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Overheating Motherboard

Started by webbiam , Apr 04 2008 02:38 PM

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#1
webbiam
Posted 04 April 2008 - 02:38 PM

webbiam

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Hello fellow geeks. I am here today because I have been having some issues with my new build. I recently began getting BSOD's of all types, so I ran some memory tests and found a number of errors. I have since returned the RAM to where I bought it from and have been patiently waiting for a new kit to arrive. In the meantime, I have purchased 1GB of RAM so that I will still be able to use my computer as I wait. Everything was fine until today, when a familiar BSOD popped up: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. After snooping around the internet, I have found many people that relate this to hardware issues. Since this is obviously not a RAM-related problem, I figured it must be CPU. Long story short, I downloaded the program SpeedFan and found some horrible results.

Temp1 has a check mark: 40C
Temp2 has a down arrow: 26C
Temp3 has a down arrow: -2C
...then comes Temp (no number at the end) with a ball of fiery death instead of an arrow or check mark: 65C!
Core0 and Core1 both have check marks and stay between 16 and 18C.

My problem is this: I don't see how this could happen. I have 2 fans that came with my tower, one sucking in cool air from the from the bottom part of the front of the tower, and one shooting hot air out of the top of the back of the tower. I also have a fan on my graphics card that runs fine. The CPU fan is up and running and the tower even has a nice cone shaped vent that shoots the air from the CPU fan directly to the outside of the tower. My power supply has a nice fan as well. The side of the PSU that is inside the tower sucks air out, and the side of the PSU that points out of the tower shoots air out.

So my question is this: does anyone have any idea why my Motherboard would be so damned hot? Touching the heatsink burns my finger; touching anywhere else on the motherboard reminds me of how unnecessarily hot it is. Something to note is that after originally building the computer, I could not get it to power on. I eventually realized that with the motherboard sitting directly on my tower, something was shorting out and preventing the power turning on. I decided to install the thin piece of foam that my motherboard came with between the motherboard and the tower. This fixed my problem immediately. I am starting to think, however, that this might have something to do with my problem. I'm just not sure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time. If you would rather send me a direct e-mail, feel free to do so. My address is removed

Here are my specs in case they do not show up with my posts:

Intel duo-core 3.0 ghz processor (not overclocked)
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard (the problem)
1GB DDR2 667 RAM (for now)
XFX GeForce 8600 GTS PCI-E 16x Graphics Card
580GB (500 + 80) HDDs
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#2
John Hook
Posted 04 April 2008 - 07:45 PM

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webbiam,

As I'm not personally familiar with your particular motherboard, I did some Googling and found the following site which might shed some light on the MB heat issue you're experiencing:

http://www.xbitlabs....p35-ds3l_9.html

I didn't read this site word-for-word, but from what I saw, the reviewers on this site were experiencing SERIOUS thermal problems as well. I would contact GigaByte or go on their support site and inquire about this issue. There may be more recent revisions to this MB that address the problem you're having. You might also want to contact the reseller from which you purchased your MB to see what their return policy is.

Since you're NOT overclocking and assuming that all of your BIOS Settings / Jumpers (if any) are set correctly for the processor you have installed - YOU SHOULD NOT be having these thermal problems with your MB. Has this always been the case or did the problem start recently?

It seems like you know what you're doing - and you shouldn't be having overheating issues based on your configuration. Rather than try to fix it yourself, I would engage the MFG of this motherboard to determine if there are KNOWN issues with your particular MB model that might have been fixed in a more current revision of this model. If so - they should replace your MB per their MFG warantee.

A little vague on my part - but hope this helps.

- John
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#3
webbiam
Posted 05 April 2008 - 07:43 AM

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Thanks John. I'll be contacting GIGABYTE with some questions. Hopefully they can replace my MOBO with a newer, more stable model. If not, I will return it and get an ASUS. I need SLI technology anyway :)
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#4
Tyger
Posted 05 April 2008 - 12:01 PM

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On new builds or installs the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL code is nearly always caused by driver conflicts. A driver trying to "bump" ahead of another process that is assigned a higher request level.
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#5
The Skeptic
Posted 05 April 2008 - 01:10 PM

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Try to check the temperature by two other means.

