GA990FXA-UD7 rev1.1 - Info on some (probably strange) problems

[nirvana]

Hi all,
I'm a new owner of gigabytes products. My system:
Motherboard Gigabyte GA990fxa-UD7 rev 1.1, AMD FX-8150, Radeon HD6970, 8gb Geil RAM (PC3 Corsa Evo running 1866mhz @ 1666 by default), Win7 x64.

Before this system I have a ECS A790GXM-A motherboard with an AMD PhenomII x4 955BE and always has 8 gb at 1333mhz. In both systems, I always left the default settings, I never tried to overclock.

In my NEW system I notice some things that I can not say whether the problems are or not normal behaviors, perhaps due to the new component technologies:
- CPU temperature varies greatly in a short time. Passes (for example) at idle from 30 to 39 degrees (celsius) in 3 seconds. Then, when the processor is under stress the temperature rises up to 60-70 degrees with the fan operating at 100%. For me it's weird because I remember that the temperature of my old system was much more stable and rarely came to 60 degrees.

-The second problem is (possibly) subsequent to the first. The fan speed varies continuously. Since the CPU temperature varies so much and so fast, the fan is forced to pass suddenly from 50% to 100% speed thus being "boring". Also in this case, I ask for information, because in my old system the fan was much more constant. The speed (and thus noise) of the fan increased only when the processor was under stress, and always in a constant way.

The graphs of the temperature and fan speeds are absurd: every 3-5 seconds reach a peak towards the top (hot) and one towards the bottom (cold). They look like a rollercoaster.
The situation is strange because even if I tries to play (for example) to GTA IV, after a while I start to hear some beeps coming from the motherboard, and I think are caused by temperature.

When I installed the CPU doesn't have added thermal paste because the fan comes with a layer of thermal paste pre-applied.
I would understand (perhaps by other owners of the system similar to my) if this behavior (the sudden change of temperature and speed of the fan at idle) is normal (perhaps due to the greater amount of transistors present in the new AMD).

What do you think? I would try to do a test with PRIME or OCCT ..... what do you think??

P.s.: sorry for my english

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

Please could you start with listing the hardware that you are currently using which would give us a better feel for your system. The temperatures that you mention don't seem to be too outlandish but it is hard to say withouth knowing a bit more about the overall machine especially the case and cooling systems. Are you using a stock CPU fan ?

[nirvana]

I have a cooler master HAF-X, no liquid cooling. I used a stock fan and just right now I'm trying with a different fan (fan and heatpipe much larger). but the result is the same. Only to turn on my PC (just booted) the processor's temperature has reached 48 degrees. Just finished loading the system has gone in about 3 seconds from 48 to 28!!!! Only to open firefox I can hear the fan accelerates very quickly.

I'm starting to get very worried.



EDIT: I started a test with OCCT. Before the test starts, OCCT run a system monitoring. In this period the temperature of the CPU had absurd changes: between 30 degrees and.......15 !!!!! 5 degrees less than the temperature of the room! This is clearly impossible. So I think that there is a problem with the mobo sensor.
But when the test starts, however, the temperature gets up correctly, reaches very slowly and progressively about 50 and there it stops. It's incredible!

With OCCT I can see that if the CPU load goes from 0 to 12%, the temperature instantly switches from 18 to 30.  

Sorry NEW EDIT: Only now, I noticed that the PWM values ​​of the fans are impossible with any software (SIW, HW Monitor, CoreTemp....): 2 fans are always maintained at 99% and 1 always at 0%.

It's time to consider RMA?

[absic]

Hi there,

I too would be worried by the wide variations you are getting in temps. First thing that I am wondering is which BIOS version are you running? If it is not the latest version, F8f then I would update to that to see if that helps. You can download it from here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3880&dl=1#bios and I would recommend using QFlash to run the update. Remember to disable the "Keep DMI Data" Option on the QFlash homescreen before running the update.

[nirvana]

Thanks Bro for the suggestion...

Infact I was just about to start to flash the bios because I have version F5. my motherboard is new, I bought it about 1 month ago.

I'll try and then I'll let you know...

[absic]

I've just been doing some checking and the maximum temperature for the FX processors is 61C, so be careful if the temps are going above this for any length of time.

[nirvana]

I did the upgrade of the bios, now I have the last.
The situation, in some ways is even worse: infact now the PWM values ​​of the fans are impossible (as before), but inverse: the fan who scored 0% now reads 99% and vice versa.  


EDIT: another thing that I noticed is that on EasyTune6 - HWMonitor - Fan/Temp there are always an alarm on CPU and System Fan. Why?
I attach a screeshot of EasyTune and one of SIW so you can watch all my system
 

[incubus]

Hello.Try to disable amd c1e support in bios.I had a friend who had a similar problem(heating) and when he turned that thing of in bios,problem was gone somehow.He had a fluctuation of vcore from 1.35 to 1.55 and that is what it caused the heating.Thia is just a suggestion and sorry for my english

[nirvana]

@incubus:

I took your advice and actually the situation is much improved. Thanks Bro!

Unfortunately, however, is not enough:
In fact, if I let the system run at idle, the temperature, every (about) 10 seconds, makes a swings of over 10 degrees, increased from 16 degrees (which it already is absurd) to 30 in 1 second and then come back (again instantaneously) to 16. All this makes me think of a defect in the temperature sensor. 

[incubus]

@incubus:

I took your advice and actually the situation is much improved. Thanks Bro!

Unfortunately, however, is not enough:
In fact, if I let the system run at idle, the temperature, every (about) 10 seconds, makes a swings of over 10 degrees, increased from 16 degrees (which it already is absurd) to 30 in 1 second and then come back (again instantaneously) to 16. All this makes me think of a defect in the temperature sensor. 

Or a defect processor.For example i have right now on my system a phenom 955.right now the temperature on my system is 37 Celsius with a few programs running.If i open prime for example,i one second the temperature goes from 37 to 46 and the it keeps rising until it reaches 52 Celsius.Maybe your cpu cooler don't fit exactly.Try another cpu cooler.I think this is your problem and again this is just a suggestion.

[Vezina]

The 8150 Bulldozer is a heavy fighter.
In needs proper cooling.
You need a cooler able to take out the heat from the CPU very fast.
Use the frostytech website to find a good cooler able to cool a 125W TDP + CPU

You can optimize a little your cooler by using the minimum amount of thermal paste in your installment ,so reapply the thermal carefully and search for another cooler in the meantime.

The spikes may be caused by the way this CPU works ,make sure you have also installed the latest Microsoft patches for this CPU-s to minimize the spikes in usage.

[nirvana]

Infact, the strange thing is that when the CPU starts to work, after the temperature exceeded 30 degrees or so, continues to rise in a very regular way up to a maximum of 50-53 degrees. This makes me think that perhaps might not be the sensor, but only the new type of processor. On the other hand, not convice me that the temperature at idle sometimes remains constant at 12-13 degrees! (impossible due to the room temperature where there are 20 degrees).

I really do not know what to think. I will follow your advice and try to buy a special fan.

Thank you very much guys for your suggestions and your willingness!!!