Crashes and Athlons...

[FranchiseJuan]

I encode mainly Divx, but have recently gotten into SVCD as well (using DVD2SVCD and also TMPG). I also recenly built a new computer on the cheep... Athlon Thunderbird 1.4 and Shuttle AK31 V2.0 (KT244). I was running it at 1.5 (11*136) and had not much problems, but recently I have had problems with SVCD and Divx.

Sometimes while encoding in TMPG I would get a FPU error, and it would crash, and sometimes whlile encoding in GKnot (DIVX 4) the computer would just hang! I am running Windows XP Professional. I had a fealing that it was due to the heat (using a stock HSF). Would I be right in thinking that?

I put it back to 1.4 and for the last few hours it has been fine, although it only cracked occasionally at 1.5 anyway..... I was thinking of upgrading to a Volcano 7, or is there a better HSF, at a reasonable price? This is my first AMD...

Thanks for the help.

[ppera2]

What is temperature of CPU ?
You need good PS too, at least 300 W.

[DDogg]

My advice would be to not attempt an encode on any OC'ed machine, especially using CCE or TMPG, until you have run Prime95 on your machine for 12 - 18 hours with NO errors. I mean not even one.

[FranchiseJuan]

After some heavy encoding of Divx (more then an hour) the CPU temp is getting over 65 C (when running at 1.5) but stays around 60 C (now that I am back to 1.4). I have a 300W PSU.

[pcman]

i have an athlon 1400 not overclocked with 300watt psu but fitted a coolermaster copper heatsink and fan but there is a better one called the heatpipe, but mine runs at 40 then up to 48 during encoding where as my duron before ran at 58 with stock hsf also i use cpucool which gives me constant cpu temp..

[omol]

Originally posted by FranchiseJuan
After some heavy encoding of Divx (more then an hour) the CPU temp is getting over 65 C (when running at 1.5) but stays around 60 C (now that I am back to 1.4). I have a 300W PSU.

65? That's definately not good. Under heavy load, I never break 55 during summer with no air-con and 45 in winter with a TBird 1G @1.3G, and this is Hong Kong, warm and humid. Also, no CPUIdle or CPUCool, just plain air cool. You should really get a better hsf and/or better case air flow. Another thing to pay special attention to is thermal grease, always use decent one or better yet, Artic Silver I/II/III if you can. 300W PSU could or could not be good enough, depends on the brand. If Enarmax, trash it. They don't supply stable voltage. Delta (if you can get one) or Sparkle would be fine. More watt does not necessarily mean good, stable output is more important.

regards,
omol

[FranchiseJuan]

My PSU is L&C Technologies.... Anyone know anything about these guys (in turns of quality)?

Also now I am having even more problems where the computer will now reboot for no apparent reason when I am in the middle of encoding! Could this be related to heat? I have the computer to shut down at 75C (via bios).

[deckie27]

FranchiseJuan

Take the side of your computer case off
This will help keep thing cooler.
You can then work out if heat is the problem.

Dec

[Dagon]

Those temps are very high so It's a good guess that heat is your problem. Double check your CPU voltage (stock is 1.75) and for gods sakes get a better HSF, or at least some case fans...

I 2nd testing system stability with the Prime 95(in torture test mode).

[amon69]

Originally posted by omol
65? That's definately not good. Under heavy load, I never break 55 during summer with no air-con and 45 in winter with a TBird 1G @1.3G, and this is Hong Kong, warm and humid. Also, no CPUIdle or CPUCool, just plain air cool. You should really get a better hsf and/or better case air flow. Another thing to pay special attention to is thermal grease, always use decent one or better yet, Artic Silver I/II/III if you can. 300W PSU could or could not be good enough, depends on the brand. If Enarmax, trash it. They don't supply stable voltage. Delta (if you can get one) or Sparkle would be fine. More watt does not necessarily mean good, stable output is more important.

regards,
omol

I looked at the AMD site http://www.amd.com/ and they say all Athlon XP/MP processors work without error or damage at temperatures up to 85 - 95 degrees(depending on processor) and that their normal working temperature is 65.
Further information can be found here:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DownloadableAssets/FAQ_Rev05_ENG.pdf

If this link does not work get the information from their support section where temperatures and heat are well documented.

[mrlipring]

amd say that, but i can assure you it's not true. A friend forgot to plug in his heatsink, and the pc crashed at mid-70s.

It's fine now, btw, we were lucky. :)

Mine's heavily overclocked (athlon xp1700+ 1466mhz @ 2127mhz) but incredibly stable. Prime95 will run for as long as you like, and it runs very cool.

It all depends on the parts. My motherboard has separate clocks for fsb and pci/agp, so there's none of the pci bus stability problems you'll get with older boards. I bought the particular chip because of its batch number, and i bought the motherboard and memory specifically for their overclocking ability.

Have a google and see what kind of results people are getting with your setup. Get motherboard monitor and keep an eye on the temperature and voltages. my guess is that you won't get much of an overclock out of that machine, it's pretty old. i'm assuming you have generic pc133 as well, which won't be helping, but i have a feeling you'd be better upgrading to something a bit more overclockable.

[smiller667]

All those temperatures you are listing are way too low unless you have a Fujitsu-Siemens board, they are afaik the only ones to read out the internal heat sensor of AMD cpus.
All the others read it off a mainboard sensor which sometimes doesn't even touch the CPU. I'd think you should add maybe 20 degrees celsius to that :). Also they are too slow to detect quick changes in CPU temp (like when the fan dies or the hs falls off.

[joshyg2]

the key to cooling a AMD proccessor down is getting a good fan + heatsink.

I recommend the Thermaltake Volcano series (except. 9+):

I have a AMD 2100+ and use a Volcano 7+, my CPU runs at 40c idle, 50c-56c when ripping. But thats on the lowest fan setting. There are three modes on the Volcano 7+, I just run it on the lowest because there is no noise.

the Volcano 7+ supporst up to 2600+

if you have a higher proccessor, get the Volcano 11+

[Mole]

I remember that some Thunderbirds had buggy SSE unit.

I had a XP 1800+ which would crash a lot in TMPGEnc, but once I disabled SSE, the crashes stopped.

In fact, on some versions of TMPGEnc, the SSE would be disabled by default on some Thunderbirds.