Athlon overheating

[Chris Sharp]

I'm well aware that Athlons are notorious for running hot but this is
getting rediculous. I have a 2600+, which is cooled by a Zalman heat
sink and fan (running at top speed), back and front case so there is
more than adequate ventilation. The heat sink is getting hot - very
hot - so the thermal paste is doing it's job (I did use lots of the
stuff). But, even when going relatively unstenuous tasks like opening
a couple of copies of Internet Explorer my system gets up to 55 degree
C and hanging the machine in around 15 minutes. I've even tried
underclocking the CPU by a couple of steps but that didn't help at
all. In fact the CPU doesn't overheat any quicker when I turn the
Zalman fan to minimum, swicth off the front case fans and even
overclock the CPU by a couple of steps. No amount of fiddling seems to
make a blind bit of difference. Does this suggest I have a dodgy CPU
or is this kind of thing to be expected of Athlons? The room
temperature was around 30 degrees yesterday so not ideal conditions.

 

[kony]

I'm well aware that Athlons are notorious for running hot but this is
getting rediculous.

They're really not too bad, relatively speaking. 3 years ago
they were contrasted to Coppermine P3, which was indeed a few
watts cooler, but today the heatsink market is better too, a
wisely-chosen $15 'sink will do the job fine without a lot of
noise.

I have a 2600+, which is cooled by a Zalman heat
sink and fan (running at top speed), back and front case so there is
more than adequate ventilation.

Which Zalman heat sink?
It's not passive, fanless itself, is it?

Assuming above lines meant you have a front case fan and rear
case fan, do they have a relatively unobstructed path to move air
or mostly blocked, stamped-out grills? How about the case's
front bezel (plastic face), is it allowing ample intake?

The heat sink is getting hot - very
hot

It shouldn't be "very" hot, even with faster CPU than that,
unless your motherboard is incorrectly set to overvolt the CPU,
or there is no fan on the heastink or it's a Zalman model not
meant for that CPU. Or, perhaps you don't have it mounted well?

... - so the thermal paste is doing it's job (I did use lots of the
stuff).

Do not use "lots" of it, only a paper-thin layer.

But, even when going relatively unstenuous tasks like opening
a couple of copies of Internet Explorer my system gets up to 55 degree
C and hanging the machine in around 15 minutes. I've even tried
underclocking the CPU by a couple of steps but that didn't help at
all. In fact the CPU doesn't overheat any quicker when I turn the
Zalman fan to minimum, swicth off the front case fans and even
overclock the CPU by a couple of steps. No amount of fiddling seems to
make a blind bit of difference. Does this suggest I have a dodgy CPU
or is this kind of thing to be expected of Athlons? The room
temperature was around 30 degrees yesterday so not ideal conditions.

You seem to be jumping to conclusions that the CPU is
overheating. 55C is not necessarily too hot, especially running
at stock speeds. It is hotter than to be expected with a good
aftermarket cooler, but your CPU should not be causing any errors
_IF_ 55C is an accurate temp reading. Can the motherboard be
trusted to provide accurate reading? is your power supply a
name-brand of known ample capacity for system?

Have you tested the other variables like power and memory?

Is there even a problem with the system or are you just hopped
up on too much coffee? ;-)
I mean, you make no mention of it crashing, staying out late and
coming in drunk or sleeping with your wife, so is there a
problem?

Some motherboard manufacturers don't implement a bus-disconnect
chipset register so the CPU may indeed idle hotter than other
(chipsets, also including those supporting different CPU like an
Intel P4, but then the P4 can get hotter at full load so it's all
relative).

Take a look at the case fans' effectiveness, consider opening up
air passageways if necessary, and remount your heatsink with less
compound... and after doing so it may take a couple days for temp
to drop to final values.

 

[Chris Sharp]

Hi

Thanks for the feedback.

Which Zalman heat sink?
It's not passive, fanless itself, is it?

It's the one that opens out in a fan shape. It came with a fan and
this is mounted directly about it and blowing lots of air.

Assuming above lines meant you have a front case fan and rear
case fan, do they have a relatively unobstructed path to move air
or mostly blocked, stamped-out grills? How about the case's
front bezel (plastic face), is it allowing ample intake?

The airflow is very good. I'm using Serial ATA drives and have also
made sure excess cable is kept tucked out of the way.

It shouldn't be "very" hot, even with faster CPU than that,
unless your motherboard is incorrectly set to overvolt the CPU,
or there is no fan on the heastink or it's a Zalman model not
meant for that CPU. Or, perhaps you don't have it mounted well?

