Cleaned out, New PSU, New CPU Cooler, CPU Still 66ºC?

I have an Athlon XP 2400+ on a PC Chips M848A motherboard that I built some time ago. Over the years it has accumulated stuff so that there is now 2GB RAM, 60GB and 40GB hard drives, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (256MB) with two 19" monitors attached, DVD reader and CD rewriter, 2 x USB 2.0 PCI cards, 3 x printers, scanner, 500GB USB external drive. I don't play games, and it is not overclocked so the CPU is running at 2GHz and the RAM at 200MHz.

I was poking about the other day and I noticed that the CPU temperature was showing 66ºC. I opened up the case and vacuumed out all fluff and accumulated junk, checked the CPU heat sink and fan were clear, reseated the CPU heat sink with some new silicon heat paste and reassembled. CPU still 66ºC.

I installed MBM 5.3.7.0 to double check the CPU temp - still showing 66ºC. However, I noticed that the voltages looked low. the +3.3V was showing 2.24V and the +5.00V showing 3.20V, and all the other voltages looked out, as shown in the first screen grab. So I used an online calculator to check my power supply requirements. This worked out at about 350W including a 30% margin for surge power. As I had a 300W PSU fitted, I thought this might be the problem - low voltage leads to increased current, and heat generated increases as the square of current consumed (I2R). So I got a Cooler Master "Green Power" 600W supply rated at 600W continuous, 700W surge and up to 85% efficiency. After I installed this I eagerly checked and what do you know, CPU still 66ºC. And the voltages didn't look any better than before, as shown in the second screen grab.

I then decided that the CPU cooler might have had its day, so I got an Arctic Cooling "Copper Lite" CPU cooler which I installed with a very carefully applied layer of Antec "Reference" silver thermal compound, which contains metallic silver, the best known heat conducting metal. After I installed this I eagerly checked and what do you know, CPU still 66ºC as shown in the third screen grab.

I haven't gone any further than this because I am stumped. Any suggestions?

 

If I have mis read this then sorry but in the 3 pics isn't the cpu flat out??

 

The pictures show that the CPU clock speed is about 2GHz, which I think is the right speed for an Athlon XP 2400+. This doesn't change, it's set in the BIOS, so I am not sure of your point?

 

You should try Everest:http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
GO to sensor and see the temperatures.

 

I didn't mention above, but I have also tried Everest Home Edition with the same results. I have a Digital Volt Meter so I decided to get the case off and measure the voltages directly. The yellow wire on the Molex is giving a rock steady 12.50V +/- 0.01V, and the red wire is also rock steady at 4.81V +/- 0.01V. At the same time, the Mother Board Monitor dashboard is showing the 12V supply as ranging 8.65V - 3.55V, and the 5V ranging 3.82V - 2.52V. It would appear something funny is going on here with the software voltage measurements, so I have to suspect that there may be something funny with the temperature measurements as well. Anybody know how accurate the mother board temperature voltage and temperature sensors are supposed to be?

 

Hmmm I would be interested to see what your BIOS is stating before your OS comes up, can you have a look in there at your Temps and Voltages. You posted 3 pics are any of those with the new PSU in? those Voltages are still quite variable compared to expected.

Would consider updating your Motherboard Chipset Drivers and see if this helps. After the efforts you have undertaken I'm suspecting it maybe your Motherboard......have a good look next time you open the case and make sure that none of the capacitors are "swollen" or leaking. You maybe getting false positives on temps and voltages.

 

athlon xp 2400+? 2ghz? Nope. Sorry. That'd be about the right speed for a barton core 3000+. the 3200+ (fastest barton made) was 2.2ghz raw speed (overclocking and massive amounts of cooling could get it to about 2.6ghz)

The bartons were massive heat producers. Even with a Volcano 12+ (one of the best air-cooled HSF's for socket A you'll find), it could still barely keep a 3200+ below 50C at stock settings.

After all the cleaning and even a new hsf, I believe that your problem is that your onboard thermometer is busted and reporting the wrong temps.

 

The BIOS is showing 42ºC, VCore 1.600V and DDR 2.512V. The second picture I posted is with the new PSU, the third with the new PSU and new CPU cooler.

I know the voltages reported by the motherboard are wrong because I have checked them with a DVM (wish I had done that before I shelled out for the new PSU!) so I suspect that the temperatures being reported are also incorrect.

Does anyone know whether the BIOS CPU temperature is the same as the CPU temperature when the OS is running? I had noticed before that the BIOS was showing a lower temperature than I was getting from MBM and Everest, but I assumed that this was because the CPU was not under load when I was poking around in the BIOS, and that the CPU temperature went up when Windows was running and putting some load on the CPU?

 

I don't think so. I have posted a WCPUID screen grab with this message which shows the System Clock at 133.34 MHz and the Multiplier at 15.0 giving a Clock speed of 2000.07 MHz. PC Stats did a test on the XP 2400+ (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1221) and said "AMD has revised their XP rating system a bit. Their previous top end processor the XP2200+ has a clock speed of 1.8 GHz, so using the old system the test XP2400+ should only be running at 1.93 GHz, however the test sample runs at 2 GHz." so I think the 2.0 GHz I am seeing is correct. AMD must have used a different "fudge factor" when rating the Barton at 3200MHz with a 2.2GHz clock speed.

Yes, I think you are probably right, especially now that I know the reported voltages are wrong.

 

The BIOS is more accurate but I cant remember the specific reasons why, hopefully someone else can clarify.

 

Windows alone should be putting very minimal load on the CPU. Have a look at "ctrl-alt-delete" the task manager and you should note a very minimal CPU usage when "just" the OS is operating! Load is generated through using games, applications etc etc. So BIOS and OS temps should be "comparable", some indicate that BIOS should be higher?!?:

http://www.overclock.net/other-cooling-discussions/34922-temp-programs-vs-bios-temp.html

Here is one of the better Temp monitoring apps:

Real Temp

Try this out and see what results you get. Their discussion paper is worthy to note:

Real Temp - Documentation

Hope it works with AMD?!?

 

Unfortunately not, it detects the CPU correctly, but notes that it is not supported.

 

The BIOS temp is showing 42ºC / 108ºF. I am thinking about upgrading the BIOS to see if that makes any difference - I have downloaded the later ROM software and patch utility, but haven't plucked up the courage to do the procedure yet. Thanks for your input!

 

I don't have any case fans, just the CPU and power supply fans. I have tried case fans before (on another PC) and not noticed any great effect. The air inside the case is not hot, barely warm in fact, so I don't think this is the problem.

I don't know how long the temperature has been like this - I built the thing about 4 years ago and I never looked before - perhaps I shouldn't have looked now!

The power supply is a new Cooler Master "Green Power" 600W supply rated at 600W continuous, 700W surge and up to 85% efficiency, which is replaced the old 300W one with when I thought the voltages were low.

The CPU cooler is also new, an Arctic Cooling "Copper Lite" CPU cooler which I installed with Antec "Reference" silver thermal compound.