[tundra]

Hi Everyone,

I'm having problems with my cpu running slow.... most likely this is related to the temps.

My system specs:
P4 2.8c, core clock speed and voltage
2 x 512mb Corsair XMS running 2-2-3-5, 8 burst
MSI 865PE Neo2 mobo
OEM Intel heatsink and fan

These are the temps monitored from MBM 5:
59C at idle
61C at load (via Prime 95)
41C case temp

The first thing I did was take off my heatsink, scrape off the backing and applied a nice thin coat of heat sink compound with a credit card. Still got the same temps....

Then I ran the benchmark in Prime 95, here are my scores:

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
CPU speed: 2826.30 MHz
CPU features: RDTSC, CMOV, PREFETCH, MMX, SSE, SSE2
L1 cache size: 8 KB
L2 cache size: 512 KB
L1 cache line size: 64 bytes
L2 cache line size: 128 bytes
TLBS: 64
Prime95 version 23.8, RdtscTiming=1
Best time for 384K FFT length: 16.226 ms.
Best time for 448K FFT length: 19.353 ms.
Best time for 512K FFT length: 21.949 ms.
Best time for 640K FFT length: 26.037 ms.
Best time for 768K FFT length: 31.936 ms.
Best time for 896K FFT length: 37.938 ms.
Best time for 1024K FFT length: 42.016 ms.
Best time for 1280K FFT length: 55.089 ms.
Best time for 1536K FFT length: 68.257 ms.
Best time for 1792K FFT length: 81.328 ms.
Best time for 2048K FFT length: 91.092 ms.

After looking at http://www.mersenne.org/bench.htm I noticed my system is running equivalent to a P4 2.2GHz.... 3DMark03 score was ~2600.

At this point, I'm thinking I got a bad cpu? I have no idea what to do next.... Can anyone help me out?

-Matt

[batboy]

If 41 is your system temp, then you need much better case ventilation.

[drapal]

Hi,
low performance may be due to running some virus. Try
http://www.pandasoftware.com/actives..._principal.htm
.

[tundra]

Originally Posted by batboy

If 41 is your system temp, then you need much better case ventilation.

Yea I noticed that seems high too. The strange thing is that the case honestly doesn't feel very hot inside at all. The item giving off the most obvious heat is my video card (ATi Radeon 9800 Pro). That thing gets pretty hot at times. I have a Lian Li case with 4 fans, 2 front, 1 rear, 1 top. ( http://www.3dcool.com/?module=product&sku=LL65BCASE )

Maybe I need to upgrade my case fans to something more powerful, or look around for a way to cool off my video card? I've never had temp problems before so this is really frustrating.... I'm not sure there's much more I can do to cool my case down (at least nothing other than extreme methods).

Help!

[aNTiChRisT]

Get an arctic silencer on the VGA -- it vents the hot air out the back.

~t0m

[batboy]

That should be enough fans, assuming the top and rear are exhaust and the 2 front are intake fans. Make sure the IDE and power cables are tucked up out of the way and not blocking air flow. Are these good fans that flow decent CFM or are they generic fans that come with the case? Try leaving the side cover off and point an AC house fan into the case. If temps drop significantly, then you know it's a case ventilation problem. The CPU temp seems high too. Maybe remove the heatsink, clean it up and reinstall with Arctic Silver thermal paste.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

your cpu won't run slow because of temps untill it get up higher than that i think. maybe around 85 is where it will start to throttle down because of heat.

but that 3dmark score is awfully low. i would think even at stock you should get 5500ish. is this a new build? did you do a fresh install of the os?

[tundra]

Originally Posted by batboy

That should be enough fans, assuming the top and rear are exhaust and the 2 front are intake fans. Make sure the IDE and power cables are tucked up out of the way and not blocking air flow. Are these good fans that flow decent CFM or are they generic fans that come with the case? Try leaving the side cover off and point an AC house fan into the case. If temps drop significantly, then you know it's a case ventilation problem. The CPU temp seems high too. Maybe remove the heatsink, clean it up and reinstall with Arctic Silver thermal paste.

Yep, the 2 fronts are intake, rear and tops are exhaust. They're just the generic fans that came with the case though, so that could be a problem. In an attempt to fix the cooling problem, I just ordered an XP-90 heatsink and Tornado 92mm fan, 3 tornade 80mm fans, a fan controller, and some AS-5. I'm also going to try taking off the side and shooting a fan at the board. I'll definitely let you know what happens. Thanks for all of the help dude, I really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by hUMANbEATbOX

your cpu won't run slow because of temps untill it get up higher than that i think. maybe around 85 is where it will start to throttle down because of heat.

but that 3dmark score is awfully low. i would think even at stock you should get 5500ish. is this a new build? did you do a fresh install of the os?

