Foxconn A7DA-S overvolts my Phenom II 920

Hello everyone.

My adventure with my A7DA-S continues, but at least now, the ending is happier.

I started with a 7750 BE that I purchased specifically because it was a BE. It worked well, but the highest stable OC I could get using the multi was 3.2, and that often depended on the day of the week and how I held my tongue. I finally had to go down to 3.1 and stay there, even raising the voltage to 1.4V couldn't get it stable past that, and I was afraid to go higher because of the heat factor (idling in the mid 40s, almost 60 under load.)

I forgot to mention that with this board, any temps are pretty much a guess, because it won't read them no matter what software you use, and Foxconn is zero help on this issue. A solid 40C is "normal" and it's "AMD's code that causes this." Arrrgh!!!!

I was about to pitch the thing into the river, as I thought I had a MOSFET issue. I'm a tech, I can replace them, but why should I? Then I discovered the Phenom II 920...

Imagine my joy as I plunked it into the MB and fired it up - and Speedfan actually showed me a valid core temperature! And the Tcase temp isn't 40C! OMG, it's actually an accurate temp! I checked it with an IR thermometer. Can this possibly be a Foxconn? Why yes, Virginia, it really does work.

This thing actually screams now. I can hit 3.54, stable, on air cooling, and the temps hit the mid 50s under full load. And this is with only a 25mV voltage increase, which leads me to my question:

Set at auto, the Vcore is 1.34V, which seems a little high to me. My Kuma defaulted to 1.312. I'm thinking that is why I haven't had to up the voltage too much. I think I read somewhere that the 920's stock voltage was in the mid 1.2 range, but I can't find that data again. Does anyone out there have this board with a Phenom II? Does an auto Vcore of 1.34 seem a little high to anyone else? At stock speed, Tcase is about 31C at idle, in a 23C room, which isn't bad, but I think it might run cooler for the summer if I can lower the voltage. Is this possible with the A7DA-S?

Any thoughts? Thanks.

System specs:

A7DA-S, BIOS P28 (Beta from Foxconn), 2.8 GHz (Tcase: 31C idle, ~43C load, Core: 38C Idle, ~54C load),
8GB OCZ SLI RAM, Arctic Cooler 64 Pro HS,
4 x 500 GB WD Caviar HDD, Radeon HD 3450 - 512MB, Vista x64 HP.

You should be able to find the stock voltage for the CPU on AMD's web site. What are you reading the vcore with? Bios? Speedfan? CPU-z?

3.2 ghz is about the wall on the Kuma.

According to the Power and Thermal Data Sheet (AMD publication #43375) the min/max VID_VDD is 1.225 - 1.425v and VID_VDDNB is 1.15 - 1.30v, so I guess 1.34v is a tiny bit higher than the average vCore but what's 0.02v? Chances are it'll droop that much under load ...

Thanks for the speedy replies, guys.

@trents: I was using BIOS, Speedfan, and CPU-Z to read the Vcore. They all agree at 1.34V.

@QuietIce: I agree with the sort of insignificance of the 0.02V difference. I was just a little worried, I guess. My Kuma would get pretty warm even with a small voltage increase, but this doesn't seem to be happening with the 920. I'm using the same cooler, but with AS 5 this time, and the thermal performance is much much better. The load temp at stock speed was far lower than I expected with a 125W chip.

I have to say that I originally hated this board, but the more I fiddle with it since putting in the 920, the better I like it. Getting it to run stable with the 920 has been a snap, unlike with the 7750. That was like pulling teeth. Maybe I just got a flaky Kuma, I dunno, but I think I could actually recommend this configuration I have now as a reasonable buy to someone with at least a little experience with a self build.

Mellon Head...I also have that board and I too have had a love/hate thing with it.

I knew going in that there was a problem with Bios not reading the cpu temp correctly, but I figured that I could compensate by using something else to get accurate core/cpu temps. I finally found cpuid hwmonitor to work very well for me.

I have the X2 AM3 Regor 3.0Ghz dual core. I have the Vcore set at auto as well, and my readings fluctuate a little from 0.98v-1.27v...maybe a touch more...but as soon as I run Prime 95 it immediately steadies out at 1.34V.

The only concern that I have at the moment is the cpu temp. Both cpuid hwmonitor and PC Wizard 2009 were showing temps about 60c at idle...ouch...even though core temps were in the 20's....and of course Prime would send cpu temp up to my 65c warning level. Pc Wizard calls this cpu temp " Power/Aux temp"..?

