Help - My underclocked athlon is running hot

[Dougthebug]

Bout a week ago I got my new SK6 w/ a delta black label fan. Installed it on my 1.2ghz athlon and due to some hasty post installation mistakes, my ol' athlon is now a keychain.

Day before yesterday I got my replacement, a 1.4ghz athlon. I used a little artic silver II with my SK6 and did what I thought was a good installation. Then booted up to the bios screen, set my new t-bird to 1375mhz (125mhz x 11.5). I couldn't even get my computer to post at that speed.

Next I tried underclocking it at 1.2ghz (100mhz x 12). This time I could get into the bios and check the temp. From my experience the bios program keeps your cpu at a pretty substancal load. After waiting a few minutes the cpu temp rose to about 136f. Pretty crappy in my opinion but still usable. I checked it from within windows and at idle it runs between 85 and 90f, at full load it goes as high as 150f. Needless to say I try and keep it idle as much as posible.

At the moment I have a 120mm ys tech fan (125cfm) mounted in the side of my case and afew other smaller intake fans. The temp inside my case is generaly the same as the room temp, so I doubt that thats the problem. The only other think I can think of is to lap the heatsink.

Can any of you think of what I might be doing wrong? Also what fsb/multiplyer value would you recommend for a slight overclock? I eventualy want to get this thing running a little under 1.5ghz, but I'm not sure if thats gonna happen now. Please help me. :confused:

[dimmreaper]

I wonder if the large 120mm fan in the side of your case could be causing a "jet wash" that is proventing your HSF from drawing air.

Have you tried it with the 120mm fan unplugged?

How much heatsink compound did you use?

[Dougthebug]

The 120mm fan is positioned over the agp/pci slots so I doubt its haveing much of an affect on the cpu fan intake. I might also add that I just added that fan yesterday, and while it has taken the system temp down a few degrees, the cpu temp remains the same.

As far as heatsink compund goes, I have reasonably thin layer on the core. theres a little exess around the edges of the die but nothing that should affect the contact surface.

[Naeleros]

Is your heatsink warm to the touch? Does disconnecting the fan to the heatsink cause your temps to rise?

If both these questions are answered with 'no'.. then its likely the result of poor contact between the HS and the CPU. Try lapping and reseating.. double check to make sure you have a proper layer of AS2 (read online guides if necessary).

James

[Dougthebug]

Well I took your advice and tried lapping my heatsink. I read some online guides first, and after two hours of work had what I thought would be an acceptable result. I could see a reflection of my tv on the base when I was finished.

This time when I applyed the as2, I tried to get the thinist layer posible. I used a small knife blade and a very miniscule amount of as2. After reseating the hsf and booting up I checked the bios temp screen. 150f and rising, after a cold boot!:eek: Needless to say I shut the damn thing off right away.

First thing I did was reapply the as2, applying a much thinker layer this time around. I checked the bios after booting up and it was at 120f but rose to 140f after a few minutes.

This sucks:rolleyes:

Anyone have any idea what could be wrong here? Could I have a defective heatsink?
:confused: :confused:

[Dougthebug]

Finaly!! after hours of heatsink lapping, seating and reseating the damn thing, and endlessly weaping over my poor computers heat problems, I fixed it.

Turns out a tiny corner of the heat sink was caught on the side of the socket. Thus the heatsink wouldn't even touch the core unless there was a thick layer of as2. However in order to finaly install this damn thing I had to take the motherboard out of my case and attach the clip from the other side ( design flaw in my opinon).

Now after all that work im running at 1463mhz and I haven't seen the temp rise above 114f (45c) at full load.

Thanks for your help.:D :D