Brisbane X2 3600 w/Ninja 60 deg C in BIOS

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:32 am

I'm in the process of rebuilding my dad's PC. I'm using the 60nm Athlon 64 X2 3600 (Brisbane) CPU with a Scythe Ninja.

In the BIOS, the CPU is idling at 60 or 61 deg Celsius, which seems way too hot.

The CPU isn't overclocked---all settings are stock.

I've re-seated the Ninja, thinking maybe it was bad the first time; didn't help.

The other thing that seems strange to me is that the Ninja is completely cool to the touch. I've used the Ninja several times, and although it's never got hot to the touch, it's noticeably warm when the CPU gets over 50 deg C or so (especially if you stick a finger down the center hole).

So my hunch is that the CPU isn't making good connection with the heatsink. I forget to bring my Arctic Silver 5, and used the heat sink grease that came with the Ninja. Maybe I used too much or too little? It's hard to describe how much I used. I would say, probably too much the first time, but when I reseated the heat sink, I wiped a bunch off, enough to where there was just a "translucent" layer on both the CPU and heatsink base.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks,
Matt

Moogles · Post by **Moogles** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 11:58 am

Any chance of a capacitor under one of the Ninja's heatpipes preventing proper contact with the CPU?

Saribro · Post by **Saribro** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 1:15 pm

Does the BIOS register similar temps with a different (better fitting perhaps?) heatsink?
If so, the temperature offset in your BIOS may just be too high, which cause faulty numbers to be displayed.
If not, the Ninja might be obstructed somewhere.

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:19 am

What MB? Update your BIOS.

Spackle · Post by **Spackle** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 5:04 am

There is a known issue with the NF-M2 not properly reporting Brisbane temps.

Dear Customer,

Our BIOS development is already working this issue.

The problem is caused by the coding changes in the new Brisbane core processors. Thus, the BIOS may or may not read the CPU temperature correctly.

The next BIOS update is in the beta stage at this time. We will post the BIOS update on our website when it is ready for release.

Please check our website periodically for any of the updates.
http://www.abit-usa.com
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/index.php

Best Regards,
Abit Technical Support Team

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:13 pm

Moogles wrote:Any chance of a capacitor under one of the Ninja's heatpipes preventing proper contact with the CPU?

I didn't think of that, but I checked and it's not the problem.

The motherboard is the Biostar TForce 6100 AM2. There is plenty of room for the Ninja: nothing even comes close to interfering with the mounting.

Saribro wrote:Does the BIOS register similar temps with a different (better fitting perhaps?) heatsink?

Unfortunately, I don't have another AM2 heat sink that I could use to test that out. However, there are no obstructions or anything; I really can't imagine a better fit for the Ninja!

Saribro wrote:If so, the temperature offset in your BIOS may just be too high, which cause faulty numbers to be displayed.

That's kind of what I'm hoping. I reseated the Ninja two more times. I also went out and bought some Arctic Silver 5 and reseated the Ninja a third time. Temperatures went down a couple degrees with the AS5, but are still approaching 60.

Does anyone know, is the temperature probe that the BIOS uses on the motherboard or the CPU itself?

Spackle wrote:There is a known issue with the NF-M2 not properly reporting Brisbane temps.

I'll go investigate to see if the Biostar TForce 6100 has the same issue.

If the problem is with the BIOS's interpretation of the temperature, shouldn't a program like CPU-Z report the correct temperature? I think my dad is going to go ahead and try installing Windows just to see what happens.

Thanks!
Matt

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:02 pm

you removed the blue plastic off the bottom of the ninja right? sorry had to ask just in case

dp · Post by dp » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:51 am

Hi,

Thought I mention after being directed to this post that I'm having a similar problem with high Brisbane temperatures:

viewtopic.php?t=39967

I'm using a Thermalright SI-128 passively with two case fans blowing across the heatsink and my idle temperature in windows is 50C. Other people with a similar heatsink, fan and MB configuration appear to have lower temperatures.

So like you I guess I too am hoping that the MB is simply misreporting the temperature! I'd be interested to hear if this happens to be the problem with your setup.

Cheers,
David

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:44 am

nzimmers wrote:you removed the blue plastic off the bottom of the ninja right? sorry had to ask just in case

Yup

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:51 am

I haven't been able to find any direct stating that this board has a problem interpreting Brisbane temps, but I have seen a handful of posts on other forums that seem to suggest such a problem.

So we're going to go ahead with the OS install, then do a BIOS upgrade and see if the temp reporting improves. (Although, doing a BIOS upgrade from Windows sounds scary... he could do it from the BIOS directly, but that requires a floppy drive that we don't have!)

Matt

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:54 am

matt_garman wrote:I haven't been able to find any direct stating that this board has a problem interpreting Brisbane temps, but I have seen a handful of posts on other forums that seem to suggest such a problem.

So we're going to go ahead with the OS install, then do a BIOS upgrade and see if the temp reporting improves. (Although, doing a BIOS upgrade from Windows sounds scary... he could do it from the BIOS directly, but that requires a floppy drive that we don't have!)

Matt

You can get a used yardsale floppy for $1....hook it up unmounted-case open for a temporary function.

Try laying the case on its side so that gravity tends to help the HS mate. Are you sure you did not over grease the heatsink-CPU surfaces? too much does reduce transfer.

If you see lower temps when the case is on it's side-then the mounts ain't snug. No difference? It's something else. That chip-stock-should be idling in the 30's,with a Ninja and a reasonably vented case.

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:04 am

Update: I was at my parents' this weekend, and upgraded the Tforce6100-AM2 to the latest BIOS.

Now I believe temperatures are being reported too low: 29 deg C idle and 34 or so fully loaded (Orthos Blend). It's possible those are correct. I'm not concerned about the CPU getting too hot anyway.

Also, I undervolted the Brisbane. Before undervolting (stock voltage, stock speed), the whole machine pulled about 90 Watts (AC, measured via Kill-a-Watt) idle, and 130 with the CPU fully loaded. I undervolted to 1.1 V, and idle power draw is about the same, but fully loaded is 100 Watts! Again, that's only loading the CPU, since my dad never pushes the graphics much.

It just shows that undervolting is awesome. I ran Orthos Blend for almost 24 hours without any problems (we did see some flakiness if we went below 1.1 V). But 30 Watts off the top end is great for a quick and easy mod that should only increase the life of the CPU.

His specs are: 2x1 GB RAM, 2 Seagate hard drives (250 GB SATA, 200 GB PATA), AMD X2 3600 (Brisbane), Biostar Tforce6100, Fortron 350 W power supply. Four total fans (PSU, hard drive fan, fan on Ninja, rear case fan). Antec 3000-B case.

TK421 · Post by **TK421** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:44 am

i bet those temps are correct. 30-35 C I believe I have seen in other forums.