trunks2k

I'm running an AMD Athelon 1.2 GHz chip on my computer. Lately My computer has frozen up on me a couple times, and the other day I smelled something burning. My computer decided to crap out on me. I get it up and running again (after a few restarts) and assume it's a Temperature problem with the chip. I check the temp and it says my chip is running at 89 degrees Celcius. WHOA! How in the world it is running that high was beyond me. So I go out and buy a system fan, which brings it down to 87 degrees.... still very very high. So I bought some thermal grease to put between the processor and the heat sink. Seems to help, now I'm getting 80 degrees, still very high, but tolerable compared to what it was running at (who knows how long it was running at 89 degrees). Anyways turns out my fan on my power supply is crapping out on me, it doesn't always start when I start my computer (I have to give it a blat of air to get it going). So that is why it all crapped out on me the other day and that's where the burning smell was coming from. I plan on buying another power supply soon.

But anyways after letting my computer idle for a little while, I checked the temp again. This is where I believe I'm getting a bad reading. I checked it and it was saying the CPU was running at NINTEY-NINE degrees celcius!!! While I let it idle in the BIOS it went down to 97 degrees. That's not possible is it??? An AMD athelon is supposed to die completely at 94 degrees. I don't smell anything burning and my computer seems to be running fine. And I'm not doing anything major, that would cause my CPU to overheat. It's not over-clocked or anything. But it's giving me a really high reading. It's pretty much telling me I can boil water on my CPU!

AquaVita

The reading may be slightly innacurate, though I seem to recall hearing of temps that high, in a high stress environment, left on for quite a long time.

What does the general temp in the box "feel" like? Just to give you a reference point.

trunks2k

The box feels a bit warm, but that's mainly around the Power supply. The air coming out of the system fan (which is somewhat close to the CPU), doesn't feel very warm. Well, at leadt it's not extremely hot. Most of the heat seems to be coming from the power supply. As I said, the fan is starting to crap out so it may be getting hotter than normal. Which might be causing a higher than normal temperature reading. I installed a temp monitoring program (which I assume get's it's readings from the same place as the bios) and it's now saying I'm running at 80 degrees.

This machine is not a high stress machine. It's not doing very much. So I can't understand why it is getting so hot. I should buy another exhaust fan and see what happens, it can't hurt.

I do leave my system on for long periods of time (it's constantly on). But I had it off for a few hours while I went out and bought the grease, and fiddled around with the fan and stuff. So it started off fresh and was only running for an hour when it gave me that reading.

Kinross

There are a couple of different cores for the Athlon all with different thermal characteristics. 90 C is MAX thermal on the most recent chips.

I'd say your CPU is hosed, you don't know how badly it has been damaged. Also if the fan dies the CPU can catch fire. I would replace the CPU and fan. Also before putting in the new part vacume out your case.

AquaVita

Adams advice is good...but don't forget to rule out your mother-board. It could just be bad, and then fry the next CPU and fan you get.

trunks2k

But it's not hosed. My computer is running just fine. I'm having absolutely no problems anymore, minus it saying it is running hot. A real 99 degree temp would have completely fried the chip. And AMD chips tend to just stop working once a certain temperature is reached, and won't turn back on once the chip cools down.

I keep periodically checking the temp and it's staying at 79 degrees now.

beoba

Probably the thermal sensor(s) of the motherboard got shot at the time that you smelled burning.

There may be two sensors on the board, one for the CPU itself (it resides just inderneath the cpu) and one for the case (located somewhere else on the motherboard). If you have two and they're both reading high, there might still be something going on, dunno.

For future reference: On any newer computer, ALWAYS have thermal grease. I have a 2.1 Ghz that would burn out quickly without it.

mongrel

Since my new(4-5 months old) PC is an AMD 1800, and the fan has at times sounded a little strange, how do I find the temp?

trunks2k

My system temperature is around 68 degrees. Which seems a bit high for how it feels when I have it opened up.

I've had the computer for about a year and a half and I remember checking the temp a year ago and the system temp was at 60 something. Which at the time I thought was normal, but I'm not so sure anymore. I didn't put the computer together myself, so I assumed thermal grease was used. Now I know to check. It's been running it's normal self since the other day when I started giving the fan on the power supply a boost. When I started up.

Bumble Bee Tuna

I had temperature problems and someone at these boards recommended this program:

[utl=http://mbm.livewiredev.com/]Motherboard Monitor[/url]

It lets you easily check the temperature sensors. I don't know if this is helpful to you since you seem to be already able to do so. Perhaps this would be easier than your current method, though. My two sensors on my AMD XP1900 1.6GHz tend to run around 43/29 degrees. I got overheating problems at a mere 60 degrees on the main sensor, and experienced certain computer death if it got close to 65 degrees. I believe that the 90 degree limit set by AMD is more along the mines of the line where the chip may melt or become permanently damaged, but 60-70 is more realistic for just "give you problems". Though apparently your computer started burning so maybe it was up that high? I think that it could be that that incident destroyed your sensor.

Turns out my fan was installed backwards in that the bump on the fan didn't align with the crevasse by the chip (or is it vice versa?) Guess next time I shouldn't trust my friend's computer-building skills, eh?

Anyway I hope you can fix your problems, and that this program is of some use. Hey, maybe your fan is installed backwards!

-B