• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

E8400 strange (high) idle temps?

Billzz

Billzz

Billzz

Associate
Joined
11 Dec 2003
Posts
297
Hi all,

I've just installed an E8400 and seem to be having issues with high idle temps. It will not idle below 49C. I have just done a quick overclock to 3.6 (400x9) and when priming it goes to max 63C in core temp (v0.98.1). Realtemp is showing max 53C. BIOS temp is showing 42C @ 3.6ghz. I've read there can be issues with the E8400 and incorrect temperature readings - anybody know if this could be a problem or has anyone experienced anything similar? What do I believe temp wise?

Something fishy seems to be going on here :confused: any advice appreciated.

My specs:
Asus Maximus Formula with BIOS 0907
E8400 @ 3.6
4gb Geil RAM
 
Thanks for the reply Randal. I'm a bit baffled to be honest ...

Forgot to mention, I'm using a Tunic Tower for cooling, and i'm 100% sure its seated just fine (screws are as tight as they can get...)
 
Been playing around with my brand new one today, undervolting it to 1.020 she idles in the 35-38 range, under prime 95, gets up to 48.

Soon as I upped the voltage (1.35) and clock up to 4ghz the idle temp was 48-50, load temps 62-64 (with Arctic freezer).

Seems these chips temps really scale with vcore.
 
I've been confused by this cpu ever since I got it a few weeks ago, high temps even while idle in bios, by the asus software (asus p5n-d 750i mobo) and by various cpu temp reporting software. I found real temp to have the lowest temps.

I turned off the eist, c1 and thermal options in bios.

Now, I'm running assassins creed, currently minimized, real temp reports core 1 around 125c, and core2 around 110c. This is shocking to see.

Before, when I had eist, c1 and thermal options enabled, I was also getting the high temps on load, reaching nearly 100c in real temp etc.

at idle the temps are more like 50-60c in real temp.

Is it worth updating my bios which might fix this weird issue? it can't be right, can it? :(

I am using the stock cooler, which, when I saw the weird ufo pattern shape of thermal cooling material didn't look that great, there wasn't much material at all on it, and the fan is a bit of a fly. I am thinking of maybe replacing the stock cooler on it, and getting some good paste, do people recommend replacing it?
 
Last edited:
I would, the stock cooler provided with the 45nm chips isn't that amazing. Most people on here will recommend a Tuniq Tower or a TRU, but personally I've been more than happy with my £15 Arctic Freezer Pro. Even comes with a half decent paste on the bottom already applied.

WRT your high temps, see if there is a BIOS update available for your board and replace that cooler. Bear in mind we're getting into warmer weather now so ambient temps are up slightly which does make a difference from the initial temps reported by the first adopters a couple of months back then it was cooler.
 
The e8xxx have a lot of chips which have diodes stuck downwards. 1 of my sensors doesnt go below 39C and the other 47C.

I tested this by running my e8400 @ 1.2ghz (200x6) with 0.8v and max fan speed. Then ran prime 95 and the sensors didnt budge. You cant fix this and even real temp cant do anything about this since it also uses the DTS sensors.

My motherboard CPU sensor on the other hand reported 2C below ambient temps at idle (20C vs 22C) and a delta of a couple of degrees at load. And so i trust that now with the 2C correction.
 
Last edited:
I updated the bios of my asus p5n-d to the latest one, hasn't fixed high temp reports anywhere (and since the problem is with the cpu themselves and not motherboards this makes sense).

realtemp still shows 50-60 idle and around 100 on load by playing a game such as assassins creed.

I've turned eist back on but I'm keeping the 2 thermal/c1 options disabled in case of wrong throttling because of incorrect temp reading which will result in my cpu speeds being slowed down. Very annoying situation tbh, but I guess can be forgotten about.

I might get an arctic freezer 7 pro then...
 
Argh.

I decided to check the intel heatsink, to see if it was seated firmly, it turns out one of the pop pins had popped out since I had installed it, having pushed it back in firm, and checked all 4 pins, temps are now lower.

it's worrying pushing those pins in, hoping you don't damage the board.

at the moment, real temp reports around 42c idle for both cores - that's at least a 10c drop compared to before . I'm going to try on load and see how it does.

I hope I haven't damaged the cpu because of the less than 100% heatsink install. This may have messed up the link of the thermal material between the heatsink and cpu.
 
Nah you won't have damaged it. They will take upwards of 95c before they shut themselves off well before any damage can be done.
 
I was going to post that! My friend had the same thing and his temperatures were 105c in Speedfan before it crashed. This was with a 6750.

Glad to see you have fixed it now!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom