[jdhumburg]

Folks,

I have a question regarding the CPU temperatures suggested by my motherboard's BIOS.

 

The Situation:

I was gaming (semi-lightly) recently and had my computer very suddenly shut down on me. Suspecting that I had overheated, I opened the BIOS upon restarting and found that it was suggesting a CPU temperature of 86+2 C. At that point, I figured that I may have a small problem (i.e. Dust buildup) and shut it down for 9+ hours. However, when I restarted it in the morning, I found that the CPU temp within about 10 seconds of the system running, was 50+ C. I sat there with the BIOS open for about 3 minutes and watched it climb continuously until it reached a steady-state temperature in the mid-80's.

 

The System:

Processor - AMD FX-8350

Motherboard - MSI 970A -G46

Cooling System - CORSAIR Hydro Series H60

 

Further Notes:

This is a frustrating problem because I built this unit with a liquid cooler SPECIFICALLY to avoid overheating problems. I did further examine the tower and found that there was some (but not obscene) dust buildup on the radiator unit, however I'm doubtful that semi-bad airflow would result in an idling temp of 83C. When I finished building the tower (about 9 months ago) I looked at the CPU temps and saw that regardless of what I was doing, they were typically in the 40-50 C range. No overclocking has been done.

 

Questions for experts:

Why would the CPU to already be in the high 40's upon startup? My guesses on this are either a faulty thermistor or perhaps 9 hours wasn't enough time for the fluid in the system to fall back to room temperature.

Is there any reason to believe that my pump has failed and I am in fact, not getting fluid flow through the system? If that is a possibility, how would I check?

 

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

 

 

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    jdhumburg,

 

Not a fan of liquid cooling as I don`t trust it and so can`t help you with pump issues I'm afraid.

 

Can you tell us the brand and model name or number for the PSU, add on video card and your case + how many other cooling fans you have inside the case and where they are located.

 

Something is out of wack as to protect the CPU your MB should have shut off when the CPU reached 71°C, 

 

 

Download Speedfan and install it.  Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.  The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.

If you are running on a vista machine, please go to where you installed the program and run the program as administrator.

 

 (this is a screenshot from a vista machine)

 

 Download then run HWMonitor and post a screenshot so that we have a comparison to the Speedfan results, details from here

 

To capture and post a screenshot;

 

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... then after typing in any response you have... click on browse...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on the upload button...then on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.

 

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

 

NB: So that I can confirm that you have received notification of my reply to your topic please click on the Follow this topic tab at the upper right corner of the page. 

[phillpower2]

    jdhumburg,

 

Not a fan of liquid cooling as I don`t trust it and so can`t help you with pump issues I'm afraid.

 

Can you tell us the brand and model name or number for the PSU, add on video card and your case + how many other cooling fans you have inside the case and where they are located.

 

Something is out of wack as to protect the CPU your MB should have shut off when the CPU reached 71°C, 

 

 

Download Speedfan and install it.  Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.  The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.

If you are running on a vista machine, please go to where you installed the program and run the program as administrator.

 

 (this is a screenshot from a vista machine)

 

 Download then run HWMonitor and post a screenshot so that we have a comparison to the Speedfan results, details from here

 

To capture and post a screenshot;

 

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... then after typing in any response you have... click on browse...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on the upload button...then on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.

 

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

 

NB: So that I can confirm that you have received notification of my reply to your topic please click on the Follow this topic tab at the upper right corner of the page. 

[terry1966]

in my opinion the pump in the unit has failed so there is nothing you can do except replace the cpu cooling unit either for another unit or an air cooled heatsink.

 

the unit may be in warranty so you might be able to get a free replacement, but i wouldn't even turn the machine on again until you have replaced the cpu cooling unit with a solution that will keep the temps in check, yes the pc does shut down automatically when the temps get to high but those high temps also lower the life time of the cpu itself so you really don't want to be running it as is.

