Motherboard VRM temps are way too high in game

chttyby

Honorable
May 22, 2013
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10,510
Hello. There is a thing called AUX in temp sensors and it reaches up to 100°C while in game. HW monitor, HW info and speedfan are all showing the same high temperatures. I read everywhere that the aux temp is glitched and it shows invalid values, but for my system it really doesn't look like that. Because on those buggy aux temp threads, people were getting 120°C even on idle, but my temps are actually normal on idle and only bumps up to dangerous levels after some time in game. It's not high all the time like a bugged value. It starts increasing the temperature like a regular computer part on load. It's about 40-50°C when idle, then after just 20 minutes of gaming it slowly increases to 90-100°C. But I don't see any instability on my system, nor any crashes, or smell anything burnt in case. All other temps are fine btw with no overclock, CPU is 50°C, GPU is 70°C on max load. Am I being overcautious about this?

Edit: I edited the title since I'm sure the VRMs are overheating on my motherboard, please see my post downwards and help me before I fry my mobo 🙁
 
Yeam the VRM can get pretty hot on MSI motherboards. Not sure whether it is bad VRM design or if they are designed to operate at such hot temperatures. My MSI motherboard, albeit an AMD one hits 80-90 C degrees under load as well. Is your processor overclocked?
 


No, everything is on stock speeds. I actually never seen 100C, maybe 90 tops. But today when I closed the game, hwmonitor showed like 101-102C and I was pretty shocked that it survived actually.
 


Okay this is getting ridiculous. Today I hit 110+ °C on just 1 hour of playing The Witcher 3. What the hell is that? Seriously, fuck MSI. I touch the other side of the case and I actually can feel the heat of VRMs like you said, that value is not bugged at all, it's really hot. All my temps are fine, nothing is overclocked but vrms are burning like hell.

I don't really want to buy a new mobo, since my cpu is pretty old and I will probably replace it in 1 or 2 years tops, so don't want to get a new mobo with old chipset, then throw away after 1 year of usage.

Is there anything I can do to lower those temps, maybe mounting a heatsink on them?
 
They should already have a heat sink on them. You can try removing the heat sink, clean the modules, then reapply thermal grease. You can also place a small fan close to the heat sink or even mount it on the heat sink. Do you have an aftermarket cooler?
 


Yeah I realized after posting this that it already has heatsinks. Good for them, thanks MSI for putting heatsinks and making them run at 100C I guess, can't imagine the otherwise :)

Anyway I'm using CM Hyper 212 Evo so it's considerably big, I hope I can remove heatsinks without removing the cpu cooler, will try this and post the results. Thanks for your effort.
 


Hi again. Unfortunately there is no way I can remove that heatsink. I can't reach there with my giant cpu cooler mounted and even if I did, I don't think I have that kind of screwdriver to take it off. I'm not even sure those are screws to be honest, it's pretty different.

Also, I contacted the MSI Support and they said, they've checked the bios code & circuit and they couldn't find the code "aux", so it might be a virtual temp and told me to check temps under bios. Only CPU and System temps are written under bios and they are perfectly normal.

I was just wondering, if CM Hyper's giant radiator would be blocking the airflow inside the case, so the VRM area is getting hotter than intended? Because I've been using this system for almost 4 years and if the temps were always like this, I'm sure I would have noticed. Maybe it's the cooler that causes it. Since the airflow is from front to back, I put the cooler's fan to the front side and hot air is blowing directly onto the VRM. But even if it's the case, I would be pretty surprised since this cooler is like the world's number 1 most used cooler on the market and literally ever motherboard have VRMs at the same spot. Also my case is HAF 912 which I'm sure is perfectly compatible with that cooler. Just a thought since I'm out of ideas what's causing this.
 
In order to remove the VRMs heat sink, you will have to disassemble your motherboard from the casing, the screws for mounting the heat sink is on the other(downward) side of the motherboard.

Support could be lying, I am pretty sure AUX is the VRM temp, at least on my motherboard, I also inquired about that before on the MSI support forums, and I was told it is if I remember correctly, that also conforms with how hot that heat sink in my motherboard gets.

You said your VRM reaches 100-110 c degrees under load, the air flowing through your Hyper 212 EVO should be cooler then than, in fact it should have a cooling effect flowing across the VRM if your VRMs were really that hot.

If you do not want to unmount your motherboard, then a small fan attached to the heat sink could do the trick.
 


Well, I'm not sure how I would fit a fan here: http://imgur.com/AQXf0Mi

Anyway, I tried touching the heatsink right after I close the game. The aux temp was 100C. My finger didn't burn but I could not hold it there for more than 3 seconds. So apparently it's getting pretty hot, but I don't know that if the heatsink is actually hotter than VRMs or cooler. And the strange thing is the airflow is quite good and chill between the cpu cooler radiator and exhaust fan like you said. I guess it doesn't matter.

My case has CPU retaining hole at the other side and it's pretty wide, maybe I can unmount the heatsink screws there. Guess it's the only option. Hope I won't mess things up.
 
ah, I almost forgot how big the Hyper 212 evo is...If you are not having any performance problems you should leave things as they are for now since you are upgrading in 1 or 2 years anyway. I remember my older MSI motherboard had a sensor reading of 100+ degrees, probably was the VRMs as well, and they didn't have a heat sink mounted above them and the motherboard survived for 9 years.