Always check your voltages....

FirebarUK · 27 Oct 2008 at 12:50

Maybe I've broken some kind of record here.

I have an AMD Phenom X4 9850 BE, it was running at about 75C load. I understood these to be hot chips, so no biggy. I didn't come across any stability issues and everything was working fine. I've had this system on 24x7 for 5-6 months now, running plenty of virtual machines for testing/learning etc. I only touched the BIOS when I initially setup the machine.

I have an ASRock A780FullDisplayPort motherboard. When the CPU is set to auto frequency/voltage you can't actually tell what voltage is going into your chip and NB, it simply doesn't show the stats on the screen - it's only when you set the option to Manual that it shows the current voltage.

So, I decided to see what the cause of these high temps were. I found that the board was auto-detecting a voltage of 1.55V and shoving that through my Phenom :eek:

AMD recommend 1.05V-1.3V. Even worse (can it be?), the board was putting 1.55V into the Northbridge, standard voltage being 1.175V.

I wonder whether I reduced the lifespan of the components by much?

Moral of the story being; don't just let the board 'auto-detect' voltages!

psd99 · 27 Oct 2008 at 12:53

I could learn a thing or two from this.

Apart from coming on here and asking,
How can you tell what the recommended voltage is for each part?

Vince · 27 Oct 2008 at 12:57

psd99 said:
I could learn a thing or two from this.

Apart from coming on here and asking,
How can you tell what the recommended voltage is for each part?

The box of each product pretty much always has voltages on them, I know my q6600 and my ram did.

Failing that, and if you buy oem, a quick google never failed to come up trumps

FirebarUK · 27 Oct 2008 at 13:03

For AMD processors: http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUFilter.aspx

In terms of Northbridge voltages, I had to trawl google for comments like "the standard voltage for the Northbridge is 1.175V" and trust they were correct

psd99 · 27 Oct 2008 at 13:12

oh right say you take 100 CPUs all of them Q6600 will each one have a different recommended voltage?

What I am getting at is what if you got an OEM Q6600 without any box except a bit of plastic. How do you know for sure what your rated voltage is?

Emlyn_Dewar · 27 Oct 2008 at 13:18

That's some extreme voltages to be putting through, lucky it didn't fry itself. :eek:

What sort of temps are you getting on the CPU now it's at recommended volts?

FirebarUK · 27 Oct 2008 at 14:14

That's some extreme voltages to be putting through, lucky it didn't fry itself.
What sort of temps are you getting on the CPU now it's at recommended volts?

Too right! I'm getting just under 60C load now.

kppanic · 27 Oct 2008 at 14:56

FirebarUK said:
Moral of the story being; don't just let the board 'auto-detect' voltages!

If this is the case, don't we have a major problem here? I mean, at least some of us know what is going on here, but the mass majority of the people would buy a motherboard, plonk in a CPU and start using it. Well, obviously, other than those that buy them pre-packaged like Dell and HP, if auto-settings caused problems, it would have made big news by now I reckon.

Long live vdroop lol.

Fire Wizard · 27 Oct 2008 at 15:16

psd99 said:
What I am getting at is what if you got an OEM Q6600 without any box except a bit of plastic. How do you know for sure what your rated voltage is?

Hello psd99, if you download an application called CoreTemp, once it is installed, load it up and take a look at the "VID" section, it will state a certain voltage which will be the stock voltage of that particular chip.

Oh and don't panic, the above temperatures aren't my idle temperatures. I'm currently running Prime 95.

FirebarUK · 27 Oct 2008 at 15:25

If this is the case, don't we have a major problem here? I mean, at least some of us know what is going on here, but the mass majority of the people would buy a motherboard, plonk in a CPU and start using it.

Yes perhaps, it is a little worrying. Having had a google about it, it seems a common problem with the Asus boards - they're all over the place in regards to the correct voltages.

gareth170 · 27 Oct 2008 at 15:41

tbh 65c is the max for a 9950 so u should keep it below 60c really..

gareth170 · 27 Oct 2008 at 15:49

kppanic said:
If this is the case, don't we have a major problem here? I mean, at least some of us know what is going on here, but the mass majority of the people would buy a motherboard, plonk in a CPU and start using it. Well, obviously, other than those that buy them pre-packaged like Dell and HP, if auto-settings caused problems, it would have made big news by now I reckon.

Long live vdroop lol.

most motherboard do recommed settings when set to auto.

i've never had a problem using auto mode.

FirebarUK · 27 Oct 2008 at 16:04

it seems a common problem with the Asus boards

Should probably note that ASRock is a division or Asus, so practically same thing.

Rroff · 27 Oct 2008 at 16:10

I accidentally when tired and slightly less than sober put 2.1v (the RAM voltage) through one of my E6600 the other day - it booted into windows fine and was only running at 40C (on water) - fortunatly its just a benchmarking rig so doesn't matter if it kills it but I would say anything more than 20% over the reccomended voltage is going to impact on the lifespan.

porta · 27 Oct 2008 at 16:13

FirebarUK said:
Should probably note that ASRock is a division or Asus, so practically same thing.

if you leave the cpu pll on auto in rampage extreme bios, it sets it to 1.8v. :eek:

FirebarUK · 27 Oct 2008 at 16:21

if you leave the cpu pll on auto in rampage extreme bios, it sets it to 1.8v.

?! Flip! Way to fry a chip. Surely this kind of stuff is rather dangerous!

kppanic · 27 Oct 2008 at 16:47

FirebarUK said:
?! Flip! Way to fry a chip. Surely this kind of stuff is rather dangerous!

That's why, there must be more than this when certain parameters are set on Auto. I mean, imagine, 1.8v PLL, how detrimental that would be. Maybe we're only looking at one aspect of this thing and getting worried.

psd99 · 27 Oct 2008 at 16:52

Fire Wizard said:
Hello psd99, if you download an application called CoreTemp, once it is installed, load it up and take a look at the "VID" section, it will state a certain voltage which will be the stock voltage of that particular chip.

Oh and don't panic, the above temperatures aren't my idle temperatures. I'm currently running Prime 95.

Hi thanks mine says it is 1.3250

as I am getting a BSOD do I need to go into the BIOS and set this as 1.3250 just to rule out this is the problem?

kppanic · 27 Oct 2008 at 17:08

psd99 said:
Hi thanks mine says it is 1.3250

as I am getting a BSOD do I need to go into the BIOS and set this as 1.3250 just to rule out this is the problem?

If you are getting BSOD at current voltage, you would have to increase voltage more. And since your VID is higher than Fire Wizard's you would have to have a higher voltage than Fire Wizard normally.

FirebarUK · 27 Oct 2008 at 17:21

BSOD is more likely to be a driver issue. Although it would be worth seeing what the recommend voltage is for your memory.