Hey folks,

Having some spotty trouble with one of my boxes. Had my hands inside it the other day to finally reinstall some drives and cards after a rebuild last November. About 24 hours later I started to get some alarms about the vCore and the CPU fan. They're both a bit confusing to me, but for now I'm more concerned about the vCore problem.

The Abiteq mobo monitor shows the vCore voltage under no load as 1.12. The alarm sounds under load when it goes up to 1.4. What I don't understand about this is the Abiteq vCore settings (that I never changed) range from 0.90 to 1.30. From what I understand, the vCore for the 3800+ is supposed to be 1.4. So it looks like the power supply isn't pushing enough.

But, when I check the numbers in BIOS the vCore reads as 1.4. (Also, mobo monitor CPU temp reads 30C, in BIOS it's 65C).

I a couple of other mobo monitors and cpu-z and they come back with the same 1.12 vCore as the Abit monitor.

So, which are the numbers I should go by, BIOS or mobo monitors?

Much thanks in advance,

Jim

Oh, here're the specs:

Abit KN8 Ultra
Athlon 64 3800+
Nvidia nForce 4 chipsets
4 x Corsair 512MB PC3200
MSI Nvidia GeForce 6200TC
Coolermaster Extreme 600W PSU
and a big dang Coolermaster on the CPU
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Hi JimBeetle, since you mentioned that you had your hands in the case, let's look at the most likely problem first, a slighly unseated connector cable.

Try to unplug ALL the primary psu -> mobo cables, insert them and pull them out several times each to make sure any possible corrosion is removed from the contacts.

I cant' say for a fact, but it's my impression that the mobo monitors get their data directly from the bios stuff, at least I think that's what happens, so I would tend to trust the bios temp and voltage data.

This is not always the case of course, for example, the linux kernel ignores mobo hard disk limits, so you can install linux on a mobo that allegedly only supports say 8 gig drives but use a 20 gig drive, so the use of the bios stuff isn't absolute.

Try this first and let me know.

Also possible, although highly annoying, is that your psu is failing.

Hopefully you are using a ups between the wall and your computer, if not, voltage surges/drops ( surge protector protects against the first but not the second) could be damaging your stuff.

But if you can trace the irregularity directly to the day you messed around with this insides, I'd check the physical stuff first before getting worried, but do get a ups if you don't already have one. apc is good.
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Yeah, I was planning to open the box and revert it back, check the connections, then reconnect stuff one piece at a time, just wanted to get the BIOS vs. monitor stuff straight in my mind first.

And yep, already use a ups.

I'll get to muddling around inside in a couple of days or so and let you know what's what.

Thanks,

Jim
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