Weird system temperatures

Ionakana · 07-05-2006, 02:55 AM

Hi everyone

I have just replaced my deceased motherboard with an Intel D101GGC. I also replaced the culprit for the board's demise, my cheap and nasty generic power supply, with a Thermaltake W0084. My CPU is a P4 630 (3.0Ghz).

Once both were installed, I measured the system temperatures and fan speeds as follows:

In BIOS: CPU Temp 47C
CPU Fan 980 RPM, front fan 1170 RPM, rear fan 980 RPM

Using Everest, at idle: Motherboard temp 42C, CPU temp 41C, Aux temp 47C
CPU fan 990 RPM, system fan 1170 RPM, chassis fan 990 RPM

Using Everest, peak CPU load: Motherboard temp 44C, CPU temp 42C, Aux temp 61C
CPU Fan 1320 RPM, system fan 1660 RPM, chassis fan 1400 RPM

Room temperature is about 20C.

I don't know what the "Aux" sensor is, and was unable to work it out from Intel's documentation, but it seems to be behaving more like I would expect the CPU to under load. Can anyone tell me what it is? Could it in fact be, as I strongly suspect, the CPU temperature? Obviously, if it is, it is getting unacceptably hot.

I tried cleaning off and replacing the Arctic Silver compound, and securely reseating the fan/heatsink assembly, but it made no difference.

Also, in a slightly foolhardy move, I turned the heater up to full power to simulate a hot summer day. Everest reported that the "Aux" temperature was now peaking at 68C, with a CPU fan speed of 2020 RPM. Intriguingly, however, according to Panopsys' ThrottleWatch, even at this temperature TM1 throttling was not activating. This is surprising given that Intel specifies a maximum operating temperature of 67.6C for the P4 630. Is the CPU really not reaching thermal throttling temperature, or is it possible that thermal throttling is inactive on my system? Or could there be some other problem?

Can anyone shed any light on what is going on here? Is my experience normal, or is there something wrong here? Is my system at risk?

Grateful for any assistance offered.

**UncleMacro** · 07-05-2006, 04:06 AM

From the looks of those numbers, the Aux temp must be your CPU. You can tell for sure by firing up Prime95 while monitoring the temps. The CPU temp will rise very quickly (especially since you have a Prescott). It's not that unusual for sensor monitoring programs to misidentify which temperature is associated with what device.

Regarding thermal throttling, there's a good article on the subject here where some Russians tested the throttling on both a Northwood and Prescott. In both cases, it didn't kick in until the mid 70's C. Your throttling should be enabled unless your BIOS allows it to be disabled and you changed it. It's always enabled by default.

By the way, 61C for a 3.0GHz Prescott while loaded ain't great but it's not terrible. Mid 50's to 60 are pretty common. All BIOSes should read the same temperature from the CPU temp diode but some have bugs so you can't always trust the reported temperatures. The BIOS actually does a calculation to get the temperature so they don't always report it correctly. If it's really 60C then it's not something to get crazed about. You could probably drop it quite a bit by putting a big-time heatsink on it. But 60C with a conventional heatsink isn't alarming (it's not great either

).

07-05-2006, 02:55 AM	#1 (permalink)
Ionakana Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 1 OS: WinXP	Weird system temperatures Hi everyone I have just replaced my deceased motherboard with an Intel D101GGC. I also replaced the culprit for the board's demise, my cheap and nasty generic power supply, with a Thermaltake W0084. My CPU is a P4 630 (3.0Ghz). Once both were installed, I measured the system temperatures and fan speeds as follows: In BIOS: CPU Temp 47C CPU Fan 980 RPM, front fan 1170 RPM, rear fan 980 RPM Using Everest, at idle: Motherboard temp 42C, CPU temp 41C, Aux temp 47C CPU fan 990 RPM, system fan 1170 RPM, chassis fan 990 RPM Using Everest, peak CPU load: Motherboard temp 44C, CPU temp 42C, Aux temp 61C CPU Fan 1320 RPM, system fan 1660 RPM, chassis fan 1400 RPM Room temperature is about 20C. I don't know what the "Aux" sensor is, and was unable to work it out from Intel's documentation, but it seems to be behaving more like I would expect the CPU to under load. Can anyone tell me what it is? Could it in fact be, as I strongly suspect, the CPU temperature? Obviously, if it is, it is getting unacceptably hot. I tried cleaning off and replacing the Arctic Silver compound, and securely reseating the fan/heatsink assembly, but it made no difference. Also, in a slightly foolhardy move, I turned the heater up to full power to simulate a hot summer day. Everest reported that the "Aux" temperature was now peaking at 68C, with a CPU fan speed of 2020 RPM. Intriguingly, however, according to Panopsys' ThrottleWatch, even at this temperature TM1 throttling was not activating. This is surprising given that Intel specifies a maximum operating temperature of 67.6C for the P4 630. Is the CPU really not reaching thermal throttling temperature, or is it possible that thermal throttling is inactive on my system? Or could there be some other problem? Can anyone shed any light on what is going on here? Is my experience normal, or is there something wrong here? Is my system at risk? Grateful for any assistance offered.

07-05-2006, 04:06 AM	#2 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	From the looks of those numbers, the Aux temp must be your CPU. You can tell for sure by firing up Prime95 while monitoring the temps. The CPU temp will rise very quickly (especially since you have a Prescott). It's not that unusual for sensor monitoring programs to misidentify which temperature is associated with what device. Regarding thermal throttling, there's a good article on the subject here where some Russians tested the throttling on both a Northwood and Prescott. In both cases, it didn't kick in until the mid 70's C. Your throttling should be enabled unless your BIOS allows it to be disabled and you changed it. It's always enabled by default. By the way, 61C for a 3.0GHz Prescott while loaded ain't great but it's not terrible. Mid 50's to 60 are pretty common. All BIOSes should read the same temperature from the CPU temp diode but some have bugs so you can't always trust the reported temperatures. The BIOS actually does a calculation to get the temperature so they don't always report it correctly. If it's really 60C then it's not something to get crazed about. You could probably drop it quite a bit by putting a big-time heatsink on it. But 60C with a conventional heatsink isn't alarming (it's not great either ).