Is this a bad MB or what???

I just replaced my (ancient) ASUS M2N SLI mb that was giving me problems with an "identical" mb that I bought over the inet. I boot it up and get a warning screen that something is wrong with hardware/voltages/etc. I go to BIOS setup, navigate to hardware monitoring and get red warnings that all the voltages and temps are way out of line (3.3v > 4.28v, 5v > 7.2v, 12v > 17.17v) with CPU at 125C and MB at 65C (chassis open at room temp!). I bypass this screen and boot XPsp3 and the computer runs "normally." No smoke, flaky operations, or whatever; works fine. Heat sink cold to the touch. Ck'd all the voltages from the pwrsply and they're normal. Reboot several times with all the same results: warning screen, high readings, system operates normally. What gives? Do I live with this, correct something, or send the MB back (doubtful). Thanks for any and all leads.

...Niky

 

Interesting. When next you boot up into BIOS, set it to restore to default, F5 in my ASUS case. If that doesn't work then short the pins on the battery or take it out for 10 mins to reset the bugger to default values. You should be OK after that.

 

Just to explain my reasoning, the seller sold you an overclocked board I believe. Lucky that you didn't blow up your CPU! BTW, clean off both surfaces of your CPU and heat sink until shiny using a lint free cloth and at least %70 isopropyl alcohol. Just a grains of long rice worth of thermal compound will be fine.

 

A video on thermal compounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRRWbQUqW1Y

 

Augie...
Many thanks for your time and effort. Took the battery out and let it rest while I played elsewhere. Several hours later, no joy: same problem. I think this is a measurement issue, ie, what/however the MB measures voltages to send to the screen is off, in error, and so reported. Again, the CPU is stated to be 130C, while on touch the heat sink is cold. The CPU fan is stated to be at over 3Krpm, while watching/listening to it reveals a low rpm as compared to what I've known it to turn under stress. What do you think? Again, thanks.
...Niky

 

OK, so you've reset your BIOS to default, then the only thing left is to double check your sensors with HWMonitor. I haven't seen a motherboard that screwed up on sensors that bad before but the 'touch' method is an excellent one. 3 thousand RPM would be loud, at the very least.

 

Augie...
I downloaded the hardware monitor. What it shows appears to be normal. However, based on the vendor's site graphics, I should be sensing more parameters. It shows the 3.3v line but not the 5v and 12v lines. Lots more on the site graphics that isn't showing up here when I run it [?]. Otherwise, cpu temp and fan speeds are reported to be normal. So, mb/system seem to be okay, but why no 5/12v readings? Does this suggest something wrong with onboard sensors, my setup? Beats me. Again thanks and have a good day
...Niky

 

I can't say but it's good that your temps are OK. Try Speccy for additional info. Your sensors could be shot but the main one is heat, don't worry about the rest.

 

Hi

It could possibly be a buggy BIOS. Is there a BIOS update for your 'board that talks about resolving sensor issues?