P4 Temperature, questionable heat sink mounting.

[Vivek.M]

Hello, My friend bought a new P4 2.8Ghz box processor ( LGA 775 ) with
a Intel 945 GNTL Mobo. He asked another friend to assemble the thing; i
was observer and general dogsbody.

After the assembly ( which he did very hurriedly imo and he's no
expert. he didn't read the docs very well and didn't know how to remove
the CPU cover ! ) the processor on power-on promptly switched off due
to heating. This happened 3-4 times after which they checked the
Heatsink and pressed the clamps in. The processor has not given any
problems since ( as in, no longer power-down's at BIOS boot up ).
However i am worried whether the heatsink is securely mounted. I'd like
to test the fit by stressing the CPU and monitoring temp rise.

1. Is there any program to do this? Stress test a CPU..
2. I'd like to monitor the temp rise and see if it's normal. What are
"normal" operating temps for a P4. Are there stats on this?
3. Can the CPU/Heatsink be detached and remounted? It uses some sort of
a thermal pad with no compound. I don't want to void the
warranty..should my friend get another heat-sink from Intel?

What do you feel i should recommend? Leave it as is..?

 

[SteveH]

Hello, My friend bought a new P4 2.8Ghz box processor ( LGA 775 ) with
a Intel 945 GNTL Mobo. He asked another friend to assemble the thing; i
was observer and general dogsbody.

After the assembly ( which he did very hurriedly imo and he's no
expert. he didn't read the docs very well and didn't know how to remove
the CPU cover ! ) the processor on power-on promptly switched off due
to heating. This happened 3-4 times after which they checked the
Heatsink and pressed the clamps in. The processor has not given any
problems since ( as in, no longer power-down's at BIOS boot up ).
However i am worried whether the heatsink is securely mounted. I'd like
to test the fit by stressing the CPU and monitoring temp rise.

1. Is there any program to do this? Stress test a CPU..

Prime 95

2. I'd like to monitor the temp rise and see if it's normal. What are
"normal" operating temps for a P4. Are there stats on this?

Check the Intel website

3. Can the CPU/Heatsink be detached and remounted? It uses some sort of
a thermal pad with no compound. I don't want to void the
warranty..should my friend get another heat-sink from Intel?

What do you feel i should recommend? Leave it as is..?

If the temps look ok when its stressed, leave it alone. If not, remove the
heatsink, remove the remains of the thermal pad with an old credit card and
Isopropyl Alcohol, apply new thermal compound and refit the heatsink.

SteveH

 

[Jack F. Twist]

Prime 95

Even better is a utility called CPUBurn. Search Google. Run
the P6, MX and BX tests concurrently, and monitor temps
with a utility for that particular motherboard (check Intel's
website), or a generic one such as Motherboard Monitor
(MBM) or Winbond's Hardware Doctor.

2.8GHz's can run over 50C at idle and well over 60C under
full load with barely adequate fans and heatsinks. Ideal is to
shoot for something in the low-mid 40C range at idle, and
mid-50C range under full load. It's not hard to do with a
decent cooler.

Check the Intel website

Intel's thermal pads (like almost all thermal pads) are single-use.
If a heatsink is removed you'll need to get a replacement pad,
or much better is to replace it with thermal compound. You'll
knock at least a few degrees off your load temps.

 

[gamble_n_dice]

COMPUTER PARTS
-VA9000SWA Kandalf Super Tower, Silver Aluminu
-Maxtor 250GB DiamondMax 10 7200RPM Serial ATA w/ 16MB Cach
-Kingston 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRA
-Kingston 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRA
-Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe w/ DualDDR2, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, 2 x PCI-
x16 SLI (MOTHERBOARD
-Enermax 600W EG701AX-VE SFMA All In One Noisetake
-Intel Pentium 4 Processor 630 3.00 GHz w/ 2MB Cache, EM64
-Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT 256MB PCI-E w/ TV-Out, DVI (Lite Retail
-Thermaltake Big Water Internal Liquid Cooling Syste
-LG Super Multi DVD Writer 16x16 DVD +/-RW Dual-Layer, Black
-Samsung 793DF (Pure Flat CRT, 17in, Silver/Black
-Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive, Blac
-APC Home/Office SurgeArrest 8 Outlet with Telphone/Splitte
Protectio
-LG 16X DVD-ROM, Black
-Microsoft Black Digital Media Keyboard & Optical Mouse Value Pac
2.
-Microsoft Windows XP Professional with SP2
-Maxtor 160GB ONETOUCH EXT
-Zalman ZM-G100 Anti-Corrosion Coolan

-4 stockfan
-Thermaltake radiato

System Information
-CPU: 35C-45C (regular processing, and when the room temp get high
-Motherboard: 30C-38C (regular processing, and when the room temp ge
high
-CPU processing: 44 progra
-CPU when gaming: 35C - 47
-Mother when gaming: 30C - 45

Problems
When ever I play games my computer crashes, and when it crashes i can
move the mouse, I cant use CRTL+ALT+DELETE and the graphics tends t
stay still. Then i have to manually reboot it and then i go into th
bios to see if my CPU temperature reached 60C (60C is amount the P
can take after that it slows down and crash or burn) and when
checked temperature it only reached like 45C-47C and the motherboar
45C

Question
- Is my CPU temperature stable
- Is my Motherboard temperature stable
- Why does the game crash on me
- Is it heat problem
- Is it Hardware problem
- Is it a graphic card problem
- Is it a sofware proble
- Is it CPU problem

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

COMPUTER PARTS:
-VA9000SWA Kandalf Super Tower, Silver Aluminum
-Maxtor 250GB DiamondMax 10 7200RPM Serial ATA w/ 16MB Cache
-Kingston 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM
-Kingston 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM
-Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe w/ DualDDR2, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, 2 x PCI-E
x16 SLI (MOTHERBOARD)
-Enermax 600W EG701AX-VE SFMA All In One Noisetaker
-Intel Pentium 4 Processor 630 3.00 GHz w/ 2MB Cache, EM64T
-Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT 256MB PCI-E w/ TV-Out, DVI (Lite Retail)
-Thermaltake Big Water Internal Liquid Cooling System
-LG Super Multi DVD Writer 16x16 DVD +/-RW Dual-Layer, Black
-Samsung 793DF (Pure Flat CRT, 17in, Silver/Black)
-Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive, Black
-APC Home/Office SurgeArrest 8 Outlet with Telphone/Splitter
Protection
-LG 16X DVD-ROM, Black
-Microsoft Black Digital Media Keyboard & Optical Mouse Value Pack
2.0
-Microsoft Windows XP Professional with SP2
-Maxtor 160GB ONETOUCH EXT
-Zalman ZM-G100 Anti-Corrosion Coolant

-4 stockfans
-Thermaltake radiator

System Information:
-CPU: 35C-45C (regular processing, and when the room temp get high)
-Motherboard: 30C-38C (regular processing, and when the room temp get
high)
-CPU processing: 44 program
-CPU when gaming: 35C - 47C
-Mother when gaming: 30C - 45C

Problems:
When ever I play games my computer crashes, and when it crashes i cant
move the mouse, I cant use CRTL+ALT+DELETE and the graphics tends to
stay still. Then i have to manually reboot it and then i go into the
bios to see if my CPU temperature reached 60C (60C is amount the P4
can take after that it slows down and crash or burn) and when i
checked temperature it only reached like 45C-47C and the motherboard
45C.

Question:
- Is my CPU temperature stable?
- Is my Motherboard temperature stable?
- Why does the game crash on me?
- Is it heat problem?
- Is it Hardware problem?
- Is it a graphic card problem?
- Is it a sofware problem
- Is it CPU problem?

Maybe you need to upgrade the case from aluminum to sterling silver
for better dissipation of heat and money.

Obviously it's not temperature, as your bios log shows. I suspect the
problem may involve the pairing of an ATI gfx chipset and an SLI
board. It's like hiring Karl Rove to speak at a Harvard faculty
banquet... expensive, A-list all the way, but not good karma.

Borrow an nvidia card and see if that solves the problem. If it
does, beat on ATI to come up with a patch, if they haven't already.

Charlie

 

[gamble_n_dice]

Thank YOU!!!! CHARLIE!!!

i didnt have a problem with the freezing before and i had the ATI CAR
on the SLI M/B, when i was playing my games it was working perfectl
couple of months later the freezing problem bega

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

Thank YOU!!!! CHARLIE!!!!

i didnt have a problem with the freezing before and i had the ATI CARD
on the SLI M/B, when i was playing my games it was working perfectly
couple of months later the freezing problem began

Well, then I would suspect a memory issue. Memtest and see if you get
any errors. 2gb of non-ECC RAM is edgy.

If you get errors, you might try cooling for your memory sticks, or
you might try bumping up the memory voltage .05 volts.

I think the SATA drive could be a problem as well. SATA is the SCSI
of the 00s... higher performance, bigger headaches.

