Help please!

[nychris86]

Hello, I have just finished building my new computer, and I could use some help with its heat management. Here are the specs for the hardware involved with the problem:

Antec 660B Performance Plus Case
Asus A7V333 Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 1700+

The system is performing beautifully except for one problem. Within 3-5 minutes of Windows 98 booting up, the mobo gives 3 short beeps, and then switches into soft-off mode. Pressing the power switch once will bring me back in, but within moments or minutes, the beeps come again, and the same is repeated over and over. The mobo manual says this means the CPU is overheating, and the system is turning down for protection. However, both the hardware monitor in BIOS, and the Asus PC Probe software in Windows report that the CPU is running at 50degrees C. As I understand it, that's a nominal heat. Also, while the CPU fan is running at a health 4400rpm, the power unit fan is running only at 1100rpm, which the hardware monitor reports in red text. I've no idea how to fix this. The 2 case fans seem to be running fine, but I cannot monitor their RPM.

I have tried switching the CPU's frequency from its standard 1466mhz to 1100mhz in the BIOS, but no change occured. I have watched the PC Probe software report temperature as I was waiting for the system to soft-off, and sure enough, no change in heat occured at all that would cause the system to turn off.

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you,
Chris

 

[Czar]

1. Make sure the heatsink is correctly placed
2. Check the bios if you can see what the settings are for the automatic shutdown
3. Get a program like Rain that turns the cpu into idle mode when nothing is happening in windows, (NT kernel has this built in but not win9x kernel)

all the ideas I have

 

[caldawghan77]

I agree with Czar...make sure that the hsf is correctly installed. Thats a common mistake. In the bios, you do have the option to raise the temp at which it shutsoff but becareful. If it is legitimately overheating, you can damage the cpu if you disable it. Also, touch the hsf after it shutsoff. See if it gets really hot to guage if its noticeably getting vlazing hot.

Calvin

 

[nychris86]

Hmm, as far as I can tell, the heatsink is installed correctly. The bend in the retention clip appears to be right over the die, and both ends of the clip are firmly hooked onto the center lugs. No part of the heat sink is touching the base. Right after shut down, the heat sink was warm, but certainly not hot, I'm not sure that's a good or bad thing.

I can't seem to find where the settings for automatic shut down in the BIOS are, but on the windows program PC Probe, the threshold is set to 86C. This shut down I'm experiencing only occurs in windows.

If both the BIOS hardware monitor and the windows hardware monitor are detecting a temperature of only 50c, what could be detecting a temperature high enough to shut down the computer? And does anyone know why the power unit fan is running slower than it should?

 

[nychris86]

One thing: even if the heatsink was improperly installed, wouldn't that mean the hardware monitor would be reporting a higher temperature than 50C?

 

[nychris86]

Slight bump. Is this stumping everyone online?