KT266A MB Owners try this

[pr0d2]

I did a search for HALT and didn?t find anything; sorry if this is a repost.

I did this HALT tweak in the link below, my A7V266-E that normally shows higher then normal temp (44c idle, 49c-50c full load)
Now after doing this tweak my CPU runs around 35c idle 41c MAX (and remember ASUS board tend to show temps higher then normal)
Anyways, worked for me, I love it.

Good luck

HALT TWEAK

 

[pr0d2]

oh 1500 XP 1333 @ 1450Mhz w/ Volcano 7 and Arctic Silver 2

 

[Bovinicus]

Do you run SETI or any other distributed computing program? In that article he said HALT commands don't help on SETI crunchers. I wanted to know if this was true. Thanks.

 

[ndee]

HALT is only used when the CPU isn't working, speak no CPU Time is used. So, how should the temp lower, if you use the CPU is 100% used by Seti?

 

[pr0d2]

no i don?t use seti or any other DCP
however I just played a 4 hour game of RTCW last night. During the game I switched a few times to see what the temp was. 41 and never went higher.. it used to go up to ~50 when playing it

 

[RalfHutter]

I thought the "HALT" command is built in tho the OS in NT (Win2000/XP)? Is this tweak something more/else/better?

 

[panhead49]

no......same basic thing

 

[pr0d2]

I use XP and 2000, this make a diffrence in both, try it for you're self.

 

[Huma]

i remember there was a similar tweak for kt133a chipsets.

anyone have a link?

 

[jaeger66]

Idle temps mean nothing unless your comp just sits all day doing nothing. HLT was disabled for a reason, and this "trick" does nothing for the load temps.

 

[jtallon]

<< i remember there was a similar tweak for kt133a chipsets.

anyone have a link? >>



You do the exact same thing, but the register you change is different. On my Iwill KK266 it's register 52, the 7th (leftmost) bit, changing from 0 to 1. It lowered the idle temp of my Athlon 1.4ghz from 49 degrees to 27.6 degrees - WELL worth it.

 

[jtallon]

<< Idle temps mean nothing unless your comp just sits all day doing nothing. HLT was disabled for a reason, and this "trick" does nothing for the load temps. >>



True, but most computers do sit idle quite a bit of the time, unless you run Seti or something like that. Even if you use it for word processing, e-mail, etc., it's actually idle quite a lot of the time, while you read a web page, etc.

This really would be worthless for a high-volume server that is always getting hit...

 

[jaeger66]

So what's the benefit of lower idle temps? Your CPU will die in 10 years instead of 8? I'm sorry, but enabling HLT is like having a flaky power supply, it can cause all kinds of problems that would be difficult to connect.

 

[DrZone]

<< no i don?t use seti or any other DCP
however I just played a 4 hour game of RTCW last night. During the game I switched a few times to see what the temp was. 41 and never went higher.. it used to go up to ~50 when playing it >>



There seems to be a difference of opinion here. It seems this tweak does have some effect on the CPU when it is being used.

I'm having the same issue with my XP 1600+ and ASUS A7V266-E. Runs at about 46 degrees idling and ~50 with load.

 

[pr0d2]

Anyone else try it? LMK what you're temps are before/after.



<< what's the benefit of lower idle temps? Your CPU will die in 10 years instead of 8? >>


herm, you basically just shot down everyone who uses some sort of silver paste/extra cooling, to get there cup?s to run that much cooler. Also not everyone here runs seti, and not everyone plays game?s 24/7 (But again my CPU temp's were lower while playing RTCW, as did the person who wrote that article)



<< but enabling HLT is like having a flaky power supply, it can cause all kinds of problems that would be difficult to connect. >>


Got something to back that up? I don?t see this causing any problems, and haven?t seen any complaints out there.

 

[madthumbs]

When playing games, the cpu is not always fully loaded because the video card could be holding it back. Most of the time, I'm not using 100% cpu. I think the article mentioned that under normal operations the cooling effect was as significant as 5C. The tweak is disabled in the Via 4 in 1's I believe, and that is why it needs enabling. It's a feature of Athlons that AMD built into them.

 

[jaeger66]

The tradeoff in stability isn't worth it. The only reason temps matter is how they affect the CPU at full load. If your CPU doesn't fail at full load, it's cool enough. So in that regard, enabling HLT doesn't gain much. I know it could extend the CPU's life, but how many people keep their CPUs 5 years or more? Yes, AMD built cooling into their CPU's, they also disabled it on the 760 chipset boards. So what does that tell you?

 

[jaeger66]

And BTW, HLT is disabled in the BIOS, not the 4-in-1s.

 

[pr0d2]

<< The tradeoff in stability isn't worth it. >>


Again, care to back the statement up?

 

[Uclagamer_99]

is this only a feature in Via mobos? i have a ecs k75sa

 

[pillage2001]

<<

<< The tradeoff in stability isn't worth it. >>


Again, care to back the statement up? >>



Please do back up that statement of instability.

 

[Jace]

For more information (and mis-information from Via's techie) check here:

HALT Command Detect (why disabled?)

 

[jaeger66]

Do a search on Viahardware for posts by Winc or George Breese relating to the issue. The basic problem is that fast CPUs can execute an instruction faster than they can reconnect the idle segments. If you're below 1.2GHz you're likely OK. I just don't see why you'd want to re-enable something that every mobo maker in the universe and AMD recommends you leave disabled when there is zero benefit. Unless you're planning to die before your CPU does, 100% load temps are ALL that matter.