Athlon 64 x2 problems

[Mitko_DSV]

I have a PC with an AMD Athlon 64 x2 and it has a temperature problem. The CPU gets to 120C and more. Thsi means that when playing games like GTA IV I can play up to 1 hour before the PC turns off. Also something I noticed today is that for some reason Core 2 goes up to 7GHz  while Core 1 stays at 2GHz. Do you think that the CPU is the problem or is the motherboard?

I have changed the termalpaste a few times (Arctic MX2) and also swaped the stock CPU Cooler with a new one. There was a minor improvement, but still the same problem.

PC specs:

Motherboard: Asus M2N
CPU: AMD Athlon64 x2 3800+ 2GHz
CPU Cooler: DeepCool Ice Edge Mini FS v2

RAM: 4GB DDR2 800MHz (2GB + 1GB + 2 x 512MB)

GPU: MSI nVidia GeForce 9500GT 1GB
SSD: KingDian S100 32GB

HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 80GB SATA
Case: Codegen SuperPower ATX6061
PSU: FSP Group 250W

[mymande]

should be the motherboard when the pc shut down for the thermal is the cpu really hot?

the motherboard could think that the core is hot when it is not and going into protect mode even if it is not needed. Also are you overclocking the cpu?

[Mitko_DSV]

13 minutes ago, mymande said:

should be the motherboard when the pc shut down for the thermal is the cpu really hot?

the motherboard could think that the core is hot when it is not and going into protect mode even if it is not needed. Also are you overclocking the cpu?

Nothing is overclocked. It turns off due to the high CPU temp. But is the CPU deffective or is the motheboard at fault for the wrong temps? I mean if I get a new CPU will the problem be fixed?

[Stefan Payne]

Just now, dsv1999 said:

Nothing is overclocked. It turns off due to the high CPU temp. But is the CPU deffective or is the motheboard at fault for the wrong temps?

Could  be CPU, AFAIR some of the lower Wattage ones weren't soldered ot the Die, so the TIM could be the Problem, could be a dying board, could be high ripple of the PSU...

 

But to be honest, fixing it makes no sense. You waste more money on getting that to work than to get new Hardware that's in a similar range.

 

The only thing you could do is to look at the Heatsink, if there are any issues with that, no dirt between CPU and Heatsink. And no stickers.

That's about it.

[mymande]

3 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

But to be honest, fixing it makes no sense. You waste more money on getting that to work than to get new Hardware that's in a similar range.

sad but true

[Stefan Payne]

Oh and by the way: The 7GHz stuff is total bullshit.

Even on LN2 its quite impossible to do that....

 

So try a different software would be my first bet.

 

Tried HWMonitor from the CPUID Guys?

[Mitko_DSV]

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

Could  be CPU, AFAIR some of the lower Wattage ones weren't soldered ot the Die, so the TIM could be the Problem, could be a dying board, could be high ripple of the PSU...

The PSU used to work fine in my main PC so it's fine. Actually I got the CPU + CPU Cooler + motherboard for about $25 so it's not a big loss.

 

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

But to be honest, fixing it makes no sense. You waste more money on getting that to work than to get new Hardware that's in a similar range.

A new and actually better CPU costs between $5 (for a sliglty better one) and $20 (for the best one available)

 

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

The only thing you could do is to look at the Heatsink, if there are any issues with that, no dirt between CPU and Heatsink. And no stickers.

That's about it.

The heatsink is properly mounted, it's clean and has fresh termalpaste.

 

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

Oh and by the way: The 7GHz stuff is total bullshit.

Even on LN2 its quite impossible to do that....

 

So try a different software would be my first bet.

 

Tried HWMonitor from the CPUID Guys?

The temps are the same between HWinfo, AIDA64 and CoreTemp. And I know the 7GHz isn't correct. Maybe the CPU is bad?

[mymande]

7 minutes ago, dsv1999 said:

Maybe the CPU is bad?

probably but i would bet on the motherboard delivering to much power at the cpu

[Mitko_DSV]

34 minutes ago, mymande said:

probably but i would bet on the motherboard delivering to much power at the cpu

Hadn't though about that. CPU voltage varies between 1.1V and 1.3V. Will check the bios settings and maybe update the BIOS. Also this is the CPU I'm using: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K8/AMD-Athlon 64 X2 3800+ - ADO3800IAA5CU (ADO3800CUBOX).html

 

Edit: Just set the voltage manually to 1.25V (lowest setting) and I'll see how it goes.

 

Another Edit: Aaand that did literally nothing. Still the same problem. This is after less than 10min of playing GTA IV.

 

Is there any way to find out what is the problem - CPU or motherboard? I don't want to buy a new CPU just to have the same problem. And while these CPUs are pretty cheap, the motherboards aren't.

Edited August 18, 2018 by dsv1999

[airdeano]

see older amd platforms didn't have accurate temperature reporting.

have you used the command center to verify thermal objectivity?

your system voltages aren't too much out of whack to suggest hardware issues.

[mymande]

is possible that the temperature that your motherboard is sensing are not real, do you have any way to measure the actual temperature? like a laser thermometer?

28 minutes ago, airdeano said:

see older amd platforms didn't have accurate temperature reporting.

 

[Mitko_DSV]

6 hours ago, airdeano said:

see older amd platforms didn't have accurate temperature reporting.

have you used the command center to verify thermal objectivity?

What command center? I've also checked the CPU temp in BIOS and it's the same as in Windows.

 

6 hours ago, airdeano said:

your system voltages aren't too much out of whack to suggest hardware issues.

That's good to hear. I ordered an Athlon 64 x2 4600+ for $8. It's cheap and it's an upgrade, so I decided to give it a try.

 

6 hours ago, mymande said:

is possible that the temperature that your motherboard is sensing are not real, do you have any way to measure the actual temperature? like a laser thermometer?

I don't have such equipment. I've tried touching the heatsink though and it didn't feel hot at all.

[airdeano]

when the chipset drivers were installed (?) you should have the AMD Catalyst Control Center.

[mymande]

let us know how the new cpu is going

[Mitko_DSV]

21 hours ago, airdeano said:

when the chipset drivers were installed (?) you should have the AMD Catalyst Control Center.

There are no chipset drivers for this motherboard for Windwos 7, only for XP. Also it has a nVidia nForce 430 chipset. Actually I have only installed the GPU driver, everything else just works. And the XP drivers won't work in Windows 7 x64.

 

9 hours ago, mymande said:

let us know how the new cpu is going

The new CPU will probably arrive in 1-2 days, but I'll be able to test it in Saturday. Will let you know how it goes.

[Mitko_DSV]

On 19.08.2018 г. at 1:19 PM, mymande said:

 

 

On 19.08.2018 г. at 12:59 AM, airdeano said:

 

 

On 18.08.2018 г. at 3:17 PM, Stefan Payne said:

 

 

Well I got an AMD Athlon 64 x2 4600+ 2.4GHz. The PC runs better and also the temp problem seems to be fixed. Will see how it does in time. And also the wrong speed? Well now it's wrong on both cores. I don't actually care about that, it makes no difference. So the $8 CPU is good for now. Also I used the termalpaste that came with it, but I might change it with Arctic MX2. For now I have tested it by playing GTA V for like 10 min (doesn't run very well, so I didn't want to play longer). CPU temp didn't pass 59C and the highest Core temp was 66C. If I have time later, I will try playing GTA IV which runs great on this PC and I'll see how it goes.

Thanks for the help.