I don't know what that all means, but I have added two 120mm side fans ( maybe a little overkill but I wanted that cpu temp to go down..! ), and now both monitors show cpu temp of 50c, which I suppose is okay. Now, even with Prime running, the cpu temp only gets to about 53c.

I even wondered if that cpu temp was actually refering to the NB temps...I just don't know....but it's taken care of now by those 120mm fans.

stevejr said:

Mellon Head...I also have that board and I too have had a love/hate thing with it.

I knew going in that there was a problem with Bios not reading the cpu temp correctly, but I figured that I could compensate by using something else to get accurate core/cpu temps. I finally found cpuid hwmonitor to work very well for me.

I have the X2 AM3 Regor 3.0Ghz dual core. I have the Vcore set at auto as well, and my readings fluctuate a little from 0.98v-1.27v...maybe a touch more...but as soon as I run Prime 95 it immediately steadies out at 1.34V.

The only concern that I have at the moment is the cpu temp. Both cpuid hwmonitor and PC Wizard 2009 were showing temps about 60c at idle...ouch...even though core temps were in the 20's....and of course Prime would send cpu temp up to my 65c warning level. Pc Wizard calls this cpu temp " Power/Aux temp"..?

I don't know what that all means, but I have added two 120mm side fans ( maybe a little overkill but I wanted that cpu temp to go down..! ), and now both monitors show cpu temp of 50c, which I suppose is okay. Now, even with Prime running, the cpu temp only gets to about 53c.

I even wondered if that cpu temp was actually refering to the NB temps...I just don't know....but it's taken care of now by those 120mm fans.

Click to expand...

Temp monitoring programs often mislabel the motherboard sensors. Speedfan gives you the ability to edit the labels. Its a good idea to watch the various temp readings displayed by a monitoring program and watch the delta rates. The two that rise most rapidly will be the cores and the CPU readings.

stevejr said:

Mellon Head...I also have that board and I too have had a love/hate thing with it.

I knew going in that there was a problem with Bios not reading the cpu temp correctly, but I figured that I could compensate by using something else to get accurate core/cpu temps. I finally found cpuid hwmonitor to work very well for me.

I have the X2 AM3 Regor 3.0Ghz dual core. I have the Vcore set at auto as well, and my readings fluctuate a little from 0.98v-1.27v...maybe a touch more...but as soon as I run Prime 95 it immediately steadies out at 1.34V.

The only concern that I have at the moment is the cpu temp. Both cpuid hwmonitor and PC Wizard 2009 were showing temps about 60c at idle...ouch...even though core temps were in the 20's....and of course Prime would send cpu temp up to my 65c warning level. Pc Wizard calls this cpu temp " Power/Aux temp"..?

I don't know what that all means, but I have added two 120mm side fans ( maybe a little overkill but I wanted that cpu temp to go down..! ), and now both monitors show cpu temp of 50c, which I suppose is okay. Now, even with Prime running, the cpu temp only gets to about 53c.

I even wondered if that cpu temp was actually refering to the NB temps...I just don't know....but it's taken care of now by those 120mm fans.

Click to expand...

Well, I can tell you for sure that if you're using Speedfan, your temps on the A7DA-S are as follows: Temp1 = Tcase (CPU), Temp2 = Motherboard sensor, and Temp3 = Northbridge. I verified these with an IR thermometer. Speedfan does read the Tcore of my Phenom II properly, but it never read the Kuma's core temp right. I'm not sure about your Regor, but my Kuma's temps with Speedfan were always about 18C too low until I started using a new Beta BIOS from Foxconn. Every other temp read fine, just not the CPU or the Core temp.

Btw, as I type this, my NB is sitting at about 41C, but it does get up to about 50C in normal usage, and up to about 60C if I enable Hybrid Xfire. I actually glued a 40mm fan to the top of the NB, and connected it to the NB fan connector. That brought the NB temp down about 6 degrees. My case has a 92mm intake and a 92mm rear fan, which really helps with all of the system temps.

I don't know what kind of CPU cooler you're using, but something like a Zalman CNPS7000 style (don't know the model number of the AM2+/AM3 equivalent), that blows air over the NB would help the NB temps as well. My cooler is only front to back, which is why I glued the little fan onto the NB. There isn't a lot of room to put a fan on the NB on this board, but it really helps. Taking off the NB and MOSFET cooler and replacing the heat sink compound with Arctic Silver might help too. I was pretty surprised at my CPU HS performance after I replaced the stock stuff with AC 5. I'm just shy of 10C over ambient at 30C right now, and the machine is basically doing nothing. The Kuma, idling, was about 16C over ambient, and I know the cooler was mounted right. Of course it could be the Phenom's power saving modes at work, too, but I'm not using C & Q, and the load temps are nowhere near as high.

I've had the phenom for about 2 weeks and it's the best $170 I've spent in a long time, and it's made me like a board that I was going to throw away. I hope yours works out, too.

Actually, many newer motherboards don't even have a temp sensor for the northbridge since memory controller is built into the CPU now. They have a Tcase sensor (case environment) instead.

Trents, I'll get Speedfan and see what it says for cpu temp..thanks for your input.

I have a heat pipe exchange for the NB & the Mosfets and I have been wondering if I need to put some good TM under it. I don't know if I would have to take the board out...but I would like to confirm yes or no to that before un-doing everything.

I really like the low core temps but hopefully can do something to lower the cpu temp. The Regor is a 45nm/65W processor so I was surprised when I saw those cpu temps!

I haven't seen any NB temp reading so I will assume that this board doesn't do that.

Well, well...I downloaded Speedfan and guess what...that high temp is the NB temp!

Thank you very much, Trents...you have been very helpful on several occasions...

Now, I need to do something about that high temp! I guess the best thing is to just take the board out and make it easy. The NB hold down screw head looks kinda like an allen head so I'll need to see what I will need to use to get those loose. I think the Mosfets are the regular "pinch" type...I'll know more when I get the board out and give it a close examination.

Okay...got a question about the NB/Mosfets heatpipe cooler.

There is a rubber type pad on the bottom of the Mosfets side of the cooler. Does anyone know if that pad is supposed to be there? Is that pad a heat conductive type of pad...should that pad be removed ( it comes off real easy...it's not glued on ).?

stevejr said:

Okay...got a question about the NB/Mosfets heatpipe cooler.

There is a rubber type pad on the bottom of the Mosfets side of the cooler. Does anyone know if that pad is supposed to be there? Is that pad a heat conductive type of pad...should that pad be removed ( it comes off real easy...it's not glued on ).?

Click to expand...

Yeah, that pad is thermally conductive adhesive. My strong suggestion is that you remove the heat pipe stuff and install individual copper heat sinks on the mosfets and the NB. You can buy them from:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/memandvidcar.html

They come with thermal adhesive; the good thin 3M teflon stuff. There always seems to be a problem with the heatpipe connected chipset coolers coming lose and not making good contact.

Are you using your motherboard's onboard video? That's about the only thing the NB does anymore since the memory controller is now built into the CPU. If you aren't using it for video the NB should not be getting hot in any case. That high reading you were talking about in Speedfan; are your certain it is the NB? I was getting a high temp reading (about 80C) with Speedfan on a previous Gigabyte board and I assumed it was the NB. However, when I tested it under stress it never got any hotter than 81C. Others have reported the same phenomenon. That high reading doesn't seem to coincide with any real temp sensors on these boards and probably should be ignored. At least test it under stress with something video intensive to confirm if you are using it instead of a discrete video card.

Oh, and thanks for your expression of gratitude. I think we all feel good when we have been able to help someone.

The NB is the PCIe tie-in for the HT Link on all 7xx chipsets so whether you're using on-board graphics or not the video goes through the NB (assuming you're not using an old PCI card) ...

Thanks Ice, I didn't know that. But I assume the NB would still not get as hot as it would if you were using it as the main GPU, correct?

I think that would be a valid assumption but I've got no evidence one way or the other. It could be the high-end cards do create that much heat in the NB. The IGP is only a 3300 w/128Mb. Even my 3450 w/512Mb doesn't require a fan - though the sink is pretty big. (I got it for Hybrid XFire so I had more video RAM. The big maps my games use suck up RAM pretty bad but the graphics don't need much of a GPU.)


It does explain why CrossFire would make the NB hotter than a single card (and maybe require more voltage?) ...

Trents & QuietIce....The pad doesn't seem to be adhesive at all...it looks like a piece of thin rubber...doesn't stick to either the bottom of the cooler or to the mosfets.

