, only to find out that the accelero s1 causes clearance issues with the NB heatsink. I have to remove the beefier heatsink and put on the stock one again, this time with some quality paste. I figured it would be okay because the new video card would take the video processing load off of the NB, and the new TIM on the NB would do its part to keep the (previously way too hot) part cool. I would just do a quick check of idle and load temperatures, and be satisfied that the NB couldn't cook my breakfast any longer.

I load up Vista, and to my dismay find that the temperature sensor for the northbridge is no longer being detected, neither by Speedfan nor HWmonitor. Instead, it has been replaced by the 8800GT core temperature.

How can I retrieve the NB temperature? I know there's a sensor on the chip, but I guess it was disabled along with switching the video processing over to the gpu (or something)? I'd like to find out to make sure the thing isn't cooking itself. Any help is appreciated.

Anyway, the system in question is an HP pavilion a6720f.
The mobo is a PEGATRON m2n78-la, it is made by Asus for HP, and not supported by Asus (at least to the extent that Asus PC Probe II refuses to run).

a thorough user manual of the board can be found here, and here are specs

 

[paul-e-wog]

Looks like my thread got pushed out of the way. Should I repost this elsewhere, friends?

 

[sirmonkey1985]

in speedfan go into the config. it will list all the sensors the program can read. there you will see the sensor. you can move it up in the list so it shows up in the window. though because it was reporting 117C im going to say it was a dead sensor/no sensor. or your looking at the wrong sensor in the list. being that its an asus board its most likely the wrong sensor since asus lists them incorrectly on most OEM boards.

 

[paul-e-wog]

Thanks for the reply sirmonkey1985. I'm inclined to think that the original NB temp was reported correctly as the heatsink was searing hot to the touch. It gave me blisters. And after a different heatsink was installed on the NB, temps went down to believable ranges (40-60C), and after a fan was installed, temps went down again to very normal ranges (35-40C), from the same sensor that was reporting 117C. There were only 3 sensors: GPU (NB), CPU, and HDD.

I will double-check speedfan's config sensors and post screenshots when I get a chance.