Pentium 4 Northwood 3,4GHz problem

Titus03 · Post by **Titus03** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:52 am

I have installed a new CPU yesterday (check topic's name). When I go to Windows, I can run most programs normally and temperature stays at 41-51 Celsius degrees. But when I try to run for example 3DMark 2000, computers temperature begins to rise to 61 Celsius degrees, program doesn't load at all and monitor turns into power-saving mode. All I can do is to restart, but loading bar on Windows XP (SP2) looks blurred and stops loading. After turning off computer and cooling it about 30 minutes, it begins to work normally again. MB temperature stays 36-41 Celsius degrees all the time. My older Celeron D 2,8GHz processor worked perfectly.

-I have a ASUS P4P800 SE-motherboard.
-Motherboard's BIOS version is 1010.
-Hyper Threading is ON.

Anybody had similar problems and know how to solve this?

Thanks.

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:41 am

The only thing I can think off the top of my head is; have you double checked that the heatsink is making good contact with the CPU? And is there decent airflow in your case? (i.e. you have more fans than just the PSU and CPU)

It could possibly be that the extra heat in your case from the new CPU is causing your graphics card to overheat. Does the graphics card have its own fan? And try running the test with the case open to see if it getting more air 'solves' this problem. If that is the case then you will either need to get some case fans or upgrade your graphics card fans.

Dan

Titus03 · Post by **Titus03** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 6:31 am

That's a good explanation, but it can't be possible because if I work with other programs, computer works well. For example 3D Mark2000 makes it happen, for example Half-Life 2 doesn't cause problems.

I have tested to keep case open and problem occurs while trying to run 3DMark 2000.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 7:58 am

Welcome Titus03!!!

Have you tried reinstalling 3DMark?
Also install PC Probe from Asus's website and check the voltages......they might not be correct since it's software, but pc probe can record your temps & voltages over a period of time. Look for any voltage dips or spikes and also if the cpu temps go much higher!
I had the P4P800 & the P4C800 boards, the P4P800 cpu temps were off by ~8C (too low) and the P4C800 was off by 10C. The latest bios update at the time improved the temp recordings on my P4C800 (it was only ~3C off)
It might be worth updating the bios (if an update is available).

What power supply are you using? The 3.4GHz P4 might be based on the Prescott core, if it is, it will run hot......and also stress the motherboard (vrm) alot.

Have you tried re-seating the CPU heatsink?

Titus03 · Post by **Titus03** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:25 pm

Here are my voltages:

CPU core 1.62V
CPU connector 3.18V
+3.3V 3.36V
+5V 5.08V
reserve +5V 4.56V
VBAT-accu 1.47V

CPU core voltage did 1.55V, no other bigger variations on voltages.

I haven't tried to install 3DMark, but I could do it.

There is a newer BIOS and I will try it.

I am using Deltaco PSU-215 350W Bigfan Power Source.

This is a Northwood-based processor I'm talking about.

Thanks and let's see.

Titus03 · Post by **Titus03** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:06 am

Well, now I've updated my BIOS and it didn't change anything. Re-installing 3DMark 2000 didn't help...

I noticed, that in some newer games hi-res textures were blurry and I changed back my Celeron D processor. Then I used XP:s restore-option, but textures were still blurry. 3DMark 2000 worked after restore-operation.

What do you think, did changing Pentium 4 processor damaged my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card?