Pentium D 945 : Can't read temperature?

Draeger · 15 Jun 2012 at 13:47

Hi,

Friend of mine has given me his Dell Dimension E520 which has a Pentium D 945 fitted to it. He reckoned it was running hot so I've taken the heatsink and fan off it ( stock dell one ) , cleaned it up and refitted using Arctic MX4. Before I did so I wanted to check its normal running temp but when I installed CoreTemp it told me the CPU wasn't supported. So did RealTemp. I tried Speedfan which installed but when it started it reported nothing, temp wise.

Is that right does anyone know?. I would have though even a fairly old hat system like this would have had the sensor facility built into the socket on the motherboard?.

farlow2012 · 15 Jun 2012 at 14:24

Draeger said:
Hi,

Friend of mine has given me his Dell Dimension E520 which has a Pentium D 945 fitted to it. He reckoned it was running hot so I've taken the heatsink and fan off it ( stock dell one ) , cleaned it up and refitted using Arctic MX4. Before I did so I wanted to check its normal running temp but when I installed CoreTemp it told me the CPU wasn't supported. So did RealTemp. I tried Speedfan which installed but when it started it reported nothing, temp wise.

Is that right does anyone know?. I would have though even a fairly old hat system like this would have had the sensor facility built into the socket on the motherboard?.

can you not check temps in bios ?

JonSmith · 15 Jun 2012 at 14:42

It's perfectly normal for Dell systems, this is why they are piles of **** unfortunately. I was tinkering with one and the only way I could really guess the temperature was by using throttlestop (tells you if the CPU is being throttled because of heat) and by feeling the heatsink.

ed79 · 15 Jun 2012 at 15:01

I tried to measure the CPU temp on a P4 Dell system * where I used to work. Tried HW Monitor and Coretemp but neither of them reported the CPU temp. Maybe this is a Dell thing (although I found similar on pre Conroe CPU Hewlett Packard systems too).

Edit * it was an Optiplex 620 I think.

Justintime · 15 Jun 2012 at 19:32

Pentium 4s do not have a software-readable digital thermal sensor. You'd be depending on onboard motherboard sensors and if speedfan etc.. can't read those you'll be SOL. However the motherboard will still react to the ondie thermal diode in an overheat event etc. by throttling or shutting down.

Draeger · 15 Jun 2012 at 19:39

Cheers folks. Well, I'm sure a good clean and a fresh application of MX4 will have at least helped out if anything. After I did so I ran the PC over the next couple of hours using Prime and it seemed to be fine. I think the fact that the inside was filthy and the fans were clogged with fluff certainly wasn't helping.

farlow2012 said:
can you not check temps in bios ?

Nope, checked the BIOS before I even started faffing around with Coretemp, Speedfan etc but there's nothing in there which relates to temp settings.