Charlie

 

[jerry]

COMPUTER PARTS:
-VA9000SWA Kandalf Super Tower, Silver Aluminum
-Maxtor 250GB DiamondMax 10 7200RPM Serial ATA w/ 16MB Cache
-Kingston 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM
-Kingston 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM
-Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe w/ DualDDR2, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, 2 x PCI-E
x16 SLI (MOTHERBOARD)
-Enermax 600W EG701AX-VE SFMA All In One Noisetaker
-Intel Pentium 4 Processor 630 3.00 GHz w/ 2MB Cache, EM64T
-Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT 256MB PCI-E w/ TV-Out, DVI (Lite Retail)
-Thermaltake Big Water Internal Liquid Cooling System
-LG Super Multi DVD Writer 16x16 DVD +/-RW Dual-Layer, Black
-Samsung 793DF (Pure Flat CRT, 17in, Silver/Black)
-Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive, Black
-APC Home/Office SurgeArrest 8 Outlet with Telphone/Splitter
Protection
-LG 16X DVD-ROM, Black
-Microsoft Black Digital Media Keyboard & Optical Mouse Value Pack
2.0
-Microsoft Windows XP Professional with SP2
-Maxtor 160GB ONETOUCH EXT
-Zalman ZM-G100 Anti-Corrosion Coolant

-4 stockfans
-Thermaltake radiator

System Information:
-CPU: 35C-45C (regular processing, and when the room temp get high)
-Motherboard: 30C-38C (regular processing, and when the room temp get
high)
-CPU processing: 44 program
-CPU when gaming: 35C - 47C
-Mother when gaming: 30C - 45C

Problems:
When ever I play games my computer crashes, and when it crashes i cant
move the mouse, I cant use CRTL+ALT+DELETE and the graphics tends to
stay still. Then i have to manually reboot it and then i go into the
bios to see if my CPU temperature reached 60C (60C is amount the P4
can take after that it slows down and crash or burn) and when i
checked temperature it only reached like 45C-47C and the motherboard
45C.

Question:
- Is my CPU temperature stable?
- Is my Motherboard temperature stable?
- Why does the game crash on me?
- Is it heat problem?
- Is it Hardware problem?
- Is it a graphic card problem?
- Is it a sofware problem
- Is it CPU problem?

Just curious. I am not familiar with your MB but does the bios show the
peak temp at which it your system froze and you rebooted. I have only
seen MBs that show the current temp in the bios.

Since it appears that your cpu is not actually overheating, and you
have not added new hardware recently; how old is you psu? I had a
similar problem with a P4. Although my system is not as high powered as
yours I had a 430W Antec psu. I had suspicions about the overheating
tath was being reported. I installed a new 500W psu and have had not
further problems. I had not other problems suggesting that the psu was
failing.

Search this newsgroup for "thermal event".

You could buy a new psu at a place that will rma or give a refund.

HTH

Jerry

 

[gamble_n_dice]

thanx for the advise. i did the memory test thing and everythin
passed. SATA hard drive is one the regular ones 7200rmp 250g

if its the memory stick you suspect then how do you get the voltag
up

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

thanx for the advise. i did the memory test thing and everything
passed. SATA hard drive is one the regular ones 7200rmp 250gb

if its the memory stick you suspect then how do you get the voltage
up?

It's in one of the BIOS setup menus. If it memtests ok for several
hours, changing it probably won't help.

But, if you're not familiar with voltage settings for RAM, that
suggests you may not have looked at other BIOS settings either. They
control how the hardware components work and interact at the lowest
level. Find the jumper on your board that is used to clear the BIOS,
so you can reset it to default if you change it in a way that makes
the system un-bootable. Then try various changes.

You pretty much have to make one change at a time, then reboot, then
do whatever causes the system to freeze to see if you may have fixed
it. And, if it's a flaky driver at the OS level (possible but not
likely), you will have wasted all that time.

You have a high-octane PC. If you get it dialed in, you'll have
bragging rights, but it's not painless unless you go to alienware or
one of the shops that do those things. The more you spec up, the more
you have to be ready to tweak and suffer.

Another thought... I think one good diagnostic procedure would be to
go down to 1gb RAM temporarily and see if your games still freeze up.

Charlie

 

[gamble_n_dice]

My PSU is a Enermax 600W and its new it passed the voltage test , th
ram isnt the problem because i played FABLE THE LOST CHAPTER AN
QUAKE 4 at HIGH GRAPHICS with 2X-4X antianalizing and it worke
perfectly maybe a one or 2 lag here and there but it still wen
smoothly. after i got the game BLACK AND WHITE 2 then i started t
experience some probems freezing and lots of lagg. but i reformatte
my computer and i gonna check if i am still having the same porble

 

[gamble_n_dice]

My PSU is a Enermax 600W and its new it passed the voltage test , th
ram isnt the problem because i played FABLE THE LOST CHAPTER AN
QUAKE 4 at HIGH GRAPHICS with 2X-4X antianalizing and it worke
perfectly maybe a one or 2 lag here and there but it still wen
smoothly. after i got the game BLACK AND WHITE 2 then i started t
experience some probems freezing and lots of lagg. but i reformatte
my computer and i am gonna check if i am still having the sam
porble

 

[Vivek.M]

Thanks guys ! Phew ! I was worried that the whole thing would explode
in flames Anyway, i spoke to that chap and it's working all-right - so
far.