[Pete1976]

Hi,

I use a Scythe ZIPANG inside my HTPC. I have a AMD Athlon 4850e CPU (TDP: 45W). At idle I have ~32°C and if I stress with Prim95 it goes up to 120°C. The ZIPANG is in this moment at the top only hand warm (maybe ~30°C), a little bit warmer than at idle (then it is really cold). I just checked the holder of the cooler and the silver material in between the CPU and the cooler (Wärmeleitpaste) and all of this seems ok.

It is possible that the heat pipes doesn't work? How can I check this? Maybe one of the Techs here can help me with this problem.

Thanks!

Best Regards

Pete

[hiroshige]

Hello Pete,

an issue like this is unknown to us. Did you modify something at the Zipang? How does the distribution of the thermal grease look like? Could you please try to use one drop of thermal grease placed in the middle of the CPU heatspreader and then mount the cooler, then unmount and see, if the drop gets distributed? How is the baseplate look like?

Kind regards,
Stefan - Scythe EU Hamburg

[Pete1976]

Hello Stefan,

thanks for your fast reply. At the moment I'm not near the HTPC. But this evening I will remove all of the now used thermal grease (I missed this word), take a picture from the baseplate, put 1 drop of thermal grease to the CPU, mount and unmount the Zipang and take another picture from the baseplate and the CPU top. Right?

How can I sent you this pictures? Or put them here in the thread?

Best regards

Pete

PS: Mayby we can switch to english or use eMail, because it seems a little bit special.

[hiroshige]

Hello Pete,

right - it's quite important to find out if the baseplate and/or the heatspreader of your CPU are shaped concavely in a way that there is no contact between them.

You could use e.g. Kostenlos Bilder hochladen - Dein Upload Service for uploading pictures or click on "Go Advanced", scroll down and then on "Manage attachments" to upload your pics directly in here.

Cheers,
Stefan - Scythe EU Hamburg

[Pete1976]

Morning Stefan,

I have done what you had suggested. Here are the pictures:









I just use the position 2 of the clamp (where it is has little bit to less pressure), but I also tried position 3 (where it is really hard to mount the cooler):

The effect is the same (very hot CPU). Which position is right for AM2 socket? Board is Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H.


Thanks again for your help. I hope we can fix the problem soon.

Best regards

Pete

[sumo]

Hello Pete1976,

Your temps are really abnormal, because no newer CPU runs with such temps. With which program did you check the temps? Did you eventually forgot to updated your mainboard bios?

To your pictures:

The distribution of thermal grease seems to be ok to me, but... please use the third notch (on your picture) to have the right pressure for Zipang.

Position:

Theoretical the best position is with the ends of the heatpipes to the roof (NT)
or horizontal.


Chris
Scythe EU GmbH

[Pete1976]

Hi Chris,

I use HWMonitor from CPUID.com and EasyTune from the mainboard producer Gigabyte. Both show this high temp (with CPU-Z it is the same). It seems that there is no cooling effect with the Zipang. The BIOS is at the newest version (I just checked this).

Out of the box it was set to notch no. 2. At the very beginning I tried to use notch no. 3 but for me it looked like this is to much stress for the board. So I used no. 2 until now. But yesterday I tried also notch no. 3 but without any change in the temps.

The mainboard is mounted horizontal in my case (Thermaltake DH 101 http://www.tt-germany.com/db/picture...1346982461.jpg)

So what should be the next steps to find the reason for this 'not working Zipang' (which is a great, quiet cooler)? Is there any possibility that the heat pipes are not working?

Best regards

Pete

[sumo]

Hello,

Did you also try another fan, like the AMD Stock one? Because my last thought is a tempbug in your CPU. For an example: at my home i have a Tripple Core AMD which works at 3°C in IDLE ( 20° Roomtemp), its a typical tempbug.

Which temperature shows your bios?

Chris

[Pete1976]

Hi Chris,

I can test this maybe with the Scythe Shuriken (you see I like your products) from my desktop PC.

What do you mean with 'tempbug'? A general design bug of the AMD CPU or a bug especially with my CPU?

At the BIOS I have temps ~32°C at ~22°C room temp. I just tried to unmount the cooler in BIOS for a short time. Then the temp in BIOS goes up quickly and the top of the CPU is hot (tested with fingertip). I tested also the cooler with an iron. The plate heats up but the heatpipes are only handwarm, also the big block above the plate is not very hot. So maybe the plate is somehow isolated to all parts above.

So what do would you suggest as next steps?

Best regards

Pete

[sumo]

Sorry Pete for my late respons,


Sometime CPU cores have a temperature bug, that means that the diode in your DIE not work how it should work, or your motherboards have problems to read its data.


So its a good idea to check your CPU with your Shuriken Cooler. If the temps are much better - than we have to replace your Zipang. But if your temps are not better with the new cooler - than it looks like the temperature bug i told before.


I hope we can fix your problem.

Chris
Scythe EU GmbH