AMD Phenom II X4 temperature issues (was Re: hardware monitor)

Gary Aitken vagabond at blackfoot.net
Mon Aug 5 05:05:19 UTC 2013


On 08/04/13 21:39, Frank Leonhardt wrote:
> On 05/08/2013 03:01, Gary Aitken wrote:
>>> 50C isn't crazy.
>> Actually, the 50C figure is just where it shoots to for starters. 
>> Mfg specs say 62C max, so I stall the process when it gets around
>> 59 and still climbing steeply.
> 
> The manufactures specs I found when I looked that range of CPUs up
> was 71C
> 
> http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/processors/phenom-ii/Pages/phenom-ii-model-number-comparison.aspx
>
>  But there could be two figures - one for maximum desirable working
> and one for maximum "or else".

Maybe; although the number I quoted wasn't from AMD, and the two I just found
at amd both said 71. 

>>> Did you get anywhere with the ACPI suggestion <snip> Try 
>>> hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.active=1 to make the fan come on and stay on
>>> (tz0 or as appropriate).
>> The fan is on and stays on all the time at the moment...
> 
> It it full speed all the time?

I really don't know what full speed on the fan is / feels like / sounds like.
It's pretty quiet and there's a noisy old system nearby...
xmbmon doesn't show fan speeds, nor does amdtemp provide access to them.
Is there some other kernel module for fan speeds?
 
>>> Here's the fun part. Is your system doing a thermal overload 
>>> shutdown? <snip>
>> There is no indication in messages; the last thing before it shut
>> down the last time was some su's and root logins.
> 
> This suggests it's not the ACPI in FreeBSD shutting you down, but
> something on the motherboard.

That was my guess as well.

>>> it might help if you posted the results of "sysctl
>>> hw.acpi.thermal", but in the mean time look at:
>>> 
>>> hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._HOT hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._CRT
>>> 
>> I don't see any of those; here's what shows up in sysctl -a :
>> 
>> hw.acpi.supported_sleep_state: S1 S3 S4 S5 
>> hw.acpi.power_button_state: S5 hw.acpi.sleep_button_state: S1 
>> hw.acpi.lid_switch_state: NONE hw.acpi.standby_state: S1 
>> hw.acpi.suspend_state: S3 hw.acpi.sleep_delay: 1 hw.acpi.s4bios: 0 
>> hw.acpi.verbose: 0 hw.acpi.disable_on_reboot: 0 
>> hw.acpi.handle_reboot: 0 hw.acpi.reset_video: 0 
>> hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest: C1
> 
> Yep - definitely suggests that the thermal control isn't being done
> by FreeBSD! 

ok, but how do I get it in there if I want it?

> Go no further on this route, but check the
> motherboard/BIOS. I had one machine shut itself down due to a faulty
> thermistor (raise the threshold/ignore) but it normally happens when
> the parameters are wrong or the fan has failed. As your fan hasn't
> failed and the reported temperature is believable my best guesses are
> that the BIOS is either picking the wrong shutdown temperature for
> the CPU or your air ducting isn't good enough and it really is
> getting too hot. Is there a chance that the BIOS pre-dates the CPU
> and just doesn't know its working parameters, and is therefore
> playing safe?

I'll check the BIOS next time I reboot.
Air ducting shouldn't be a problem; I've got the side of the case off...

> Incidentally, ACPI is an Intel specification but applies AMD64 CPUs
> too. The thermal module only works on some chip-sets. FWIW I've found
> it works on more AMD platforms than it does Intel ones.
> 
> Regards, Frank.



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