asus g1s and odd temperature readings from speedfan

I was using Speedfan v 4.33 for approximately a year, and it reported my HD temperature as 35-45 C depending on if I had a cooler, what i was doing, etc. and my two CPUs at 38-42 (idling)

i just checked yesterday to see if there was a new version of speedfan out, and there was (4.37) so i downloaded it and installed it.

here's the odd part....after installing it, it shows my HD temperature accurately (it is reading 38C atm), but my CPU temperatures have shot up 15C to, currently, 58C each (but i have seen them go up to 63C on idle)

i installed the trial version of everest ultimate to see what temperatures that pulled, and everest coincided with the temperatures speedfan 4.37 was displaying. I uninstalled 4.37 and reinstalled 4.33 and the cpu temperatures were back to the 38-42 range.

My question is.....what's with the huge difference between the cpu temperatures for 4.33 and 4.37, and is this higher temperature reported by both speedfan and everest ultimate accurate? if so, what's the safe range of operating temperatures for the T7500 in my g1s?

on a side note, the gpu temperature that speedfan 4.37 reports seems accurate (it is the same temperature reported by nVidia ntune)

 

Try using HWMonitor. It is about as accurate as you can get for your chipset. There will be a variance between programs, but SpeedFan may have a corrupted installation file or may have a new issue after the update, itself.

 

just took a look at HWMonitor, and it agrees with what Speedfan 4.37 and Everest reported. my min since running HWMonitor has been 60C, and max of 66C. should i be worried at this temperature? I have checked my vents and fan, and recently cleaned them.

 

That is a bit higher. You may want to take some compressed air and blow out your cooling vents. I have my system undervolted, so I run about $5-50C normally. Without undervolting, 55C is about usual.

 

Chances are the newer SpeedFan version fixed some bugs and is right.

I support the suggestion above of trying to clean up the heat radiator and fan. I would recommend partial disassembly and cleaning with Q-tips, instead of just compressed air, if it is not too difficult (we do have a disassembly manual on the Info Booth I believe).

 

i just did what you two suggested (took off the covers and partially disassembled the fan area). i did not notice much, if any, dust even after disassembling, but i cleaned with q-tips and more compressed air anyway.

right after boot up, and with firefox, miranda, and HWMonitor running it has dropped to about 55-57C.

in addition, all the temps i'm reporting are with my G1s atop a notepal infinite (on lowest fan setting)

 

Sounds goods. Now just watch out for GPU heating. As soon as you see that, send it in. Once your 8600M hits that 90C area, its time for an RMA.

 

would it be possible for an RMA even though my laptop is beyond the warranty date? I got mine in June 2007, before they had the 2-year warranty change. for now, i've rarely seen my GPU go over 70, except when gaming.

 

You can send it in to Asus, but they'll bill you for any work and also to ship it since you're out of warranty. Not a path I'd recommend, personally .

Good to see that your temps dropped - just keep in clean periodically and you should be fine.

Speedfan was known to have wonky algorithms for pulling the temps from the motherboard in the past; I agree with EBE that it sounds like things are better with the new version since the temps it reports are consistent with other software.

 

Even since you are out of warranty, I have heard that Asus will RMA a device. It may involve some sweet-talkin to get them to do it. If you have any issues, I have a 'manager's' contact information that he said to use in case of an issue. When you are gaming, as long as it is below 90, you are ok. I currently get 90-94C playing L4D or CSS, even after a vent cleaning.

 

sounds good. if you read that off an article or anything, i would love to have that link. i'll be sure to drop you a line if anything horrible happens to my G1s (i really hope not) and ASUS proves to be unhelpful (aka make me pay) with the fixing of my laptop.

EDIT: i lied....i just checked the sticker on the bottom of the laptop and the warranty says "24M" so i guess i have until July 2009. on a side note, when I was cleaning the fan and heat radiator, i had to move a sticker they put atop the heatsink assembly....would that void my warranty just because i moved it to get better access to cleaning the fan and heat radiator?

 

Does the sticker say "Warranty void"? If yes then maybe the warranty is technically void. As explained in the post above however, they tend to not be fussy about this sort of thing, at least in the US.

 

the sticker was the one that said "warranty voided if damaged or removed"

well...hopefully my G1s's GPU doesn't crap out on me....i've yet to have an excessive problem with the temperatures before. i just did some light gaming to see how hot things would get (TF2 for about 30 minutes)

the CPUs got to 80C, and the GPU was 83C max, is that within safe operating temperatures?

 

cpu seems a bit high (shouldnt be more than 60..70), but the gpu is better than other g1s' ive seen. generally, anything >90C is safe.

