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Can AMD's Cool'n'Quiet kill my CPU and PSU?



 
 
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Old December 7th 09, 09:30 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.amd.x86-64
Ant
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Default Can AMD's Cool'n'Quiet kill my CPU and PSU?

Hello.

Last Tuesday night, I came home to my already powered on old
Linux/Debian computer desktop (leave it 24/7). I woke it up to log in
from its xmatrix screen saver and sleep. I ran a program (just upgraded
VirtualBox and wanted to test it) and it hard locked up on me.

No lights on my old PS/2 keyboard amd no PS/2 mouse cursor movements.
Even the old OmniCube KVM didn't respond! I could open and close my old
CD burner and DVD-ROM drives. I tried to hit case's reset button, but
nothing. I held down its power button for over five seconds and nothing.
I tried it again, it finally powered off. I turned it on and nothing. No
beeps or anything. I did see the Enlight PC case's green power light
blinking like a HDD light which was odd. No fans spin. I looked inside,
and didn't see or smell anything odd like burned outs or anything. Just
lots of dusts (cleaned this PC almost a year ago!).

Last night, I got my old box back online, but had to make temporary(?)
scarifices. Basically, it was worse than my other computer hardware
friend and I thought. It was indeed that its Fortron FSP650-80GLC PSU
(650 watts) from 5/14/2007 that went bust. We didn't have time to do an
autopsy due to lack of time and energy (almost midnight!).

We tried a new Antec Basiq BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2
Modular Active PFC power supply
(http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzA= ). Nothing still
came on the screen. Not even its POST! Monitor said no video signals
either. We tried resetting CMOS, changing memory (had four pieces) in
each slot and only using one piece, using and removing GeForce 8800 GT
video card, etc. Sometimes the motherboard would do a long beep. My
friend said it sounded like critical error even if the video card was
there. He even tried another same new and tested MSI motherboard model
that he brought in to test the CPU. Swapping memory pieces and slots and
adding/removing video card seems inconsistent with either no long beeps
or nothing, but both showed nothing on screen or any other activities.
Later on, he is going to try another motherboard for this CPU and see if
it does the same.

After experimenting, he believed that the CPU's memory controller got
damaged. Also, he thinks using AMD's Cool'n'Quiet to slow down and cool
down during idled/slow times and then maximizing out to full speed cause
problems with voltages. Is that even possible to make my PSU and maybe
CPU go bust?

In Linux/Debian, I used its AMD PowerNow with ondemand that is basically
Cool'n'Quiet. See
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Docum...d-powernow.txt
.... A few years ago with the same motherboard and CPU, I used AMD's
Cool'n'Quiet software in Windows XP. I remember it was giving me
headaches like rare random blue screens, so I stopped using it. However,
I upgraded my machines so I used the hardwares for Debian/Linux and it
worked so well in Linux so I used it all day. I even had 150 days of
uptime with no reboots and shutdowns!

Here is what my older box used (similiar results to X2 with different
values) that I am temporarily using according to dmesg:
# dmesg |grep powernow
[ 19.473810] powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ processors (1 cpu cores) (version 2.20.00)
[ 19.473867] powernow-k8: 0 : fid 0xe (2200 MHz), vid 0x2
[ 19.473870] powernow-k8: 1 : fid 0xc (2000 MHz), vid 0x6
[ 19.473872] powernow-k8: 2 : fid 0xa (1800 MHz), vid 0xa
[ 19.473874] powernow-k8: 3 : fid 0x2 (1000 MHz), vid 0x12

Most of the times, it is slow because I am just surfing, downloading,
chatting, or whatever to make my box not work so hard. Once in a while,
it goes max speed because I am doing something intensive like compiling,
copying files (IDE/PATA/network), etc.

What do you think? Maybe I should disable Cool'n'Quiet even though it
will make more heat and use more power during idled times? Thank you in
advance.


FYI for my detailed computer setup before it died: AMD Athlon 64 X2
(dual core) 939 4600+ CPU (using a Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 A1838
model), MSI K8N NEO4-F (MS-7125; v1.0) motherboard (NVIDIA nForce4),
GeForce 5200 GT (AGP; NVIDIA), Enlight 7237-ATX mid-tower case; Antec
Basiq BP550Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 Modular Active PFC
PSU, two case 80mm case fans, Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 (ST380011A; 7200
RPM; 80 GB) HDD, an IDE Quantum Fireball Plus LM 15 GB, Toshiba DVD-ROM
SD-M1612 Rev. B 16X/48X ATAPI/IDE drive, Plextor PX-W1210 PlexWriter
(12/10/32A; IDE), 3.5" floppy disk drive, and an Intel InBusiness 10/100
(82559) NIC. Running Debian (Linux) OS (Kernel v2.6.30-...-686).

It is connected to a Belkin Omni Cube (4-port; PS/2 and VGA) to share a
19" Samsung SyncMaster 931BF LCD TFT monitor (4:3 aspect ratio and
1280x1024 native screen resolution), a Dell 104-key PS/2 SK-8110
keyboard, and a three-buttons (middle is a wheel) PS/2 eMachines mouse.
Both computers and monitor are connected to APC Back-UPS XS BX1500's
battery outlets.

Everything is not overclocked and are connected to a 8-ports Netgear
FS108 switch (10/100) for LAN and Linksys WRT54GL v1.1 Wireless-G 54Mbps
router connected to an Ambit/Ubee U10C018 cable modem for Time Warner
Cable's High Speed Internet/Road Runner. Also, a Linksys Instant
Wireless Network Access Point (802.11b; 2.4 Ghz; 11Mbs; v2.6; WAP11; not
always on) for old wireless devices and notebooks/laptops.
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