P5Q heat issue - RMA?

ChrissyT88 · 12 Nov 2008 at 22:39

I think you ought to stick the values at +0.02v above their minimum - certainly on early BIOSes these boards overvolted by quite a bit, and setting the values to minimum manually was the same as setting them to auto (ie possible overvolt). +0.02v on top of the minimum is only a small overvolt, so should not have a massive impact on temps.

Yardstick · 12 Nov 2008 at 23:03

ChrissyT88 said:
I think you ought to stick the values at +0.02v above their minimum - certainly on early BIOSes these boards overvolted by quite a bit, and setting the values to minimum manually was the same as setting them to auto (ie possible overvolt). +0.02v on top of the minimum is only a small overvolt, so should not have a massive impact on temps.

Cheers thanks for clearing that up.

Just run Prime for 40 mins with 1.1v x 1.1v (will try +0.02 shortly). Ambient 21 C, temporary case fan OFF.

AI Suite: CPU: 37 C, system 52 C
NB temp sensor 68 C.

So sill pretty hot but not apprecably higher than previous in game temps.

Off to try +0.02v

Yardstick · 13 Nov 2008 at 23:22

Ran Prime with +0.02v settings - no appreciable change to temps.

I've got the PCI-e extension cables I needed for my old PSU, so will swap out the 650w Corsair to eliminate that hopefully.

Yardstick · 16 Nov 2008 at 18:38

How's this for weird? :confused:

3 days ago I installed the Catalyst 8.11 version drivers - previously running 8.10. Since then the system has been rock solid!

If it really was a GPU driver problem, why it would cause instant re-boots is beyond me. It would crash in 2D, 3D, in the Bios - it seemed to have no pattern to it. The oddest thing was that it was getting increasingly frequent and when it crashed would get stuck in a re-boot cycle never making it past post. It's like no video problem I've even encountered.

I only hope it's sorted for good and the re-boots are not going to re-surface later down the line.

DavidS14 · 17 Nov 2008 at 07:05

The drivers will have no impact in the bios.

As has been said some bios revisions on the Asus boards caused the voltages to be set way too high when in Auto. People have actually measured the voltages on the board and found them to be way over what they should be.

They then tested some of the available optional voltages to see if they were accurate and as has been said it was found that if you set the voltage to the minimum value then you would still get this high voltage issue.

From their testing it was found that if you set the value to it's lowest and then add one increment (use the "+" key) then that gives you the lowest voltage you can set and get the same voltage at the MB (give or take).

Not all the bios do this but it's safer to set some of the voltages yourself until you can check that they are accurate when in auto.

It could be that the higher spec boards with better heat sinks can cope with the overvolts but the lower spec boards struggle.

Evil-I · 17 Nov 2008 at 15:41

Have you upgraded to the latest bios? I just built a machine with a P5Q Deluxe and the hardware temp reporting has been all over the shop. System temp showing as 60 and the CPU as 3. Which I kinda guessed was incorrect! Latest Bios seems to have helped although I've still got some signs of confusion as the Asus siftware temp reporting doesn't agree with the orthos monitoring.

E-I

Yardstick · 17 Nov 2008 at 16:42

DavidS14 said:
The drivers will have no impact in the bios.

I known that should be the case but everything else is unchanged. I could try going back to the cat 8.10s to confirm but to be honest I'm just grateful I now have a stable system. If it ain't broke etc...

I'm still on the original Bios (can't remember rev for certain) but again if its now working ...

Northbridge temps are still high 43 C stressed on the H/S and about the same reported in AI Suite. However, that is with the case door back on. I'm still using a noisy 2,000 rpm, 120mm fan blowing directly across the northbridge for now, until I sort out a more permanent and elegant solution - got some parts on order.

pastymuncher · 17 Nov 2008 at 19:17

Try flashing to the latest bios. Asus's shipping bios's are usually buggy as hell. I know the first couple of releases for mine was. If you do flash it use EZ-Flash in the bios. Under no circumstances use the Asus Windows software to flash the bios.