Question AMD FX 4300 voltage and heat

davexnet

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Jan 14, 2008
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My budget system overheats while encoding videos when left on default BIOS settings.
I've looked in HWmonitor, voltage seem to be 1.35 idle, 1.275 under load, but still, within 5 minutes
it's approaching 80 degrees

When I modify the BIOS to manual CPU voltage of 1.275 I get 1.265 at idle, 1.20 under load and the
temps max out at about 65 which is usable

I thought that with the BIOS defaults, APM would be active so this wouldn't happen. If it reaches 80 degrees
the PC just shuts down, no warning, no throttling I can see.

Is this a sign the motherboard is going bad (ASrock 960gc-gs)
 
My budget system overheats while encoding videos when left on default BIOS settings.
I've looked in HWmonitor, voltage seem to be 1.35 idle, 1.275 under load, but still, within 5 minutes
it's approaching 80 degrees

When I modify the BIOS to manual CPU voltage of 1.275 I get 1.265 at idle, 1.20 under load and the
temps max out at about 65 which is usable

I thought that with the BIOS defaults, APM would be active so this wouldn't happen. If it reaches 80 degrees
the PC just shuts down, no warning, no throttling I can see.

Is this a sign the motherboard is going bad (ASrock 960gc-gs)
Are settings full-stock? APM only works when the processor is drawing more power on average than it's TDP rating which happens when it's overclocked. If the power being drawn is OK, as with stock settings, but it's not able to cool off it will still overheat until it reaches thermal trip limit where it starts extreme throttling..

It's just as likely a sign your cooling is going bad. Check that all fans are functioning and dust-free. Especially with the CPU cooler, remove the fan and clean the fins of the heatsink because they often get clogged up with dust that you can't see. Also remove the cooler and reapply fresh thermal paste. Pastes can form cracks that block heat flow as they dry out, especially badly with older pastes. And if the cooler's ever moved even a little bit (as when you remove the fan to clean the fins) it will crack dried up old paste quite a bit.
 
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davexnet

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Jan 14, 2008
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Yes, I started from "load BIOS defaults".

I re-did the paste about 6 months ago. The heatsink and fan are relatively free
of dirt and dust. I guess it's possible the paste maybe cracked or otherwise
may benefit from another try at it, but when it runs hot the side of the heatsink
gets very hot itself; this tells me there is a proper heat transfer.
I've never seen any sign of throttling. I've had HWmonitor open as the temps reached the high 70's with CPU obviously under load and it remains
at 3800MHz right up until its about to crash
 

davexnet

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Jan 14, 2008
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For now I settled on manual voltage @ 1.275, "AMD Turbo Core" set to enabled, giving me 19x>20x clock range,
and the DDR3 RAM set to the highest settings stored in the SPD table -
667MHz (it defaulted to 533MHz) - does this make any difference? The clock speed is higher but the actual memory timings are slower (CAS latency, etc.)

System seems responsive and no sign of heat problems.
I still don't understand why the BIOS and defaults, with APM active,
is unusable as mentioned in my top post - unless it really is a sign of the
motherboard going bad. (Circuit board is clean; no sign of any leaking capacitors)
 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
For now I settled on manual voltage @ 1.275, "AMD Turbo Core" set to enabled, giving me 19x>20x clock range,
and the DDR3 RAM set to the highest settings stored in the SPD table -
667MHz (it defaulted to 533MHz) - does this make any difference? The clock speed is higher but the actual memory timings are slower (CAS latency, etc.)

System seems responsive and no sign of heat problems.
I still don't understand why the BIOS and defaults, with APM active,
is unusable as mentioned in my top post - unless it really is a sign of the
motherboard going bad. (Circuit board is clean; no sign of any leaking capacitors)
I would recommend using AMD system monitor for Temps. With the AMD tool, the headroom is shown, and it decreases as the CPU heats.