 

thalanix means < 90 probably.

The GPU is what matters here, since it's the one susceptible to failure, due to the (alleged) "bad bumps" problem of nVidia -- not any more very "alleged" when we see the alarming rate at which 8600-s and 8400-s fail on this forum.

The problem appears due to thermal cycling: hot-cold, hot-cold. Since your max temps are lower than for other people, your GPU is probably going to last longer. As I said on another thread, you can help it last even longer by trying to minimize the number of cycles, e.g. don't put the computer to standby when you go to lunch or in similar situations.

 

Awesome info EBE, as usual. Ktang, I forgot to mention that you may want to undervolt your CPU. Undervolting will reduce the voltage going to the processor, and thus its heat signature. It can be kind of risky, but it has huge payoffs in the end. I stayed pretty conservative with my voltages and still enjoy a heat cut. Use the link in my sig for an awesome guide.

 

does undervolting do anything to decrease the performance of the laptop? i know the guide you have in your sig states it doesn't but have you noticed any significant decrease in performance? it is my primary machine so i use it for all my gaming as well as my day-to-day activities. if your computer runs just as fast, but cooler, than i'll definitely give it a shot.

thanks for the suggestion EBE. i tend to leave my computer on and just idling when i go out, so i don't feel i make it constantly go through thermal cycles. the only thing that i do do is shut down my computer every 2-3 days, or the various restarts required after installing/uninstalling some things.

 

Absolutely not. What undervolting does is allow the cpu to function at the identically same capabilities, but just use less electricity to do it - think of it like adding a hybrid battery to a car.... it goes the same distance at the same speed in the same amount of time, but uses less gasoline to get there. The cpu still responds to all requests at the same level, and no performance hit is taken.

Intel sets the voltage levels on their CPUs artificially high, to avoid having to worry about variances in the chip production runs that might render a series inoperable if not enough voltage is applied; in doing so, they will never have a chip fail due to lack of electricity since they build in that extra leftover overhead. Kind of like taking 3000mg of Vitamin C a day when all your body will use is the first 1000mg - the leftover is just wasted (you pee it out), but you never worry about not having enough on a given day. While some chips are able to run at lower voltages than others, pretty much all will undervolt to some degree below spec.

 

ah i see. that's some good info to know. should i just undervolt my max CPU speed, or the other ones as well? I took a look at your sig, gengerald and it seems pretty easy. i'm really hoping it'll lower my temperatures.

 

It will definitely lower your temperatures and I suggest following the guide to the 't'. The thing that the guide does not represent is the time needed. It is easy, but important to test and retest the voltages to ensure a safe operating level. I have successfully had my machine undervolted for 3+ months with 0 issue due to this because of the time I took in figuring out what would be the best level.

 

that's a useful tip, thanks. just a question. should i just undervolt my cpu when it's at high charge, or should i actually go through each of the multipliers and undervolt each of them to their optimum settings?

 

Go through each of them It will yield better results and if you ever decide to manually step the processor, you are all set.

 

Really? My G1S used to hit around 106ish all the time before I upgraded to the later drivers... now even with a cooling pad it goes upto about 90C, without a cooling pad it hovers around 96C+. I actually just kind of freaked out right now because I just noticed my CPU temperature hit 80C on both cores, while browsing the web mind you...

Will Asus really take an RMA if the laptop is hitting 90C? Because I'm worried that my laptop's video card will crap out on me right when the warranty ends, I've had it for a little over a year now...

 

You can call and see what they will do. If you load up their stock drivers and find 90C+, then I would definitely say push for a full RMA. You should also look into undervolting with CPU temps that high. The G1/G2 were an epic fail in regards to the thermal design. The only positive to the design on the G2S, at least, is the hd position. Other than that, there are numerous different points where they could have improved their design. It can never hurt to exercise your right to the warranty. My last project is finishing up then my laptop will be off to the service center, can't wait :-/

 

is there much difference temperature-wise betwen BIOS 205 and BIOS 300? I have been running with BIOS 205 because I didn't see a need to upgrade to 300 (it said the only change was it allowed support for Peyrn)

 

Even more annoying is the fact that in linux my CPU temperatures hover around 51C(while having 10+ applications open) while in Vista they don't want to go below 60C and stay around 66C when browsing the web, etc.

 

That may be because Linux automatically throttles the CPU, whereas in Vista, maybe you have it set to perform at full speed all the time?

I know my temperatures are actually a lot better on Vista than Linux (but with Ubuntu 8.10, it improved).

Also I am an advocate of undervolting , at the least RMClock is great for throttling CPU speeds.