SFP reinstallation

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:59 am

im probably suggesting obvious things here but did you check for irq conflicts?

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:19 pm

[@ piddi]

Sorry mate, I try to avoid confusion writing posts, but it's hard.

Cochise wrote:
The only tweaks I tryied was disabling periferals sharing IRQs, disabling video hardware acceleration and background tasks optimization. All drivers and BIOS are updated. Only SFP and some small utility like Asus Probe are installed (of course I tryied without AsusProbe running in background).

[/@ piddi]

Maybe I'm on the way to solve the thermal issue.
I've changed the air direction for one of the case fans. Now both are extracting, and this way more air come in from the slits near PCI boards.
It was an hard way to find the right RPM for the adjustable fans ( the CPU one and the case rear one ). Don't know why, but if the CPU fan goes too fast, PCI boards become hotter.

At the moment, running a project full of masterverbs till the maximum DSP load I can work without the above mentioned fault. I didn't yet made exhaustive tests, but those few were made with a room temperature close to 30° C.
The only grief is for the increased air/fan noise dBs from the DAW.
But these were just extreme conditions tests.
I will try in lower room temperatures by air conditioner if it will be possible to lower fans speed.

Now there are a couple of things I'm wondering about:
- if it's a common thermal issue, or if there's something wrong with my hardware/setup.

- how come running a full DSP load project engages 10% of CPU resources.

Sorry for the derangement guys; just a bit brain boiled now

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 9:33 pm

Well, don't despair, there's always an answer to all problems.
First, 60 degrees Ceslsius is high in my oppinion and any board can act strangely at that temperature not to mention it is reducing the life expectancy of most components. For my dual Xeon PC I have bought a cheap fan and placed at back of case. Those commercial ones are much quieter and push a lot more air.

Why did you disable video acceleration? I think that's why your processor is working harder and getting hotter.

Regarding services, sort your services by the Started status, capture the screen and post here so we can see if any needed service is stopped. Try not to disable services but instead just set them to manual.

Capture your running processes in the Task Manager and post it here too.
Post the IRQ assignments.

If this is a brand new system why don't you reinstall the OS with no boards and devices plugged in, from your original CD then apply the service pack?

Post by **garyb** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:47 am

that sounds right.

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 6:31 am

BingoTheClowno wrote: First, 60 degrees Ceslsius is high in my oppinion and any board can act strangely at that temperature not to mention it is reducing the life expectancy of most components.

Why did you disable video acceleration? I think that's why your processor is working harder and getting hotter.

Regarding services, sort your services by the Started status, capture the screen and post here so we can see if any needed service is stopped. Try not to disable services but instead just set them to manual.

Capture your running processes in the Task Manager and post it here too.
Post the IRQ assignments.

If this is a brand new system why don't you reinstall the OS with no boards and devices plugged in, from your original CD then apply the service pack?

1) My two Luna boards start to fault around 44° C when working coupled (I took a temperature of 42° C by a multimeter probe on the board surface without components immediately after crash and power off)
60° C was a temperature I lead by an hairdryer on single plugged boards for just few moments without experiencing any fault.

2) I disabled video acceleration just to have a try. I usually should work with maximum acceleration.

3) All services are enabled at the moment cause I'm running a fresh installation using the test setup I described in a previous post.
I will post some screen capture after the planned definitive WinLite installation if I'll experience any problem. Thx for your willingness.
Of course is also possible that overheated boards might have compromised the integrity of the current and past installations, and all the crashes didn't help for sure. Bad crashes indeed; without blue screens and nothing; just like a very high priority process keeping all the CPU resources and cutting out the user interface: I still can see hardware monitor on screen showing 100% CPU engaged, still can see Asus Probe showing thermal and voltage values slightly changing, but the mouse pointer is blocked and the machine won't receive any command but the power off or reset buttons. So crashes couldn't be the right word. Maybe 'hot freezes'?

I'm managing to make the system work in optimal temperature range before reinstall.

4) It's not a brand new system. It's based on 3Ghz Prescott CPU and there's two SATA 80 GB Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 installed. Unfortunately, I discovered after the purchase these are between the hotter disks on the market.
I'm seriously considering a motherboard and CPU replacement and I'm gonna open a thread for this cause I can see some recent Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs that are faster and cheaper than the E6600/6700, but have a FSB of 1333 MHz. I'm wondering how come they are cheaper and which MoBo can suit coupled with one of those for a CW DAW.

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 6:50 am

valis wrote:There's a freebie you can use called Speedfan that will help you monitor temps & voltages.

I'd a look at the Speedfan website. Really interesting features. Thank you again.

Just wondering if it can continuatively run in background for automatic, heat related fan speed adjustment in a DAW and how much this engages system resources.

Another thing I'm wondering about is if CW boards have any thermal sensors.

ADDED:

My MoBo features Q-fan 2 for CPU and for one of the case fans, but I realized I can't get it working in Windows. When the CPU temperature pass the threshold, looks like fans speed won't increase. Don't now yet if it's due to the hardware regulators the fans have ( but the feature seems anyway to work till I'm inside the BIOS, moreover during the POST fans run at high speed, then slow down ).
Neither I know how and how much this feature engages resources.

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:10 pm

Cochise wrote: I've already installed two additional fans (front and rear of the case, the front one blowing into, the rear one extracting).

What a foolish thing: I was blowing air through a stack of hot HDDs directly to PCI boards. Just as well I'd plugged the front fan to the +5 Vcc, not to the +12

Just made a stress test. It seems to work fine now; temperatures have the right values and I've found a not too noisy speed adjustment for fans.
I'm gonna load software gear.

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:29 pm

You should also consider replacing those ribbon cables with rounded ones that won't obstruct the air flow.

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:38 pm

bingo, that depend on what angle the cables are facing the airflow

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:44 pm

True

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:57 pm

My ribbon cables begin to look quite handled :-/

But they're gonna work

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 7:37 am

Cochise wrote: Just made a stress test. It seems to work fine now; temperatures have the right values and I've found a not too noisy speed adjustment for fans.
I'm gonna load software gear.

Should post forms and results of the test if anyone is interested.

Syntheticly, I made my DAW run for half an hour with all kind of resources (but optical disks) loaded close to 100% in environment temperature around 27° C .