New parts came in...

[TRDCorolla1]

I used a dap of it and the cooling is ok. Right before all this problem occured, I monitored the temps. It was reading a nice 41 degrees Celsius. It does the job. I just put a small dot in the middle of the heatspreader. For some reason, I was expecting it to run hotter--but it's fine---until all this damn problem started to happen. Up to now, I still don't have my PC running!!!!

It was working beautifully after the RAM install. The CPU is too new for my motherboard, lol. Luckily, I manage to back up all my necessary data over to my external drive, which I had to burn over to my DVD, then to the drive (since the external drive can't be detected in Vista---USB problem).

 

[Thelis]

41 idle?

Now I am no expert on AMD stuff, but isn't that a bit too high? My C2D, with a huge Vcore increase idles at like 36 with my Tuniq.

 

[Rudster8161]

hey if you want i could give you a link to a "demo" of vista ultimate. i have it and there is no activation on it. im sure with your internet the download should be very fast too.

EDIT:

41 idle?

Now I am no expert on AMD stuff, but isn't that a bit too high? My C2D, with a huge Vcore increase idles at like 36 with my Tuniq.

thats because he is on stock cooling, and the AS5 hasnt settled in yet. what are the temps loaded?

 

[TRDCorolla1]

I actually came in pretty low. I researched the CPU temp for: Socket 939 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and the thermal specs are anywhere from 49-71 degrees. It was at idle because I was just letting it sit there doing nothing while I monitor the temp. I was working on my laptop at the same time.

Processor AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 X2 Dual-Core
Model 3800+
Revision E4

Core Speed (Mhz) 2000


Voltages 1.30V1.35V
Wattage 89 W

CMOS 90nm SOI
Socket 939



I forgot to check when I was running UT3 while it was still working (on single core even though theh X2 was installed). But once everything is working, I'll post. It was frustrating playing the game knowing that the two cores should have already kicked in, but the single core still peaks out at 100% while the reading for Core 2 remains at 0%. Man.....

 

[Rudster8161]

well at least you dont have to take out your new CPU, put the old one back in, flash the BIOS, then install the new one again.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

I tried that too. By the time I put the old one back in, the USB drivers were already corrupt from when I had X2 in there. It picked it back up as being my old Athlon 64, but I didn't want to use that. With the USB not working, I had no mouse, no Internet, no external drives hooked up. Only choice was to reinstall Windows at that point. Wihtout a Vista CD, that made it worse, but I had XP as backup. But I want to get the X2 to work so I put it back in and reinstall Windows. Now, I'm going to get the Net working to get the updates.

I even went to the point on taking out my old nForce4 CD to reinstall the USB drivers. Wouldn't let me. It was greyed out showing that it's properly installed. Strange.

The CPU is working....but the software needs to see it in order to utilize it.

Yesss....USB is now working. Damn, I should've connected to the Net first to get the new nForce4 drivers. I'll get it afterwards.

 

[D-Lew]

My idle overclocked .3GHz and 1.5V is 36C. Something seems wrong.

 

[Lowndsey]

41 idle?

Now I am no expert on AMD stuff, but isn't that a bit too high? My C2D, with a huge Vcore increase idles at like 36 with my Tuniq.

it takes a while for the paste to break in. You are supposed to run it through thermal cycles for the first few days..eg: run it all day and switch it off over night to let it cool. Thats what the instructions said that came with my AS5

 

[TRDCorolla1]

The whole thing is wrong, lol. I called Gigabyte Tech Support and you know what they said?

In earlier posts, I posted that the 2nd core wasn't being detected. Ok, no big deal. Let me try to update the BIOS which is the most logical thing to do. Before that happened (right after I installed the Athlon X2) all kinds of nasty crap happened. I got it running in XP now so it's super good, but again, no 2nd core is active.

Now I call tech support and they said I would need a new ROM chip which leads to a new motherboard. I even went through all the stuff they told me. On the phone for more than 30 minutes. I tried ALL the different BIOS revisions to no success. I even used three different utilities and BIOS utility directly built in. Nothing. I even changed all settings to default. Still, no go. I even did a clean reinstall just in case, but nothing happens.

So Gigabyte apologized about the inconvience and said I need a new board. Because it had limited warranty on it, I wasn't able to get a replacement. It's over three years old anyways so I highly doubt I can get a replacement for that. It's been discontinued.

So basically, I'm running an Athlon64 X2 90nm Toledo (single core, lol). I guess it's still better than my older Athlon64 130nm Newcastle CPU, haha.

It does run lower on power overall. I checked the temp this morning and it was running fine at 39-40 degrees of doing nothing all night. Technically, the temp specs are well within CPU heat tolerance so I'm not worried about it getting too hot. Even if it ran in the high 50's and mid 60's it's fine--although you don't want to push it. Luckily, I only paid $50 for this POS CPU that's suppose to run dual core, but single core instead.

I'm not going to buy a new motherboard, lol. Then I might as well just re-buy everything else. That defeats the whole purpose of getting the CPU and RAM in the first place for my old motherboard. I'm going to OC it to get my money's worth .

 

[D-Lew]

Wow, that sucks. Is the board supposed to support dual cores?