# Motherboard or CPU temperature



## eggbert (Feb 23, 2008)

I just got a Dell Insprion 530 quad core yesterday, and after installing Sisoft Sandra, I was shocked to see that it's reporting my *motherboard* temperature is running between 81C and 86C. 

That seems way way too hot  I thought I better try another monitoring program, so I gave PC Wizard a try, and it reported that my *CPU* temp was running at 81C

Processor Temperature : 81 °C
Processor Temperature (Core 1) : 30 °C
Processor Temperature (Core 2) : 27 °C
Processor Temperature (Core 3) : 26 °C
Processor Temperature (Core 4) : 26 °C
Mainboard Temperature : 33 °C

I'm confused about where the 81 °C temp is coming from.

The weird thing however, is that it's in the 80s right after booting up, or comming out of sleep mode... Or whenever its just running idle. Nothing seems overly warm to the touch, nor do I smell anything burning. In addition, the system appears to be running stable.

Any help or guidence would be most welcome.


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## faulaproxy (Feb 23, 2008)

do you by any chance play games eg halflife.These games make the pocessor go crazy


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## faulaproxy (Feb 23, 2008)

Please checke and verify the following if 1) heatsink isn't seated correctly or you have too much or too little thermal paste contact between the heatsink and CPU. 2) your fan is seized, malfunctioning, or not connected to the motherboard


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## eggbert (Feb 23, 2008)

I haven't played any games. The 81C temp is at idle. Even right after a cold boot.

The fan is running. I'm not going to pry off the heatsink, because if it comes to that I'll just send the friggin thing back to Dell. But, it does appear to be seated OK, as best as I can tell. It's also not hot when I touch it.

I've also checked the sensor readings in Everest Ultimate, and it lists the 81C sensor as "Aux" whatever that means.

When I run the Everest stress test, the Aux bumps up to about 84C, so it must be reading the temp from something.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Check your readings in the bios to see what that tells you. That is most likely the most accurate of any programs you might run. It is quite possible that you have a faulty sensor in your rig and that is quite common.


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## eggbert (Feb 23, 2008)

I wish I could check it in the BIOS... But Dell saw fit not to
include any sort of hardware monitoring in their BIOS. 

If it was a heatsink/fan problem, wouldn't the "core" temps be high as well?

Are there any other temp monitoring programs that might shed any light on this? I really don't know what to do here.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Here are two programs that I commonly use as indicators:

SensorviewPro

Speedfan

What I suspect you might find is that they will show the same thing if you have a bad sensor. Do you have any other problems with the computer, like shutting down, blurred images, etc., that might be an indicator of problems. Also, does your dell have an alarm for temperature problems that is set to a certain temp?


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## eggbert (Feb 23, 2008)

Thanks for the links. I tried speedfan, and it also shows the 81c temp. 

I've only had the PC for a day or so, but so far I haven't had any shut downs, reboots, or any problems whatsoever other than that high temp I'm seeing in all these monitoring programs. 

I don't know if there is any sort of alarm. Where would I find it? I assume everything would just shut down if the CPU, or mobo, or whatever got too hot?


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

If the computer doesn't have a monitoring program, then look in the bios setup menu and see if there is anything there for hardware monitoring. 

I like the SensorviewPro program, so also take a look at that one. Post what it says on here so I can see it. 

Most of the time, your computer will shut down if things get too hot, or an alarm will go off warning you it is too hot. That is why I suspect a bad sensor, like I said, bad sensors are often seen on some boards, so you may have nothing to worry about.


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## eggbert (Feb 23, 2008)

SensorView is reporting:

CPU: 27C
SYS: 81C
AUX: 31C
HDD: 29C

CPU Usage 0% - 1%
Mem Usage 59%

CPU Fan: 1507 RPM
Sys FAN: 0 RPM <--- registers ok in PC Wizard, Sandra, et al
AUX Fan 0 RPM <-- don't have one

And then it lists some voltages....


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Sure looks like a bad sensor to me. I just don't see how it can be that hot with the temps your other components are showing. 

Tell you what, if you have no problems with the rig, I would not worry about this one. Also, I will ask another great tech or two on here to come over and take a look at your thread so we can get another opinion on this issue. Two or three heads are always better than one.


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## eggbert (Feb 23, 2008)

Ok, thanks for all the help!


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

I have sent out a couple of requests to friends to take a look, but everyone is busy or offline right now. Maybe later in the day, someone will come by and give an opinion. Have a wonderful day.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Motherboard temperature sensors can often be inaccurate by as much as 10-15C. If it's reporting 81C at startup then it's more likely to be the CPU rather than the motherboard, but I stll think it's inaccurate or a faulty sensor.

What are your temps/volts like during gameplay? Alt-tab out of a fullscreen 3D game to see the temperatures and +12V reading. This is more accurate than taking a reading at idle or after the game has stopped.

Remember to include the voltages when you post back. An out of range +12V could be responsible for components overheating.


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

I agree with Tumbleweed and Koala.

This makes no sense at all:


> Processor Temperature : 81 °C
> Processor Temperature (Core 1) : 30 °C
> Processor Temperature (Core 2) : 27 °C
> Processor Temperature (Core 3) : 26 °C
> Processor Temperature (Core 4) : 26 °C


Also - the other parts; mobo, HDD etc would be much hotter if the CPU actually was 81 °C.

It has to be a wonky sensor, IMHO.


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## speedster123 (Oct 18, 2006)

also
do you have the latest bios?
even though your issue isnt noted, sometimes the update has other benefits.
http://support.us.dell.com/support/...eid=R167100&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=225972


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## eggbert (Feb 23, 2008)

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I'm not a gamer, and I have a sucky onboard intel GMA gpu, so the best I could do with a 3d game was Second Life. I tried to stress everything as much as I could tho.

Anyway, I've attached a screen shot of SpeedFan showing the voltages while I was in Second Life.

ETA: I just realized that SpeedFan gave innacurate temps for the cores. (It always seems to do that). Anyway, none of the cores ever got above 36C while in second life.

The higest temp I've seen on the cores so far was while running the Everest Stress test... I ran that for about 2 minutes and they got up to about 48C.


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## eggbert (Feb 23, 2008)

speedster123 said:


> also
> do you have the latest bios?
> even though your issue isnt noted, sometimes the update has other benefits.
> http://support.us.dell.com/support/...eid=R167100&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=225972


No, I haven't updated that. I have version 1.0.7. 

I'd really rather not update the BIOS unless I absolutely have to. My guess if it's a sensor bug, I doubt they fixed it since dell doesn't even put hardware monitoring in their BIOS.


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## speedster123 (Oct 18, 2006)

i would leave it.
if the system operates ok, dont worry about the sensor.
good luck


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