# AMD 630 running too hot?



## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

Hey guys, I'm having some issues with my athlon II X4 630 2.8ghz and the heat. Apparently (says core temp) my cpu while playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 reaches 65C! I read some articles about the 630 and the max temp is 71C. This is making me nervous as I don't want to run down the life of my cpu drastically as I game quite often. The rest of my system specs are in the drop down menu, and fyi I have 2 120mm fans in the case, as well as just the stock fan on my cpu. Thanks for any opinions.


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## erocker (May 1, 2010)

What voltage is it set at? Also, does the cooler seem firmly secured to the CPU?


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## theonedub (May 1, 2010)

When I had my 630 I was able to get it to the mid 3ghz range on an OE Phenom cooler with temps at 53C @ 100% OCCT. 65 and 71 is much hotter than I would care to run one of those chips. Def make sure the voltage is set correctlt as E mentioned.


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

erocker said:


> What voltage is it set at? Also, does the cooler seem firmly secured to the CPU?



It's on default voltage, I havn't played with at all yet as I havn't bought a heat sinc. And yes the fan seems pretty secure but I'll shut down and double check just in case.


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## erocker (May 1, 2010)

Check CPU-Z to make sure the board isn't automatically raising your voltage for some reason.


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

theonedub said:


> When I had my 630 I was able to get it to the mid 3ghz range on an OE Phenom cooler with temps at 53C @ 100% OCCT. 65 and 71 is much hotter than I would care to run one of those chips. Def make sure the voltage is set correctlt as E mentioned.



Right now the only time the temp really rises is when I game on Battlefield to be honest. Right now as I'm righting this the temp is 35C


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## theonedub (May 1, 2010)

Someone before forgot to lock the heatsink down by flipping the 'switch'- I can't help but ask, have you done that correctly as well? Thats just really hot for stock clocks even for a stock hsf.


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

erocker said:


> Check CPU-Z to make sure the board isn't automatically raising your voltage for some reason.



Here's the cpu-z info at the moment, I'll boot up Battlefield and check if the voltage changes at all also.


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## MN12BIRD (May 1, 2010)

Yeah that's pretty hot for a Athlon II even with the stock cooler.  Do you have the latest BIOS on your mobo?  Perhaps try an update if you don't.


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

theonedub said:


> Someone before forgot to lock the heatsink down by flipping the 'switch'- I can't help but ask, have you done that correctly as well? Thats just really hot for stock clocks even for a stock hsf.



Nope, I even double checked and I did flip that lever down to lock the fan in place. It's very secure so I cant see that as being the issue. I'm a noob but im not that big of a noob XD.


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

MN12BIRD said:


> Yeah that's pretty hot for a Athlon II even with the stock cooler.  Do you have the latest BIOS on your mobo?  Perhaps try an update if you don't.



Actaully that's a good idea, since I never downloaded the drivers from my CD since they are only compatable with xp for some reason, and I'm running win 7. Should I try to find some patched  drivers for my mobo and get the latest bios drivers..? How would I check though first to ensure I don't have the latest BIOS already?


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## erocker (May 1, 2010)

exow2 said:


> Actaully that's a good idea, since I never downloaded the drivers from my CD since they are only compatable with xp for some reason, and I'm running win 7. Should I try to find some patched  drivers for my mobo and get the latest bios drivers..? How would I check though first to ensure I don't have the latest BIOS already?



I had that board and all the drivers are listed on Asus' website. http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us Did you ever install your SB/NB/USB drivers from AMD? You need those too.


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

erocker said:


> I had that board and all the drivers are listed on Asus' website. http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us Did you ever install your SB/NB/USB drivers from AMD? You need those too.



Looked through every section on the site and my mobo wasn't listed, I have the M3A78-EM. You sure she's on there..?

EDIT: Also, looking at cpu-z I noticed that my voltages were flying around from being at 1.1 to up to 1.4 then back down again etc, is this normal?


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## theonedub (May 1, 2010)

Yeah Cool n Quiet will auto adjust your Vcore as it adjusts your clocks for power savings. 

I think my 630 only needed 1.3xx (just slightly above default) to get to its ~3.4ish OC. Maybe your board is like my OLD GB board where the default over volts the CPU. I had to go in the bios and reselect normal before it used 1.3xx instead of 1.45. Check it out.


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## erocker (May 1, 2010)

exow2 said:


> Looked through every section on the site and my mobo wasn't listed, I have the M3A78-EM. You sure she's on there..?



Positive. It's on the same page I linked you to.






After you select your motherboard, it will ask what O/S you use. Select the correct O/S. Then it will list everything.


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

erocker said:


> Positive. It's on the same page I linked you to.
> 
> http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/erocker414/help1.jpg
> 
> After you select your motherboard, it will ask what O/S you use. Select the correct O/S. Then it will list everything.



Thanks, must of missed it before I've found it now. So what I'll do is download the latest bios updates correct? I'll probably do this sometime tonight since apparently I can't lose power during this procedure and its raining outside


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## erocker (May 1, 2010)

exow2 said:


> Thanks, must of missed it before I've found it now. So what I'll do is download the latest bios updates correct? I'll probably do this sometime tonight since apparently I can't lose power during this procedure and its raining outside



You need a USB stick formatted with FAT. In the bios there is an ezflash option. With your USB stick inserted with the bios file on it, it should work.


