MSI K8N NEO4-F - Cool & Quiet Support

[ToeJam13]

All,

My AthlonXP/3200 Barton is just too darn hot. Even though it idles or runs at low loads a majority of the day, it is pumping out a lot of heat. My home office is noticably warmer than the rest of my home.

I've been investigating the power aspects of the new Athlon64 Paris (E) core. Although I read that it tends to draw about 10%-15% more power than similar Winchester (D) cores at the same core speed, articles have hinted that it supports a more advanced version of AMD's Cool & Quiet.

From my understanding, a mainboard with the properly equipped BIOS can throttle CPU core speeds to as low as 1GHz, offering much lower power draw and decreased heat dissipation.

So the big question is, how well do MSI BIOSes work with Cool & Quiet? Is there anything extra with the new Paris core that it can control?

 

[ToeJam13]

bump

 

[ToeJam13]

Okay, so I just got my MSI NEO4-F board the other day, and it appears that Cool & Quiet isn't working.

I've enabled C&Q in my mainboard's BIOS and I have installed the Athlon64 processor driver for XP (amdk6.sys). However, my processor's speed and voltage never flinch.

Some people have suggested that you set Windows power management to "minimal power management". Others have suggested that you set it to "portable/laptop". Neither have worked.

I tried an alternate solution by downloading and installing RightMark CPU Clock Utility. It does an okay job of throttling my multipler and vCore down, but it has a nasty habit of locking the machine up when it switches from one power mode to another.

So I guess I need to ask... do owners have the other higher end MSI NEO4 boards have C&Q working?

 

[pulsedrive]

Yeah it works on my MSI Neo4 Plat. You need to use the Corecell utility that come with you MoBo.

 

[tr1kstanc3]

ive had no problems getting it to work. running xp sp2, latest a64 driver from amd website, and setting minimal power management under screensaver settings.

 

[ToeJam13]

Originally posted by: pulsedrive
Yeah it works on my MSI Neo4 Plat. You need to use the Corecell utility that come with you MoBo.

Ahh, the "shrieker" app. I tried installing it, but the darn alarm kept going off.

I just tried loading it up again for giggles, and the alarm went off (with nothing flashing as being wrong) with the following specs:

CPU Temp: 37C (alarm: 80C)
Case Temp: 33C (alarm: 60C)
NB Fan: 7300 RPM (alarm: 2000 RPM)
CPU Fan: 1600 RPM (alarm: 300 RPM)
+1.50v: 1.46V
+3.00V: 3.31V
+5.00V: 5.03V
+12.0V: 11.65V

EDIT:
Oh, and having let it sit now for 20 minutes with C&Q enabled, it still hasn't throttled the CPU down.

 

[AKPCRookie]

I'm having the same problem. No O/C (yet), all settings at default and cool n quiet won't shut up!

 

[Cobalt]

Never ever use the CoreCell utility, worst prog ever. I just set it in the BIOS and I monitor my system within Windows with EVEREST and CnQ works fine even with my CPU oced. It goes down to x4 multi at 1.5ghz, 1.2v and idles 33C.