1: Use the link in my signature to download Everest Home Edition. Install it and click Computer and then Sensor. wait few seconds for the table to fill up and report temperatures.

2: Check temperatures in the BIOS in the section dealing with temps, voltages and fans speed.

Please report.
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#6
webbiam
Posted 05 April 2008 - 01:55 PM

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Tyger, I had assumed that Vista might just be a bit buggy. The thing is that the first thing I did to fix this problem was to format my Hard Drives and re-install Vista on a different HDD that I knew to work. This helped me realize that it wasn't the Hard Drive causing the problems. I soon began getting the errors again and the process of elimination began. Is there any way I can check to see driver conflicts within my system?

The Skeptic, the BIOS temperature readouts are all normal, but not all temperatures are displayed, only CPU temperature and System temperature. For some reason, system temperature does not seem to be reporting the temp of my motherboard, but perhaps the ambient temperature of the case. I'm just not too sure. Here is the Everest temperature report:
*****************************************************************
Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type ITE IT8712F (ISA 290h)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 32 °C (90 °F)
Aux 37 °C (99 °F)
SAMSUNG SP0812C 29 °C (84 °F)
Seagate ST3500320AS 27 °C (81 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 5720 RPM
Power Supply 7418 RPM

Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.10 V
+2.5 V 1.79 V
+3.3 V 3.34 V
+5 V 4.97 V
+12 V 1.92 V
+5 V Standby 5.16 V
VBAT Battery 3.20 V
Debug Info F 76 FF 5B
Debug Info T 37 32 254
Debug Info V 45 70 D1 B9 1E 00 4D (77)
*****************************************************************
Now I am even more confused, as SpeedFan still lists System temperature at 63C, but Everest reports my motherboard at a cozy 32C. So now I don't know what the heck is reporting the overheat in SpeedFan, or if anything is overheating at all! This is crazy.

Any more help would be great!

Edited by webbiam, 05 April 2008 - 01:55 PM.

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#7
The Skeptic
Posted 05 April 2008 - 10:38 PM

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I could never understand the readings of SpeedFan and I never use it. Compared to everest, or the BIOS, which give you temperatures related to components, SpeedFan gives you Temp1, Temp2, burning bushes and other tricks that leaves you to guess what is related to what.

It look to me that there is no overheating issue with your computer. Just to make sure, measure temps under load. Open Everest and leave it minimized. Run your antivirus or a resource consuming game for about 10 minutes and then maximize Everest and report the readings.

Voltage readings look odd in some parameters. Please report voltages as read in the BIOS.
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#8
John Hook
Posted 06 April 2008 - 06:00 PM

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webbiam,

Tyger does bring up a valid point about the IRQL_NOT_LESS... STOP error. When you initially (or subsequently) configured your PC, did you change any of the motherboard's BIOS default settings? Sometimes, message around with these settings can cause stability problems if you don't know what you're changing. Generally, the DEFAULTS are the safest, most stable settings.

Another posibility is that Vista (or you) are installing a video, hard disk, sound card or other hardware driver that's not tested or stable under Vista. You might want to check out GigaBytes site under the support section for you specific motherboard model and see if they've got any Vista drivers specific to YOUR motherboard model. Also - look for BIOS updates for your motherboard as there may have been updates made to your MB's BIOS that address Vista-specific compatibility issues.

I'm not completely ruling out the whole thermal issue - but your problem is complicated. When troubleshooting complicated problems like this, you need to eliminate one possible case at a time. If you randomly change things, you may never figure out exactly WHAT was causing the problem in the first place. I'd hate to see you get a replcement board from GigaByte - only to start having the SAME problem with the replacement board.

- John Hook
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