kony wrote:
Did I just not look long enough to find data on this board,
or is it either a different MSI model, or an ECS KN1? A
link to a good picture of it might help us assess the
heatsink.
Sorry, it is indeed a ECS board, the video card is MSI.
What are you using to determine this temperature reading?
Is it possible the reading is incorrect? When you feel the
heatsink, is it very hot? I mean hot enough you cannot
leave your fingers on it for more than a second?
This computer is running Gentoo linux, using the lm_sensors to monitor the
fan speed and temperatures.
Basically, if the heatsink is making good contact with the
northbridge, and if it is 82C, it will feel very hot. If
the heatsink is not making good contact with the
northbridge, and that lack of good contact is the cause of
it's temperature, it will not feel so hot.
I will do this, thanks.
Take the heatsink off again and examine the contact area, to
see if there is the clear impression of the northbridge on
it as a gauge of whether it was making contact. Examine
the mounting clips and how it is situated when you remount
it. The point here is that the stock heatsink, mounted
properly, with a working fan, is sufficient to keep it cool
enough no matter what load the system is under unless there
is a very high ambient (room) temperature, or the case has
very poor intake/exhaust airflow.
Key is determining which factor is the cause, IF the
temperature reading is correct. You have not written of any
system instability resulting so it further puts into
question whether the temp reading is correct. Is this temp
also within the same range when the system is sitting idle
in the bios health/hardware-monitor page, (if that page
does display northbridge temp)?
What has changed since then? Have you done any work inside
the system, or moved it and potentially the mounting studs
popped out as a result, just prior to onset of the problem?
Had the (summertime where you are?) ambient room temps
increased significantly, had you installed new software? If
not, is it possible there is a bios setting for northbridge
voltage that was unintentionally increased?
I don't think the bios has been changed, but I will check to be sure.
If none of these, I would wonder if there might be a
virus/etc that is causing more of a system load than usual
to account for an temp increase, BUT even at full load the
virus, if present, would only be revealing the problem not
the cause since any system should be able to run at full
load indefinitely.
I am running Gentoo linux behind an Ipcop firewall, and I don't use p2p
software or other "risky" software. Probably not a virus. The system does
not exhibit any signs of being under a heavy, or even moderate load.
The increase in temp from the northbridge alone is not
enough to feel an increase in temp from the case exhaust.
While it isn't exactly a cool running chipset, even it's
peak power->heat generation is not much relative to the
total system power consumption. There must be other
components also generating more heat than usual in order for
the difference to be enough to perceive. Check your
(windows?) Task Manager for processor loading % and which
process(es) are the cause. This, as mentioned above, should
be rectified if it is not something you intended to have
running, but ultimately no matter what is running it should
not cause such a high temp increase IF the temp is
accurately reported.
The next time it spikes, I will open top to see what is running.
Is the rear case fan mounted on a grill made of small
stamped out case holes or slots? A mostly obstructed fan
will not move enough air for a typical system as you've
begun to describe, especially if there is also inadequate
front and/or side panel intake area.... and yet, as you
wrote it seems to have worked ok for 3 years but is it
possible this is the temp it had reached in past summers if
the ambient temp had gone up?
The computer is dusted out on a regular basis, once or twice a year.
The northbridge is not likely to be the first part to fail
with the system's other components also running at the
elevated temp they must be at for there to be a perceivable
temp difference from case exhaust. It will definitely
reduce system lifespan (if some other unrelated failure
doesn't cause a problem first, we would have to have a
crystal ball to predict this or how much shorter the
lifespan will be from temperature, though some say a 10C
rise in temp of certain components will cut their lifespan
in half, but this is usually other components like
capacitors and fans, while silicon will typically withstand
80C for longer than the viable life of the system unless the
excessive heat is more than the PCB solder junction can
withstand, but of course if a certain threshold is exceeded
it will cause instability and potential data corruption.
Since your case exhaust is feeling hotter, regardless of the
cause it is an indication that the system at peak load is
potentially not cooled well enough by the case cooling
subsystem, so whether it is the final resolution or not, one
thing that should be done is to improve the case cooling
through whatever measures are needed. Since we don't' know
what other components are in the system, what the ambient
temp is, or the exact state of the airflow in an unknown
system chassis, no specific recommendations can be made
there. Generally the idea is that the rear case fan and
rear PSU fan should both have no stamped-out metal covering
them, at most a tubular (usually chromed-type) fan guard on
them, and the front should have a fairly large intake area
totaling at least as much as a 80mm fan cutout (which could
be many small holes cumulatively, it need not be one giant
80mm hole) that is situated roughly such that the intake
airflow goes past the hard drive to cool it as well.
The case is an Ultra, I don't remember the model. It would appear to have
adequate cooling, a large 80mm grill in front of the cpu and many small
holes along the lower left cover.
I will assume the case doesn't have excessive dust buildup,
though if you haven't taken the front bezel off the case
ever, there could be a fair amount of dust trapped in there
even if you've cleaned out the rest of the case. I wouldn't
think it excessive enough to cause this by itself though in
an effort to leave no stone unturned I mention it anyway.
You might also try temporarily leaving the case side panel
off and pointing a desk fan at the system interior. If
doing so, note what difference in temp it makes. If that
difference is more than about 5-10C, it is a sign you need
to modify the case to improve airflow before putting further
consideration into the resultant temp of the northbridge. If
all else fails and you don't want to strip the whole system
down to cut out metal (stripped down so the metal fragments
don't end up loose inside, potentially shorting out
something), then consider cutting a hole in the side panel,
towards the lower front area roughly across from the hard
drive bay to help, instead of rob airflow from that area,
unless you have a very hot running video card too in which
case it might benefit even more from the addition of a side
panel fan blowing on it, or ideally even two fans blowing on
each area.
Since the system has been running hot, examine the
motherboard, and video card if present, for failing
capacitors. Generally they'll have a leaky residue or domed
tops, sometimes the bottom plug is out instead. Visually
they'll be obvious enough. If any are present, the life
of the component is gone unless you want to bear the repair
costs to fix, replace capacitors.
Thank you for the very detailed reply, you have given me several areas to
look into, which I am in the process of doing now.
Terry