 

[jdhumburg]

Thanks for the responses Phill and Terry,

 

Phill, here's what I've got from your previous questions

 

Graphics Card - ASUS GTX 650 TI

PSU - EVGA 500 B

 

I only have two fans running that are not associated with other systems - Both are 120mm, one pulling air in through the front of the tower near the bottom and the second expelling air out the top of the case, directly above the processor. Also for what it's worth, the 120mm fan associated with the cooling unit is pulling air through the radiator and sending it into the case near the processor. 

 

Based on what I can see from SpeedFan and HWMonitor, the system is in fact not running excessively hot and maybe my problem originates in the motherboard.

 

And Terry,

After I had blasted any dust out of the radiator and run the machine for a little bit, I found that the radiator was warm to the touch, leading me to believe that I do have proper circulation in the system.

 

Given that the numbers aren't making a ton of sense to me at the moment, I'm also posting a screenshot of the BIOS menu which is where I'm getting the rather frightening numbers from. CPU temp is shown at the top left corner of that screen(picture was taken after machine had idled for 10 minutes).

 

Thank you for all of your help and if I am being a total bonehead and overlooking something obvious (I'm more of a hardware guy, less of a software guy) - just give it to me straight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jdhumburg]

Sorry, forgot to mention - case is a Rosewill Challenger

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the additional info jd 

 

Temps look ok and the +12V readings being off are probably caused by MSIs own software conflicting.

 

Try an alternative means of cooling and monitoring the temps with MSI Afterburner and see how you get on, details here

[terry1966]

yep that is weird and does sound like the cpu cooler is working fine.

 

think i'd manually check the psu's voltages with a multimeter tho to make sure they are stable and in tolerance, try and keep an eye on the 12v reading while gaming for a while and see if it stays stable under load.

 

main problem usually with using a water cooled unit to cool the cpu is the motherboard doesn't get any cooling airflow over it like it does with an air cooled unit so maybe this has caused a problem (and why i rig a fan to blow over the motherboard with my water cooled pc's.), might be a faulty temp sensor on the motherboard which is what the bios software is reading and the other temp monitors are pulling their readings from the cpu itself and not the motherboard.

 

i'd run prime95 to stress test the cpu and see what the temps reach and if it causes a shutdown which it should do and pretty quickly if you do have a cooling problem. :- http://www.mersenne.org/download/

 

you could check to see if you have the latest bios version from the manufacturer and install that to see if it may fix any software problems with reading the motherboard/cpu temps.

 

apart from that i can't think what else to do, maybe check in your windows os and see what if any blue screen error messages show up there, they might point to the cause of the sudden shutdown being caused by something else other than high temp shut down.

 

[jdhumburg]

I'll look in to both solutions and get back to you guys, but it may be a day or two.

 

I also have a stray 120mm fan sitting around so I'll slap that on the side of the case pointing at the motherboard.

 

Thanks again for all the help!

[phillpower2]

[jdhumburg]

Guys,

I sincerely apologize for just now getting back to you. I've had a number of other projects that took priority and determining what the heck is wrong here fell on the back burner.

 

Phill, I downloaded the software from MSI but I'm not sure as to how to use it for my mobo as it appears to me to be monitoring my GPU instead....But that's probably a user error. I ran the torture test to see if the system would quickly shut down and ran Speedfan along side it and have attached screenshots from that (see below). I ran the test for about 9 minutes and the computer did not turn off but the numbers from Speedfan were rather alarming.

 

 

Attached Thumbnails

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[jdhumburg]

I should have asked, do any of you know exactly where/how Speedfan takes its readings? (i.e., the Temp1, Temp2, Temp3, and core) I ask because the core temperature is just all over the board all the time - When I turn the computer on and open it up it might be 60, then drop down to 35, then hop right back up. The same is generally true with temp1, except the temps are higher.

 

Additionally, when the BIOS gives it's two bits on cpu temp, is that being read from something on the mobo or the CPU?

 

Thanks for any help.