Northbridge cooling? (Averatec 3150P laptop)

[garyfritz]

My wife is on the road this week, and her Averatec 3150P laptop suddenly issued a warning message: "North Bridge FAN error. Please check it." And the normally obnoxiously-loud fan in the thing is suddenly eerily quiet. Uh-oh.

Since she's not here, I can't check it directly. She's teaching a class so she can't start ripping it apart. I looked to see if there were any utilities (e.g. Motherboard Monitor 5, etc) that monitor the Northbridge temperature, but I'm not finding any. I found a mention of a "SpeedFan" utility in another post, but I can't tell if it works with the Averatec because I don't know what the mobo is.

According to http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20030618/averatec-
03.html the 3150P uses a KN266 (VIA VT8372) Northbridge. I can't find specs for it on http://www.via.com.tw, but according to http://www.silentpcreview.com/article33-page2.html the Via KT133 is rated for 110 C (!!). I don't know how the laptop version compares.

I know that many Northbridge chips don't NEED a fan. I believe some units don't put a fan on it at all. The Northbridge fan on my Asus A7V266E mobo hasn't worked for ages and I haven't had any problems. (Yet, anyway...)

So: Is my wife's Northbridge in danger if she runs without the fan? Is there some utility she can use (without inserting any add-on temp probes, etc) to see how hot it's running?

Thanks!
Gary

 

[garyfritz]

Anybody? Does anyone at least know how to measure the temp of the Northbridge on this thing?

 

[mozzartusm]

If you can get a digital thermometer to just barely touch it, that will give you a temp withing 3 to 4 degrees of what its running.

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[garyfritz]

Thanks, that's better than nothing, though I'll probably have to wait until she gets home this weekend.

So how hot is "too hot" ? If that other VIA Northbridge is rated to 110C, can I assume anything under 100C is probably acceptable (if not optimal)?

EDIT: I can't find a spec sheet for her Northbridge, but a "similar" (??) Southbridge, the VT8237R, shows a max operating case temp of 85C. (See http://www.via.com.tw/en/resources/download-center/chipsets/#datasheets)
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by garyfritz on 06/23/05 02:19 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[garyfritz]

BTW she called Averatec support and they had her run a "fan learning utility" (whateverthehell THAT is) but she says it didn't solve the problem. She said while the utility was running the fan ran and was quiet (!?), but when she rebooted the fan was off, she got the warning message again, and the utlity was turned off. So she's thinking this may not be a problem with the fan itself, but with something in the fan control mechanism.

 

[issacd]

I know this is an old thread, but a resolution would be good for others with a similar issue. The chipset fan (not the processor fan,) in this model has it's own tiny circuit board built-in so errors other than on-off/power ARE possible. The fan itself is stuck quite well to the VIA chip on the logic board. To get it replaced separately is not the easiest. The part seems fairly specific to this computer, so only trial and error will show if there is another compatible part or part number. Also, this fan is on the bottom of the logic board, so a COMPLETE dismantling of the computer is in order.

PS. You WILL want a fan, the computer will get extremely hot and not only shorten the life of components but also become less stable.