topic Re: Voltage & Temp Readings in Operating System - Microsoft

Voltage & Temp Readings

Joe Manuet — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 21:10:13 GMT

Hello,

I recently purchased an HP pavilion model A520n. It has an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ and an Asus A7N8X-LA motherboard w/Nvidia nForce2-IGP chipset.

I wanted to monitor my voltages and temps, so I downloaded and installed "Asus Probe" utility. It displayed the following:
Vcore = 4.08v
+3.3v = 4.08v
+5.0v = 6.85v
+12.0v = 16.32v

Now, these are very high, since I believe Vcore should be 1.65v, and 3.3v, 5v & 12v should be within 10%.
Thinking that the Asus probe was giving me false readings, I installed "Motherboard Monitor 5" and "SiSoft Sandra". But got similiar readings.

Should I be concerned, or just assume that "environment monitor chip" is faulty, the BIOS for this system is inaccurate (it is the latest and only BIOS available, since this is a new system released March, 2004), or I do in fact have a problem.

The system does run fine, except temps seem to be too high (cpu temps - 145F to 170F, but again, don't know if I can believe the readings from the utilities). I don't want to damage the system by running it this way long term, IF the voltage and temps I am reading are in fact correct.

BTW - Asus was not able to provide any help since they said that the A7N8X-LA motherboard is an OEM board built specially for HP and they have no documentation for it. HP customer service wasn't much help either.

Any thoughts, suggestions or advice appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Joe Manuet

Re: Voltage & Temp Readings

Roger Faucher — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 21:17:19 GMT

Joe:

Since the computer is so new and must be under warranty, why not contact HP for their take on this? See:

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact/phone_assist.html#section1

HTH

Roger

Re: Voltage & Temp Readings

Joe Manuet — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 22:42:24 GMT

Roger,

Thanks for your quick response.

Well, when I contacted HP support, their initial response was that "I shouldn't worry about a slight temperature variance".

When I further explained that I was more concerned about the huge Voltage variances (Vcore is about 250% and other voltages about 30% too high, they are consistent and never vary, though), the response was that "HP systems are designed to proper specifications". They did suggest that if I continued to be concerned, I could ship the system to HP and they would check it out.

As a last resort, I'll do that, but I'd rather not be without for as long as that would take. Especially, since I may be chasing a ghost here. Maybe, there is no real problem, since the motherboard has been modified specifically for HP, and maybe the monitoring programs or BIOS is reporting incorrectly?

Do you, or anyone know how I could contact an HP engineer? They could probably tell me if I really have a problem or not.

By the way, I have since replaced the original 250W power supply with a 400W power supply. No difference, same exact voltage readings.

Anyway, I thought I'd check in here first, for some opinions and ideas.

Thanks again for your advice.

Regards, Joe

Re: Voltage & Temp Readings

Roger Faucher — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 00:36:26 GMT

Joe:

It's almost certain that the readings are incorrect or you computer would probably be fried.

Please consider trying this download from Asus' website (I'm hoping it will provide accurate temp/volt readings)

http://www.asus.com/support/download/selectftp.aspx?l1_id=1&l2_id=10&l3_id=23&m_id=5&f_name=NvidiaSU_v09.zip~zaqwedc

HTH

Roger

Re: Voltage & Temp Readings

Donald Ziehm — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 08:14:13 GMT

All,

I have this same MB in my Pavilion a350e. Been wrestling with it since I received my PC
last Nov.

As far as BIOS temp settings, etc., these can be had by entering the advanced feature of the AMI BIOS. This can be done by pressing F11 from blue HP startup screen. Then navigate to Advanced. Then downward to Hardware Monitoring. Press enter and reset fan temps there. HP appears to value low fan noise over processor life. My high fan temp setting was set at 75 C. I lowered to 55 C. Now both fans kick in periodically depending on how high room temp is. Noisy but safe.

I have also tried all the monitoring software with limited success. MBM and ASUS Probe hung up the PC; especially at shutdown
time. The nVidia System Utility mentioned in one of the links works great but does not, of course, support this motherboard. Only show FSB, AGP, and basis settings. No temp, voltage, etc. settings available.

I also noticed the monitoring for my case fan was disabled in the BIOS, so I enabled that. I want to know if that fan was to fail.

Warning!!! Do not flash your BIOS for any reason. I am shipping my PC back to factory today due to a bad update I downloaded from the HP web site. Was told by HP tech support that all their BIOS updates only applicable to store bought, off the shelf, units. In other words, if your unit was custom built, your screwed I guess.

Bottom line is these PCs are throw aways; they have extremely limited upgrade capability due to OEM motherboard and BIOS. Also the fact that half the BIOS is software imaged on a hidden partition of the hard drive doesn't help. Also since OS was loaded at the factory, it's "tatooed" to the motherboard meaning that the MB cannot even be easily replaced.

Re: Voltage & Temp Readings

Jason Middlton — Sun, 16 May 2004 14:52:18 GMT

I have had a HP t540 with an Athlon 64 3000+ running on an Asus K8N8X motherboard with Nvidia nForce2 chipset for a week, and my readings are also: -

Vcore = 4.08v
+3.3v = 4.08v
+5.0v = 6.85v
+12.0v = 16.32v

Does anyone know if these are OK, is it a fluke that my readings are the same as Joe's or is my PC about to fry?! Going into the bias the CPU temp is about 43C and the motherboard is a constsnt 39C.

Help please.

Cheers

Jason

Re: Voltage & Temp Readings

Andre Ricaud — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 17:42:35 GMT

My a520n also had very high temperatures. I replaced the PSU with an Antec 350 watt which has 2 fans; 1 on the bottom and 1 on the back.

That lowered the temp. I then added a PCI slot cooler (I think that's what it's called) which brought my temps down to 116 F. (cpu) and 96 F. (case) on average.

The slot cooler doesn't plug in to a PCI slot but it does use 1 slot space. I don't recall the brand of slot cooler, but Fry's Electronics had a narrow and wide version. Only the narrow version will fit. It cost about $10-12.