Are you suggesting that I do away with the whole set up? I thought that those heatpipe coolers were the latest & greatest...maybe not? So what is the consensus about how well the heatpipe cooling works for NB/Mosfets?

If the problem is the mosfets side coming loose, then would replacing that pad with some good adhesive work...along with the push pins helping keep some pressure on the mosfets?

Since I have the board out, I certainly want to take care of this properly...and only once. If I need to do away with the whole heatpipe set up, I will.

Yes, I use the integrated video.

Speedfan listed NB next to the high temp so I was assuming that the info was correct.

Something was causing the board to start beeping at me and it happened when the temp that hwmonitor listed as cpu temp reached 65C...the warning temp that I have Bios set for...but it didn't make any sense for the core temps to be so low and the cpu temp to be so high.

But...yea, this is convoluted...if Speedfan listed that high temp as coming from the NB, then would that also cause the board to beep even though the Bios setting was for a cpu over-heat?

Apologies for being so long-winded.

Yes, I am suggesting ditching the whole heat pipe thing. They look great but are problematic. The problem is the different components are all different heights and they try to compensate for that with the "rubber pads" underneath but it doesn't make very good contact and besides, the rubber pad is not a very good heat conductor. Get a good aftermarket heatsink for the NB and individual copper heatsinks for the mosfets and you will get much better results.

As for the beeps, that is normally a CPU overheat signal but can also be a warning that of other things being too hot or out of spec (such as a PSU rail) if you are using the mobo manufacturer-supplied hardware monitoring utility.

By the way, what CPU cooler are you using? The stock OEM cooler? What do you have your CPU overheat temp warning set to in Bios?

trents...I'm using a CoolerMaster:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103031

I got it free as part of a combo deal from a while back so I thought I'd give it a try. With the Regor being a 45nm/65W processor, I figured it would be adequate...and I think it is seeing that the core temps are in the low 20's C. When using Prime 95, the cores max out around 32C, and the Foxconn utility, Speedfan, & hwmonitor all agree on these temps.

I do have my Freezer 64 Pro that I can put in, but I'm not convinced, yet, that I need to do that seeing that the CoolerMaster seems to be cooling okay.

I have the cpu warning temp set at 65C.

Okay...I'll keep the heatpipe as a piece of computer art & conversation piece...!

What if I cut the mosfet heatsink away from the pipe and used a good adhesive, plus the push pins that it has...?

Do I gather correctly that since I'm using onboard video that the NB will heat up more than usual...in which case I will need to get a good heatsink/fan cooler?

I have rarely had a problem with motherboard temps, none recently, but I tweak my cases airflow till everything runs cool. Many people will suggest NOT removing the thermal pad, unless you are replacing the cooler in its entirety. Due to the uneven pressure most motherboards clamp down there mosfets coolers with. I am ambivalent on this issue. I do not recommend doing it, but I have done it before. It really makes no differnce. It is not a "piece of rubber" but a thermal pad. Plus withthe number of dead motherboards I see around forums, why take it apart unless it is something serious (like no sinks at all on your FETs (TA790GX for example)

Instead of spending $50+ getting ram sinks for FETs, and new coolers for the chipset and SB, try just putting a fan on the chipset (NB) and see how that works. a 40mm fan should run you the same cost as a couple of ram sinks (which BTW, unless you have great case flow you are still going to need some type of directed air cooling)

If it makes no difference at all. More than likely that is not the problem.
If it makes a little difference, consider spending the money on upgrading the cooling.
If it makes a huge difference. Than you have no need to upgrade the sinks

NeurOmancer...As I stated earlier, I installed two 120mm fans in the side panel blowing directly at the NB and the temp dropped from 60C down to 51C. That is when I began to suspect that even though hwmonitor listed that temp as cpu temp, the NB temp was what it was actually reading. Speedfan had that high temp listed as the NB...and due to the low core temps of low 20's, confirmed by several utilities, I figured that the cpu temp couldn't be that high and that it must be the NB.

There is always the very real possibility that there is just a faulty sensor which is just reading too high, in which case I would just turn off the high temp warning in Bios...but not until I am certain of that.

After I took off the NB/Mosfet heatpipe, the gunk that was used for TM looked awful... chewing gum consistency...and about as hard to get off.

I appreciate your input. This is certainly a learning experience for me.


I have some Arctic Cooling MX-2 and I think that I will go ahead and put the cooler back on and just see what happens....process of elimination...see how well the new TM works.