Dundonald <mark.dundon@gmail.com> wrote
Teach me to not read all the new posts in a thread before replying |-(

But then I'm still doing that, so must be incorrigible |-)

That was likely the problem, too much of that old crud remaining.

You only need enough so that the pores in the metal on the top
of the cpu and the bottom of the heatsink are filled, and no more.

Likely that was it.

There is one obvious way to prove that.

Yes it is, heatsink for one of the motherboard chips.

Correct.

Can be the cpu or the bios.

If it isnt in the bios, its the cpu doing it by itself.

Rod Speed wrote:
<snip>

Thanks for your help Rod.

Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com> wrote
Tad radical, can end in tears before bedtime.

There's bugger all in it, they're all pretty much of a muchness.

They're all fine from an operation like that.

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 15:01:49 -0600, Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com>
wrote:

The best compounds are those with longer life at higher
density heat loads, those with synthetic base oil instead of
silicone. The most popular are those made by Arctic Silver,
but another brand would do similarly well. In other words,
a degree or two temp difference shouldn't be significant,
the CPU shouldn't be that close to overheating, but how long
the compound lasts could be important if the system wasn't
meant to be torn down and thrown away in a couple years.

Newegg tends to charge a lot for compound (unless they've
changed their prices recently), I suggest Arctic Silver
Alumina or Ceramique from http://www.svc.com , a tube is $4
delivered,
http://www.svc.com/chidethcobya.html

On 10 Dec 2006 09:45:36 -0800, "Dundonald"
<mark.dundon@gmail.com> wrote:

I can't tell for sure, but from the pictures it looks a
little bit like you left the original thermal interface
material on the CPU and maybe even the plastic liner...
referring to this picture,
http://www.moorcut.co.uk/cpu/10-12-06_1536.jpg

When using heatsink grease, the bottom of the heatsink
should be _completely_ clean of all of that. Some people
will even go a step further and lap the bottom of the
heatsink, but it's probably not going to help enough to
bother with on a CPU with a heatspreader integral.

You don't need that much thermal compound either, just put a
grain of rice sized blob in the middle of the CPU, smear it
around slightly if you want but it does not have to be
spread thickly to the edges of the heat spreader- excess
compound will, over time, spread out anyway due to the heat
and downward force on the heatsink while mounted. It tends
to take a few days and thermal cycles for the final temp to
stabilize, it'll run a few degrees warmer (low single-digit
difference) till then.



I'd have to see the heatsink in person to be sure, but it
was probably too much grease since as you wrote, the
heatsink looks symmetrical, no ledge on it.



Chipset heatsink, often called northbridge heatsink.




Since I can't see your bios menu, it's kinda hard to say
where it is, but it shouldn't have been shutting off as low
as it did, if you find that setting you might set it a bit
higher, around 70C, as the CPU may still get up around
55C-60C at full load if room temp changes, other parts are
also at higher load meaning more heat produced in the case,
or dust accumulates on the case, fans, or heatsink.

kony wrote:

<snip>

Aye you're definately right and it's a good point. Unfortunately I
simply can't find this option in the BIOS anywhere. But I'm sure it
(the max temperature setting) has got to be configured somewhere and
I'd like to find it. My setup is:

BIOS: American Megatrends AMI BIOS version 0908
Motherboard: ASUSTek Computer Inc. A8N-VM
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200 (2000 MHZ) Venice S939

Dundonald <mark.dundon@gmail.com> wrote:
Presumably its the cpu target temperature in the hardware monitor
and its rather poorly described or the shutdown temp is related to
that cpu target temp in some unspecified way like it shuts down if the
cpu temp is say 10 degrees over the target temp at max fan speed etc.

Rod Speed wrote:

The CPU target temperature in my BIOS is set to 35 degrees celcius.
May be the shutdown temperature is a % increase of that?

Dundonald wrote:

Dundonald <mark.dundon@gmail.com> wrote
Yeah, that's what I meant.

Its obviously possible to test that proposition, but
whether its worth the trouble now is a separate matter.

On 12 Dec 2006 15:32:13 -0800, "Dundonald"
<mark.dundon@gmail.com> wrote:

Check the board manual and set that temp such that it
doesn't shut down till about 70-80C... or if the system does
critical calculations, determine the temp threshold for
instability and have it shut down at that threshold... which
on a non-o'c system, should still be above 65C.

kony <spam@spam.com> wrote
He already said that the manual doesnt say how to
do that and it isnt obvious in the bios how to do that.

He's right on both counts.

He already said that the manual doesnt say how to
do that and it isnt obvious in the bios how to do that.

Rod Speed wrote:

Aye. Thanks for your help guys. The only way I can test shutdown temp
is by increasing the target temperature. There's no documentation that
I can find, or obvious menu options in the BIOS, that says either here
is the option to explicitly specify shutdown temperature, or, what the
% increase of the target temperature is. So for example, target
temperature I have set to 35 degrees celcius. If shutdown temperature
is 65 degrees celcius that's an 86 % increase on the target temperature.

Dundonald wrote:
Has no one yet asked you what motherboard you have?
Now would be the time.

Dundonald wrote:
Has no one yet asked you what motherboard you have?
Now would be the time.

Dundonald wrote:
Has no one yet asked you what motherboard you have?
Now would be the time.

paulmd@efn.org wrote
He already said that its a

One of the downsides of over zealous snipping.

Rod Speed wrote:
Thank you. I Knew it had to be in the thirty some posts somewhere.....

A couple points from the Hardware monitoring section of the manual:

The CPU target temperature controls the point at which the CPU fan is
increased to begin more aggressively cooling the chip. In the manual's
sample screen, it's set to 50 deg c. You might consider a using the 50
degree setting.

Also, Updating the BIOS may resolve this bug.

What's a bit confusing, too is this bios revision number: 0908. Asus
doesn't list it for a8n-vm nor for the other boards that start a8n-vm.

It lists 0902 as latest BETA bios. It leaves open the question of Did
you update this bios form some third party website and aren't telling
us? That could play all kinds of havoc.

If this is the case, get latest release bios (0702) for a8n-vm from
asus.

paulmd@efn.org wrote:

I retrieved the BIOS version number using the software Everest. I'll
check Everest again tonight when I return home to make sure I didn't
miss something.

Nope I haven't updated the BIOS.

Thanks for your help guys.

Does version 0702 have a specific menu option for shutdown temperature
or is it the same - as in just an option of target CPU temperature? Is
it right for me to update the BIOS with what would appear an earlier
version than that which I have installed already?

Dundonald wrote:

Everest is good, but it is imperfect.

Is
Only if the BIOS is buggy.


Also, there are OTHER reasons, besides BIOS bugs and/or An overheating
chip that your computer could be shutting down. Bad capacitors, and
bad/insufficient power supply are on that list.