Athlon XP-M 2900+ running too hot

djXternal · #1 (**permalink**) 3rd November, 2007, 12:02 AM

Hey guys, just got my new system running and it is an epox 8rgm3i with an amd athlon xp-m 2900+, normally with the xp-m's on this board i can use pin-mod to lower the vcore so the temp isnt so high since it defaults to a higher vcore than the cpu is meant for. But for some reason that is the only thing the pin-mod cant adjust on this cpu. Do I have any other options to lower the vcore, my system s unstable with this voltage. And the bios does not have any adjustments available

Wolf2000me · #2 (**permalink**) 3rd November, 2007, 07:31 AM

It's somewhat of a moot point. Most XP-M chips need 1.45v to run at stock speed and most socket A epox boards run it at 1.55v. That's still less than the stock voltage on regular barton chips, which is 1.65v. Seeing that a mobile xp chip is actually a regular chip with minor adjustments on the PCB and of course being of better quality.
I suggest you just get better cooling. Unless of course your board overvolts your chip even more, however if you don't post by how much it does that it really is hard to give a recommendation.

You want your XP-M chip below 50°C at all times to ensure absolute stability, however if you're not overclocking these chips can *usually* take a lot more heat. So what's the temp you get at full load?

djXternal · #3 (**permalink**) 3rd November, 2007, 03:02 PM

I get around 65C full load and it is running at 1.6V

Gizmo · #4 (**permalink**) 3rd November, 2007, 09:16 PM

What's your ambient when you are running 65C on the chip?

Wolf2000me · #5 (**permalink**) 4th November, 2007, 07:24 AM

That's too high for that amount of voltage even with a stock heatsink. Perhaps reseating the heatsink after having applied new thermal compound (AS5 or so) might be a good idea. An aftermarket heatsink is usually also a good idea with XP-M chips.

djXternal · #6 (**permalink**) 8th November, 2007, 05:55 PM

I alreayd put AS5 on it, and its running a Thermaltake Volcano 3

Wolf2000me · #7 (**permalink**) 10th November, 2007, 10:29 AM

The volcano 3 was never really meant for use with socket A. It is compatible but that's about it. It's performance might even be worse than the stock AMD heatsink. So I think that's your problem right there.
I suggest a thermalright SI 97 or SP 97 if you can find them. The SI 97 is still available if I'm not mistaken and it's probably the best heatsink for socket A out there.

Samuknow · #8 (**permalink**) 17th November, 2007, 06:30 PM

So, how is this coming along?

djXternal · #9 (**permalink**) 17th November, 2007, 09:07 PM

I havent had a chance to swap fans yet, hopefully sometime next week I will and I'll let you know what happens

dsio · #10 (**permalink**) 18th November, 2007, 02:49 AM

Used to have a Volcano 3 on my Duron 1300 (morgan core), and it did a pretty bad job of keeping that thing cool. When I later bought an XP 2400+ (Tbred B) I used the 2400+ stock AMD cooler on the Duron 1300, and it lowered the temps by about 10C.

Daniel ~ · #11 (**permalink**) 19th November, 2007, 12:24 PM

NOT the best recommendation I've read...":O}

djXternal · #12 (**permalink**) 2nd December, 2007, 09:07 AM

Ok well I just switched back to my 20$ HSF on this system, and I am still idleing at 66C with a vcore of 1.6v, case temp of 35C

Gizmo · #13 (**permalink**) 2nd December, 2007, 11:51 AM

Your idle temps shouldn't change much because you aren't pulling much juice at idle. Load temps are what will be affected.

ccperf721p · #14 (**permalink**) 2nd December, 2007, 12:19 PM

Idle temps are still quite high with that voltage though. Have you verified the temps with another program? I'm running a XP-M at 1.65 with a cheap copper base ultra heatsink (lapped) and don't get past 60 loaded on an NF7-S.

What are your load temps? Does the heatsink feel like it is close to the temps you are reporting?

Can't help with the pin mod, never owned an Epox board.

djXternal · #15 (**permalink**) 2nd December, 2007, 02:33 PM

I'm using MBM to monitor temps and have never had trobules with it reporting the wrong temps... and yes the heatsink does feel much warmer than previous CPUs have made the heatsink

Samuknow · #16 (**permalink**) 2nd December, 2007, 03:31 PM

Load up Everest Home from our files section. This does pretty well on temps and volts. At least it is a second opinion. At that idle speed, it should crash under load.

djXternal · #17 (**permalink**) 2nd December, 2007, 09:51 PM

and it does crash under load, I cant even run photoshop cs3 without crashing
could it be a bad cpu?

Edit:
Everest Home reports the same temps

Gizmo · #18 (**permalink**) 2nd December, 2007, 10:28 PM

If you are running 65+C idle, and crashing under load, you have a definite cooling problem. There is no way your idle temps should be more than 10C above your mobo temps, even with a crap heat sink, UNLESS you don't have the Athlon XP Cool 'n Quiet driver loaded (I think that's what it's called; in any case, it lowers the cpu's IDLE temps by allowing the OS to put the CPU into a low power state when the system is idle, and only waking up periodically to check timers and such or when interrupts trip).

Next time you reboot, pop into the OS and see what the temp is reported there. If it's roughly the same, then you don't have the driver loaded.

However, even if you don't have the driver loaded, the fact that you are crashing under load says that you are running too hot, or that your mobo is unstable. Given that you can't pin-mod to a lower voltage, I'm incliined to suspect your mobo, but it IS possible that the CPU is borked some way.