Mystery Alarm on EP45-UD3L
 

I get an audio tone from my EP45-UD3L during periods of heavy lifting -
sometimes intermittent, sometimes steady.

Right now, running an app called HandBrake which is transcoding DVD to
..MPEG4 disc-to-disc, the alarm is steady. CPU use is pretty much pegged
in the very high nineties per Process Lasso.

I kill HandBrake and the alarm stops immediately. No time for core
temps to drop - although they did drop quickly from high sixties to high
thirties within a few minutes.

Fire HandBrake up again and CPU use immediately rises from low teens to
very high nineties and the CPU temps begin to rise - but the alarm does
not come on until about five minutes later when it starts intermittently
and becomes steady within a minute. Core 0 at this point is running at
69-70 C. The other 3 cores are in the low sixties.

Seems logical that an audible alarm would be for things that threaten
the mobo/CPU so I'm thinking "Temp".

But that begs the question of why the alarm stops instantly when I shut
down HandBrake - certainly before the CPUs have had to cool.

??
--
Pete Cresswell

Mystery Alarm on EP45-UD3L
 

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
I get an audio tone from my EP45-UD3L during periods of heavy lifting -
sometimes intermittent, sometimes steady.

Right now, running an app called HandBrake which is transcoding DVD to
.MPEG4 disc-to-disc, the alarm is steady. CPU use is pretty much pegged
in the very high nineties per Process Lasso.

I kill HandBrake and the alarm stops immediately. No time for core
temps to drop - although they did drop quickly from high sixties to high
thirties within a few minutes.

Fire HandBrake up again and CPU use immediately rises from low teens to
very high nineties and the CPU temps begin to rise - but the alarm does
not come on until about five minutes later when it starts intermittently
and becomes steady within a minute. Core 0 at this point is running at
69-70 C. The other 3 cores are in the low sixties.

Seems logical that an audible alarm would be for things that threaten
the mobo/CPU so I'm thinking "Temp".

But that begs the question of why the alarm stops instantly when I shut
down HandBrake - certainly before the CPUs have had to cool.

??

Most GA UD3 MB's have a known problem called "coil whine".
You can try turning off the cpu power stepping.
My UD3R whines every now and then. My first UD3R was so
bad that I took it back and got another.

Mystery Alarm on EP45-UD3L
 

Paul in Houston TX wrote:
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
I get an audio tone from my EP45-UD3L during periods of heavy lifting -
sometimes intermittent, sometimes steady.

Right now, running an app called HandBrake which is transcoding DVD to
.MPEG4 disc-to-disc, the alarm is steady. CPU use is pretty much pegged
in the very high nineties per Process Lasso.

I kill HandBrake and the alarm stops immediately. No time for core
temps to drop - although they did drop quickly from high sixties to high
thirties within a few minutes.

Fire HandBrake up again and CPU use immediately rises from low teens to
very high nineties and the CPU temps begin to rise - but the alarm does
not come on until about five minutes later when it starts intermittently
and becomes steady within a minute. Core 0 at this point is running at
69-70 C. The other 3 cores are in the low sixties.

Seems logical that an audible alarm would be for things that threaten
the mobo/CPU so I'm thinking "Temp".

But that begs the question of why the alarm stops instantly when I shut
down HandBrake - certainly before the CPUs have had to cool.

??

Most GA UD3 MB's have a known problem called "coil whine".
You can try turning off the cpu power stepping.
My UD3R whines every now and then. My first UD3R was so
bad that I took it back and got another.

And part and parcel, of that suggestion, is checking where
the noise comes from. Is it coming out of the computer case
speaker ? Out of the 5.1 sound system speakers ? Or does
it appear to be a sound coming from inside the computer ?

Knowing the source, would narrow down the possibilities.

*******

In the user manual, I see this BIOS setting in Hardware Monitor.

"CPU Warning Temperature

Sets the warning threshold for CPU temperature. When CPU temperature
exceeds the threshold, BIOS will emit warning sound. Options a

Disabled (default), 60oC/140oF, 70oC/158oF, 80oC/176oF, 90oC/194oF."

Since the processor is thermally protected (computer shuts off
abruptly above THERMTRIP temp), you don't need that enabled and
you can disable it for an experiment. Then monitor CPU temperature
while your Handbrake run is taking place.

(Example of a utility for monitoring temp, on the left...)

http://www.skybuck.org/Winfast/Tempe...th1GHZMode.png

In previous generations of motherboards, a BIOS alarm of that
type, would be a "European Police Siren" kind of sound. So the
sound effect in that case, should be entirely unlike coil noise
(which would be a single tone).

You could also try CPU Smart Fan [Disabled], in the hope
the fan would run flat out. Maybe the fan isn't running as fast
as it could.

*******

If you're unsure the CPU fan is running as fast as it could, you'd
need a special wire harness (Molex connector, two fan connectors),
to effectively bypass whatever the motherboard is doing. I have at
least one fan in my other computers, that bypasses the motherboard
(so the fan doesn't burn out the copper traces in the
motherboard - it's a one amp fan). Commercially, I've only had
one CPU cooling kit, that came with that wiring harness, so they're
not that common. Now, I just make them from parts, with a little
soldering to fix things up.

Molex ------- +12V ------------------------ three pin male
------- GND ------------------------ for CPU fan...
---X +--------- (RPM signal, out)
---X |
| x-- three pin female
| x-- connect to
+--------- motherboard header

What the cable does, is provide a constant +12V. Using two
fan connectors (one male, one female), it makes the RPM signal
available on the CPU fan connector on the motherboard. The BIOS
sees an RPM signal, so it won't panic. You can use three wire
cabling on the four wire CPU header and four wire Intel fan,
by simply avoiding the PWM pin altogether (no connect to
PWM pin). You offset the connector, so the PWM pin remains
unused. On an Intel fan, it's pulled high on its own,
indicating 100% speed is desired.

Paul

Mystery Alarm on EP45-UD3L
 

Per Paul:
In the user manual, I see this BIOS setting in Hardware Monitor.

"CPU Warning Temperature

Sets the warning threshold for CPU temperature. When CPU temperature
exceeds the threshold, BIOS will emit warning sound. Options a

Disabled (default), 60oC/140oF, 70oC/158oF, 80oC/176oF, 90oC/194oF."

Bingo!.....I think...

Found it set to 60/140, set it to Disabled.

Fired up HandBrake an hour or so ago... it's been running ever since and
no beeps. OTOH, I don't seem to be provoking as high core temps as
last time.... but all four are 60+ and CPU is maxed out at 100% usage.

So, my guess is that you nailed it.

Thanks!
--
Pete Cresswell