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## OneMoar (May 1, 2010)

cool and quiet / installing southbridge drivers will not help you here 
remove the cooler clean is and reapply some AC5 or other good thermal paste 
AMD specs the maximum temp for the chip @ 70C 
also post a screenshot of cpu-z /WHILE under load ( have a feeling you're board IS infact using 1.42v for the chip instead of the 1.36 OR 1.38 volts it REALLY needs like mine)
if the above fails 
you can try this 
bios setup > voltages > cpu voltage to -0.25 V then step it down one at a time untill the machine is no longer stable and then bump it up one notch from that


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## HELLSPAWNPR (May 1, 2010)

is the case well ventilated ?   i have my 630 OC at 3.6Ghz  1.4v   temps  39c  and during the day since the weather  in Puerto Rico  this week  been uper 90s  been at 50c -55c


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## n-ster (May 1, 2010)

WAYYYYYY to hot for stock.. I got 55 MAX with OCCT or IBT etc... at an overclock to 3.1ghz... (though it was below stock voltage)

You should try to undervolt your CPU and see if that makes a drastic improvement... I could get 1.1V with stock clock, so try 1.22V in BIOS on stock clock to see if that helps


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

rjc862003 said:


> cool and quiet / installing southbridge drivers will not help you here
> remove the cooler clean is and reapply some AC5 or other good thermal paste
> AMD specs the maximum temp for the chip @ 70C
> also post a screenshot of cpu-z /WHILE under load ( have a feeling you're board IS infact using 1.42v for the  chip instead of the 1.36 OR 1.38 volts it REALLY needs like mine)
> ...



Alright, I don't have any good cooling paste on hand but come monday I'll buy a good brand and do as you said. I posted that screenshot of the pc under load and while playing BFBC2 it went up to a whopping 65C..I'm getting a little nervous here as it seems like it's just getting worse and worse. Take a look at CPU-Z and tell me what you think please


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## n-ster (May 1, 2010)

1.4xx V is too much I believe that is your problem, that means in BIOS, it is close to 1.5V...

Go ahead and put your voltage at 1.3V (thats around stock voltage) manually right now and see if that works well


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

n-ster said:


> 1.4xx V is too much I believe that is your problem, that means in BIOS, it is close to 1.5V...
> 
> Go ahead and put your voltage at 1.3V (thats around stock voltage) manually right now and see if that works well



Alright but I'm not sure on what you guys are talking about to lower the voltage. All I'm getting are options to raise the voltage, nothing to lower it in my BIOS. Example: giving me options to up the voltage +50mv, +100mv, or plus 150mv. Help please


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## n-ster (May 1, 2010)

Ah, you'll need Erocker's help here, since I do not have experience with your mobo


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

erocker said:


> You need a USB stick formatted with FAT. In the bios there is an ezflash option. With your USB stick inserted with the bios file on it, it should work.



N-ster was explaining to me that my voltage in the BIOS was much too high. Could you maybe help me in my BIOS since I don't have much experience to lower my CPU voltage to about 1.3? It would be greaaaaaaaaaaaatly appreciated


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## n-ster (May 1, 2010)

haha, I'll PM him for you  or if anyone is familiar with this, then they will help  I'm not familiar with these types of boards


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

Alright thanks a lot man, helps me a ton.


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## xBruce88x (May 1, 2010)

that's the same cpu i have... set to to match this...







ignore the clock speeds (unless you want it to run at those)... i just upped the bus a bit to get it at 3ghz and will up it up some more to get it at 3.5 or even higher when i get better cooling (still stock)

and temps with my gpu folding in the background...






adding new paste could fix it... was a problem with my pent d...






hmm... strangely enough the pent d and athlon II x4 have the same multiplier and bus speed lol

edit:

press either F1,F2, or Del to get into your bios... from there you'll see all the setup menus. just look for anything you see is related to cpu settings (it'll be named something obvious usually, or under an "advanced" menu) and then look for voltage settings.


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## erocker (May 1, 2010)

Unfortunately the M3A78-EM has very limited voltage options. You can only add +.05, +.10, etc.. Most likely a bios update will solve your problem.


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## xBruce88x (May 1, 2010)

decreasing it by .1v should help a little though, mine is running slightly under that and over-clocked by a tad and is stable.

oh and the 1.1-1.4v thing is cool-n-quite kicking in... you could try turning that off, maybe its not working right and setting the voltage too high... who knows

cool-n-quite making it run hotter, oh the irony!


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## erocker (May 1, 2010)

xBruce88x said:


> decreasing it by .1v should help a little though, mine is running slightly under that and over-clocked by a tad and is stable.
> 
> oh and the 1.1-1.4v thing is cool-n-quite kicking in... you could try turning that off, maybe its not working right and setting the voltage too high... who knows
> 
> cool-n-quite making it run hotter, oh the irony!



I should of clarified, the M3A78-EM cannot decrease voltage in bios.


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## n-ster (May 1, 2010)

Yea, therefore a BIOS update is your best bet to make the Motherboard give the correct voltage to your CPU


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## xBruce88x (May 1, 2010)

ouch bummer... maybe he could lower the base bus speed a little and see if the voltage auto adjusts to it? at least until an update comes out


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## exow2 (May 1, 2010)

Hey guys! Just an update for you. I took my compressor and gave my whole case a quick blow and it improved my temp's durastically. Now while playing battlefield I'm staying at a cool 45-50C and I'm at 28C while writing this! Never in a million years thought a little (yes a little my case wasn't a dust trap or anything) dust could bring my temps up to 65C. Thanks alot everyone for the input I appreciate it even if it may not have been the issue.


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## LifeOnMars (May 2, 2010)

Can you adjust CPU voltage in overdrive? Just a thought if he is worried about updating the bios.


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## $immond$ (May 2, 2010)

theonedub said:


> Someone before forgot to lock the heatsink down by flipping the 'switch'- I can't help but ask, have you done that correctly as well? Thats just really hot for stock clocks even for a stock hsf.



In my htcp server it reaches as high as 70 + degrees under full load.


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