How do I determine the correct voltage? I assume this can be different
depending on the exact model of CPU. Will it do any harm to my system
if I reduce the voltage and give it a try?

You seem to be jumping to conclusions that the CPU is
overheating. 55C is not necessarily too hot, especially running
at stock speeds. It is hotter than to be expected with a good
aftermarket cooler, but your CPU should not be causing any errors
_IF_ 55C is an accurate temp reading. Can the motherboard be
trusted to provide accurate reading? is your power supply a
name-brand of known ample capacity for system?

I have read of Athlons running at around 60-70 degrees C without
problem so I'm guessing my BIOS is halting the system or putting it
into go-slow mode when the temperature gets in the 50-55C range. Not
sure if I can change this. I'll check when I get home this evening.

Have you tested the other variables like power and memory?

No. Do you mean voltage or speeds?

 

[Joris Dobbelsteen]

I have read of Athlons running at around 60-70 degrees C without
problem so I'm guessing my BIOS is halting the system or putting it
into go-slow mode when the temperature gets in the 50-55C range. Not
sure if I can change this. I'll check when I get home this evening.

50-55 degrees C is a very common operating temperature.
Even 65 degrees C are acceptable

Todays systems are likely to take action only when you are running hotter 70
degrees C. They absolutely won't do that when running at 50-55 degrees. How
would you otherwise produce nearly 100 watt of heat on that very minature
surface without allowing it to heat up 20-30 degrees?
I believe the specification allows the chip to heat up to 80 degrees C (if
not even hotter).

When you do it correctly you can exactly calculate the temperature your
system case will be.
It all depends on the amount of air that moves through you case, so enough
air must go by your processor. Ensure there are no shortcuts (air intake fan
and a fan blowing air out both at the bottom of the case when the processor
is at the top of the case).

When running 50-60 degrees, its all OK and you probably can do very little
about this.
Otherwise you need a different cooling solution.

The only disadvantage of heat is that it reduces your processors life, but
fortunally this won't be noticable. The older Pentium I was designed to
operate 10 years and you probably throw it away at most at 5 years (3 years
is the average expected lifetime for a computer).

- Joris

 

[kony]

Hi

Thanks for the feedback.


It's the one that opens out in a fan shape. It came with a fan and
this is mounted directly about it and blowing lots of air.

That's somewhat vague when talking about zalmans. If you mean
the one that is oblong rather than round, with the fan mounted
OFF of the heatsink itself, rather on a bracket, those are known
to be poor performers, optimized for low noise "supposedly" but
in reality they were more of a gimmick than an effective or
particularly quiet cooler (compared to other similarly priced
'sinks with good fan on top). Perhaps a link to product picture
would provide more clarity of which 'sink you have.

How do I determine the correct voltage? I assume this can be different
depending on the exact model of CPU. Will it do any harm to my system
if I reduce the voltage and give it a try?

Your motherboard may have a bios health/hardware monitor screen
providing this detail, or windows softare to take voltage
readings, or measure the power supply circuit's output on the
motherboard if those software readings are questionable.

Bios should be set to "auto", or if you know the CPU's default
voltage (or note it on label when redoing heatsink compound) you
might set it manually if the bios or jumpers allow this. Default
voltage should be around 1.65V, IIRC, though there are a few
variants of XP that might need less (not need as much, but still
1.65V @ your CPU's default speed can be kept under 55C with
decent cooler mounted good, thin thermal compound, etc)..

I have read of Athlons running at around 60-70 degrees C without
problem so I'm guessing my BIOS is halting the system or putting it
into go-slow mode when the temperature gets in the 50-55C range. Not
sure if I can change this. I'll check when I get home this evening.

Perhaps, but this is the first you have mentioned of the problem.
"Go slow" would mean system runs but gets lower performance.
Halting would shut off system... which is the system doing?
Either option, if applicable, should certainly have a bios
setting. It would be a serious bios bug to have it set by
default to 55C, you might try loading setup defaults in bios and
if that doesn't help, seek/flash newer bios (but be sure system
is stable while flashing).

No. Do you mean voltage or speeds?

Yes, power voltage is correct and stable, and memory errors
aren't contributing to this problem (which is still a mystery, we
still don't know EXACTLY what is happening to your system). If
multiple things/types of problems are occuring you may have
multiple problems. If system is merely "rebooting on error" in
Win2K or XP, then Goggle search for method to disable that
windows feature and seek windows forum to troubleshoot
windows/software.