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MSI 970A-G46 Temp Issues

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TonyKlem

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2002
Hey guys, I'm having a hell of a time trying to get a stable rig here... My main question is, does anyone know what temp sensors are for what component on this board?

Here are the sensors and their respective temps via SpeedFan:
Idle-Load
40c-53c Temp1 (Chip: F71889A, Bus: ISA, Address: $480)
56c-80c+:mad: Temp2 (Chip: F71889A, Bus: ISA, Address: $480)
31c-32c Temp3 (Chip: F71889A, Bus: ISA, Address: $480)
HD0 (obviously my SSD)
GPU (obviously my gpu)

Here is my Hardware Setup:
MSI 970A-G46
FX 6300 - 4.1GHz (20x205 @ 1.35v) I'm under the impression that this should be a super low OC for this chip
G.Skill Ripjaws 2133 (underclocked due to FSB not being bumped much)
PowerColor 6790 1GB
Corsair 750w PSU

Here were my original thoughts on what the temps were:
Temp1 - CPU (I still believe this to be the case)
Temp2 - NB (due to initially feeling the NB heatsink being very hot)
Temp3 - ???

When I saw the Temp2 temps I got concerned and felt all of the components to see which one was hot. The NB felt very hot, almost to where it would burn me if I kept my finger on it. I took the heatsink off of the NB and the VRMs and applied some AS5 and a small fan (as it was fanless before). Temp2 is still going through the roof, but when I feel the NB heatsink, it's barely warm to the touch under load.

Does anyone have any idea? I'm about to RMA this board maybe (hopefully they won't care/notice that I replaced their crappy "thermal compound" with real stuff). So far, I've replaced the motherboard, ram and CPU one by one (started with MSI M2N-SLI Deluxe with a 955BE and DDR2 memory)

HEEEEEELLLLP! :bang head:bang head:bang head:bang head:bang head
 
Also, when sitting in the BIOS CPU temp is reported as 40-42, motherboard temp is reported as a solid 30-31. Which leads me to believe maybe Temp3 is the NB? I have no idea.

I just tried unplugging the fan on the NB. Temp3 is still staying around 32 under load, but the NB feels quite hot again. Temp2 is reporting 90c+ under load. So I'm once again assuming that Temp2 is the nb. I dont understand why in the BIOS it reports as 30c though...
 
when sitting in the BIOS CPU temp is reported as 40-42, = IN days past the bios was fully capable of loading the cpu to about 100% load and the temps were pretty toasty. Today it is believed the bios only loads the cpu to about 40% but still a load when in bios.

Now when you go into windows and are doing nothing much, the cpu is nOt loaded and the temps could read less and this type of behavior is not to be unexpected.

Besides the stories of blowing up mosfets on MSI AMD boards, the wonky temps that are shown is a reason I do not like MSI motherboards. No more than I like Giga boards that have issues with the temps exactly where you are having trouble knowing what is what.

freakdiablo when you read and get to his post about #10 I believe he makes some guesstimations about temp readouts of MSI boards.
 
Select Standard in BIOS instead of OCgenie or whatever its called, then you can monitor your "core" temp in speedfan or others. When OCgenie is selected you can't monitor your CPU temp. weird eh?

After replacing the stock fan on my phenom, temp 2 went up while the CPU temp went down.
 
Select Standard in BIOS instead of OCgenie or whatever its called, then you can monitor your "core" temp in speedfan or others. When OCgenie is selected you can't monitor your CPU temp. weird eh?

After replacing the stock fan on my phenom, temp 2 went up while the CPU temp went down.

I took it off OCgenie the first 10 minutes it was installed. I already RMA'd it in favor of an Asus M5A99X Evo R2.0.
 
I had the same issue- hot NB.
Fixed it by adding side cover fans to my Antec case; one blowing in on my gtx970, the other blowing in at the backside of the motherboard in the cpu area.

Just for anyone needing sensor for the MSI 970A-G46 is as follows:
Temp0 (or 1)- CPU SOCKET TEMPERATURE (always reads higher than core)
Temp1 (or 2)- NORTHBRIDGE TEMPERATURE (never reads higher than socket)
Temp2 (or 3)- BOARD TEMPERATURE. (reads low and usually stays the same unless yow have no exhaust fans in your case)
PACKAGE or CORE- A Chip integrated sensor ( Click Bios and Control Center reads socket temps only)
HWMonitor and SpeedFan list these sensors as TMPIN 0,1,2 or TEMP 1,2,3 repectively.

Some say this MB is junk and unable to support 125 watt processors, actually some mobos were shipped with inadequate thermo compound on the VRM heat sinks, allowing the mosfets to overheat so the PM would throttle down the system. I have a good one and it runs a FX8350 OC'd to 4400 everyday in very intensive gaming without liquid cooling. Since the heatsinks are purely passive very good airflow is important.
 
I had the same issue- hot NB. I have a good one and it runs a FX8350 OC'd to 4400 everyday in very intensive gaming without liquid cooling. Since the heatsinks are purely passive very good airflow is important.

Any way to know IF one was buying a good one? Or you just get one and try it and see?

RGone...
 
Yeah, an advertised version number in the retailer's device description would help in this kind of crapshoot. Complaints get posted more than compliments, still a meh board to OC if you expected top of the line for <$90. Not too bad on a $575 build budget.
 
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