Thanks for pointing that out, I was really wondering when my cpu would start to struggle from high temp. So keeping that fact in mind, temps aside I think either my mainboard is messed, or it could be my cpu. This is a relatively new build, but I just upgraded mobo memory and cpu. I reformatted my hd's and did a fresh install about 3 months ago. I didn't really dig into the benchmarking until now, so I'm not sure if this issue has been happening all along or is a recent thing.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

replacing a motherboard and using your old os install is probably your problem right there. i know it sucks, but it would be good if you could back up what you need to, and format/reinstall.

there are lots of mobo specific drivers that are probably still on your drive that are causing problems.

do you have a spare HD you can throw in with a fresh copy of xp just to see?

[tundra]

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear in my last post. The hd did have a fresh reload 3 months ago, at the same time I installed my new cpu, mobo, and memory.

This is actually a good time to reformat again though since I have 2 Seagate S-ATA hd's waiting to go in Raid 0. I was just trying to figure out my cpu woes before I installed those. Currently, I have a couple of mis-matched Seagate and Maxtor hd's on the IDE channels.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

can you run any other benches to see if its maybe something else?

what kind of 3dM01 score do you get?

try sandra arithmatic, or multimedia.

[stang8118]

If your in the mood to do some metel cutting, try cutting out the metal grills on your case that is behind the fans. They decrease ventilation big time.

[batboy]

Originally Posted by stang8118

If your in the mood to do some metel cutting, try cutting out the metal grills on your case that is behind the fans. They decrease ventilation big time.

This is so true.

If I remember right, the Northwoods start thermal throttling at about 70 degrees or so.

[Lancelot]

Man, I'm running 52C full load with 260FSB and 1.65Vcore. I've got one 120mm intake low in the front and one 80mm outtake besides the PSU fan, both at 7Volts. Somethings gotta give...

[tundra]

I just read the same thing on Intel's website. Thermal Throttling starts ~70C. I must be hitting that mark and my cpu is getting underclocked so it doesn't fry. I downloaded Speedfan for comparative purposes and it tells me my processor idle temp is at 69C....

How that idle temp is possible I have no idea. I've re-seated and pasted the cpu/heatsink twice now

The breakdown:
MBM 5 readings:
cpu idle temp at 59C
cpu load temp at 61C

Speedfan readings:
cpu idle temp at 69C
cpu load temp at 69C

LOL, like I needed to add more pain into the equation

[batboy]

You are definitely throttling. Something is seriously wrong. It must be the CPU heatsink. Remove the cooler again and look at the "footprint" of the CPU's heatspreader in the thermal paste on the heatsink. Make sure the plastic retention bracket that mounts onto the mobo is securely snapped all the way down in place. Make sure you don't have too much or too little thermal paste applied. When you reinstall the heatsink, make sure all four of the "legs" snap completely into place. Then don't forget to flip the cam levers over to tighten the heatsink firmly. You do have the fan plugged into a power connector, right? You have confirmed that the fan is spinning?

[tundra]

I'll go ahead and re-mount the heatsink when I get home just to make sure.

I did verify that it was all the way down on the cpu, and turned the levers on it to tighten the heatsink onto the chip. The fan is definitely plugged in, and moving.

I'm really afraid it's my chip that's bad, as all of the connections, thermal compound, etc have been double-checked and seem okay. I need to find someone close-by with a P4 2.4 or above to do a quick swap. That way I could at least pinpoint the issue more easily.

[aNTiChRisT]

I had a similar problem with a friends PC, i mounted the new style heatsink on his mobo, but it wouldnt post. I tried the temp of the heatsink and it wasnt warm it wasnt contacting. Just because the levers are tight doesnt mean its seated properly.

~t0m

[Lancelot]

It's clear Speedfan is way off, but only 2C difference between Idle and Load isn't possible. Do what batboy said and also check in BIOS if it isn't throttling the speed of the CPU fan. (disable fan speed control or whatever)

[batboy]

I forgot about the BIOS fan speed settings since I never use that.

While anything is possible, I feel the chance of this being a defective CPU is very slim, more likely a cooling problem.