is there something wrong with this picture ?

[rh71]

readings
more
voltage

I have PC3200 RAM and the speed is at 333MHz ? I thought it's supposed to be 200MHz. I'm not trying to O/C anything... this is all default. Does anything else look out of place according to my specs:

AMD Barton 2800+
Abit NF7-S v2.0
Thermaltake 420Watt PSU
512MB PC3200 OCZ Premiere
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
Speeze HSF
Soundblaster Live MP3+

Trying to track down a heat / auto-shutdown issue. It reaches 55C under load. :|

 

[jhurst]

Your RAM will only run at the speed of your FSB, which in your case is 166 (333DDR). The max your PC3200 RAM will run @ is PC2700 b/c of your limited FSB. If you want the max out of your RAM, you would need to OC your system.

 

[rh71]

ok that's fine... I'm not looking to O/C... I just wanted to make sure I'm not already doing it by accident and it's causing heat issues...

 

[mechBgon]

One cause of overheat is having the heatsink reversed. It's been enough of a problem that I made a guide about it. If you're confident it's on right, you still should check the Thermalright-specific remarks linked next to the third photo, because they apply to many GC-68 clones too, which includes Speeze coolers with an 80mm fan.

Also, is your Speeze cooler equipped with the copper contact area, and not plain aluminum? For the high wattage-to-surface ratio of Bartons and Thortons, a copper contact area is a good idea.

Lastly, if you used a stock phase-change thermal patch, be aware that they're good for only one use. After they've "melted to fit" the microgap between the CPU and the heatsink's base, it's Game Over. If the heatsink is later removed, all of the patch should be scraped off and you should use a high-quality thermal grease or a fresh phase-change patch.

HTH

 

[DAPUNISHER]

You are better off staying synched than running that ram@400 because the latency penalty on nF2 will make the system slower than the way it is now. You should change your tRAS from 6 to 8-11 for better performance on nF2. All your temps and voltages look fine and 55c load with the way that board reports temps shouldn't be a problem. If anything I'd bump the vcore and vDIMM a notch and run memtest on that stick to make sure it isn't erroring out. You can try it in the other slot too if you haven't already as sometimes just swapping to slot 2 can resolve problems. Since you have an ATi card disabling fastwrites and enabling vid ram caching can help sometimes too.

If you can try a different PSU to eliminate the possibility it's cutting out that would narrow the usual suspects too. I will be very surprised if it's heat related unless as Mech pointed out the cooler isn't mounted correctly, ect.

 

[rh71]

The Speeze HSF came stock with some white paste already on it so I threw it on top of the core... but I must admit it's always a PITA to clip on correctly so I'm sure it shifted around during the attempt to clip it... maybe wiped some paste off/everywhere around it - I can't imagine I'm the only one who may have done this though... I haven't taken it off since and it looks in line... though I'm pretty sure the paste is an issue. Don't know if it's a copper bottom... would have to remove it to check, but won't do it until I have some new paste handy. (Can I get some good stuff locally?)

About the vcore/vdimm... how do I modify those settings ? I am also going to try the memory slot furthest from the CPU if these shutdowns keep happening. I did already disable fastwrite (even in BIOS) and also VPU recover and it still shutdown..

The PSU is 1 day old... just put it in yesterday after this shutdown thing happened for a month on my old 300-watt Antec. Still shutsdown...

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The temp readings you are getting make overheating seem unlikely to me that's all. Since it looks like the PSU is out of the mix it's one less thing. Don't use the slot farthest away because that's for dual channel use not single, use the 2nd slot of the 2 that are together. To change voltages just go in the bios to the right section. I haven't used that board so just check the manual for which tab they are under, then increase both to the very next increment. While you are in the bios turn off fast writes if it's on, disable 8x AGP support, and enable vid ram caching for troubleshooting purposes. If using XP be sure to turn off auto restart in the startup and recovery section and check the logs for errors. I'd run memtest on that ram too.

 

[rh71]

just to report back... memtest showed 0 errors after 40 minutes (765% coverage)... I also played about 45 minutes of UT2k4 before with a desk fan blowing right into the HSF... it actually kept temps below 52C the entire time and I didn't have any issues... more testing (gaming) to come.

 

[Pauli]

The speed rating of your RAM does not determine what speed it is running at, it indicates what speed it is capable of running at. Your motherboard FSB settings determine what speed it is running at.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: rh71
just to report back... memtest showed 0 errors after 40 minutes (765% coverage)... I also played about 45 minutes of UT2k4 before with a desk fan blowing right into the HSF... it actually kept temps below 52C the entire time and I didn't have any issues... more testing (gaming) to come.

Based on that info you may have a chipset or video cooling issue instead of CPU.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: rh71
just to report back... memtest showed 0 errors after 40 minutes (765% coverage)... I also played about 45 minutes of UT2k4 before with a desk fan blowing right into the HSF... it actually kept temps below 52C the entire time and I didn't have any issues... more testing (gaming) to come.

Based on that info you may have a chipset or video cooling issue instead of CPU.

I wish I could tell WTF it is exactly. I have a desk fan blowing directly in there and it happens to catch all the components. The CPU temp reading drops dramatically... and keep it in check while gaming (even for hours)... haven't had a single crash with the desk fan on ... removed it one time to test... and it turned off within an hour... I guess I'll live... thx for your help though.

 

[Jeff7181]

Lemme see if I understand this... your PC is shutting off at 55 degrees C? That's WAY too low. Makes me wonder if that temperature reading you're seeing is actually the temperature of the die... or if it's actually a "socket" reading and the actual core is hotter because of an incorrectly installed heatsink that's not making proper contact with the core. I would definately remove your heatsink, get some good quality thermal compound, and reinstall it. You might consider doing the same for the heatsink on the northbridge.

 

[rh71]

alright... even though my heatsink/fan came with paste on the bottom of it, was I supposed to add paste on the cpu core also ????

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: rh71
alright... even though my heatsink/fan came with paste on the bottom of it, was I supposed to add paste on the cpu core also ????

No. If using the stock cooler with thermal pad do not add any other compound.

EDIT:it could be that speeze isn't doing the job for whatever reason. I'd suggest the Vantec Aeroflow for $20 and some ceramique' for the T.I.M.

 

[rh71]

I've seen pads before, but this was white paste on the bottom of the speeze. So what I did (not add any other paste to either HS or CPU) should be fine ?

I'm looking into the Vantec Aeroflow... is it this or this you're talking about ? And should I get Arctic Silver 5 (or is Ceramique better) ? What's T.I.M. ?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

T.I.M. just stands for Thermal Interface Material. Ceramique' is less messy than the silver based compounds and works just as good. BTW, SVC has a serious hot deal on the SLK-947U. Just grab a fan of choice and some Ceramique' and you will be set as far as CPU cooling goes. They also have the AMD version of AeroFlow for $19.99