A hard lockup

[glennzo]

Back at it again. Haven't done anything to diagnose this problem, which by the way my be a random reboot instead of a lockup. Well, I did run memtest but that claims to be OK.

Today though, it has happened 4-5 times in 3 hours (either a lockup or a reboot) so I decided to remove the cover and lay the box on it's side. Inside the box is clean save for some dust on the 1 memory module. I'll remove that and clean it and the socket for it. I'm attaching a picture. Is the heatsink in the pic the GPU heatsink? It's hot, so hot I can't keep my finger on it for literally more than 1 second.

Off to google this board in an attempt to answer my own question.

Originally Posted by glennzo

Back at it again. Haven't done anything to diagnose this problem, which by the way my be a random reboot instead of a lockup. Well, I did run memtest but that claims to be OK.

Today though, it has happened 4-5 times in 3 hours (either a lockup or a reboot) so I decided to remove the cover and lay the box on it's side. Inside the box is clean save for some dust on the 1 memory module. I'll remove that and clean it and the socket for it. I'm attaching a picture. Is the heatsink in the pic the GPU heatsink? It's hot, so hot I can't keep my finger on it for literally more than 1 second.

Off to google this board in an attempt to answer my own question.

Yes................




I don't know why your asking as it,s the only heatsink on the mobo

[glennzo]

Originally Posted by Yellowman

Yes................
I don't know why your asking as it,s the only heatsink on the mobo

Thanks Yellowman. I asked because I didn't know

So that's the GPU and it's hot. Should it be too hot to touch?

Originally Posted by glennzo

Thanks Yellowman. I asked because I didn't know

So that's the GPU and it's hot. Should it be too hot to touch?

I would expect it to run @ 50 - 80c

[glennzo]

Well, I can't for the life of me get the temp of this GPU. I've even booted to Windows 7 and used the NVidia GUI and I installed GPU-Z and a few other utilities but none of them would show the temp. Here, under the Fedora 17 install that has the NVidia driver installed I can't get temp either.

[root@script-test glenn>$ nvidia-smi
Sun Jul 22 08:44:08 2012
+------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 3.295.59 Driver Version: 295.59 |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| Nb. Name | Bus Id Disp. | Volatile ECC SB / DB |
| Fan Temp Power Usage /Cap | Memory Usage | GPU Util. Compute M. |
|===============================+================= =====+======================|
| 0. GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 | 0000:00:0D.0 N/A | N/A N/A |
| N/A N/A N/A N/A / N/A | 65% 82MB / 126MB | N/A N/A |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------|
| Compute processes: GPU Memory |
| GPU PID Process name Usage |
|================================================= ============================|
| 0. Not Supported |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


[root@script-test glenn>$ nvidia-smi -q

==============NVSMI LOG==============

Timestamp : Sun Jul 22 07:56:58 2012

Driver Version : 295.59

Attached GPUs : 1

GPU 0000:00:0D.0
Product Name : GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Display Mode : N/A
Persistence Mode : N/A
Driver Model
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
Serial Number : N/A
GPU UUID : N/A
VBIOS Version : 05.61.32.22.01
Inforom Version
OEM Object : N/A
ECC Object : N/A
Power Management Object : N/A
PCI
Bus : 0x00
Device : 0x0D
Domain : 0x0000
Device Id : 0x03D010DE
Bus Id : 0000:00:0D.0
Sub System Id : 0x14051565
GPU Link Info
PCIe Generation
Max : N/A
Current : N/A
Link Width
Max : N/A
Current : N/A
Fan Speed : N/A
Performance State : N/A
Memory Usage
Total : 126 MB
Used : 89 MB
Free : 37 MB
Compute Mode : N/A
Utilization
Gpu : N/A
Memory : N/A
Ecc Mode
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
ECC Errors
Volatile
Single Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Total : N/A
Double Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Total : N/A
Aggregate
Single Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Total : N/A
Double Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Total : N/A
Temperature Gpu : N/A
Power Readings
Power Management : N/A
Power Draw : N/A
Power Limit : N/A
Clocks
Graphics : N/A
SM : N/A
Memory : N/A
Max Clocks
Graphics : N/A
SM : N/A
Memory : N/A
Compute Processes : Not Supported

All the same, since I've removed the 1 memory module and cleaned the dust from it and the slot it was in and by virture of reinstalling the module it has been reseated there have been no incidents with lockup or reboot. Remains to be seen what the long term result will be.

[Dan]

Looks to me like it would cost little and might help to after-market a fan onto that GPU heatsink.

A likely candidate could be found on Newegg, or similar. This one is on a discrete card, but the concept is the same. It cut the operating temp on the card by ~ 10-20F. (Depending on load.)

Figure 1:



That being said, I'd pop that heatsink loose and check/replace the thermal compound under it, too. It shouldn't, but the stuff the factories use dries out and turns useless after a few months/years.

Figure 2:

[glennzo]

I'd welcome the chance, and believe that it would be worthwhile, to replace the thermal compound. It appears that I would have to remove the board to be able to release the heat sink. If worse comes to worse I will do that.

I've placed a small fan that I found in the Johnson computer parts archives on top of the heatsink. Luckily there was an available connector to plug it into. I can't measure the temps but I can run the computer this way indefinitely.

While searching the aforementioned johnson computer parts archives I've stumbled upon an NVidia graphics card. It is a GF 6600GT 128MB DDR3 DUAL DVI TV. If my monitor has DVI output I could give this card a shot. I don't need a million MB of graphics memory.


Hmmmm.... That's a PCI-E slot there, isn't it. Methinks an AGP card won't fit in a PCI-E slot

[Dan]

Hmmmm.

Got a ball-peen hammer and a roll of duct tape? <....>

[glennzo]

Originally Posted by Dan

Hmmmm.

Got a ball-peen hammer and a roll of duct tape? <....>

Oh yeah we do! We got plenty of tools here.

Too bad the card is AGP

Well, guess I need a plan.

Plan A:
Wait and see if the little fan helps. If it does I might Mickey Mouse a way to make it permanent. It may not be pretty but it will be functional.

Plan B
Replace the thermal compound.

Plan C
Buy a new video card. <-- I like this option

[glennzo]

The add-on fan has been sitting on top of the GPU heatsink for an hour or so. I just moved it and put my finger on the heatsink. Way cooler than it was. I can leave my finger on the heatsink without getting signals from my brain to remove said finger before damage occurs. This appears to be working.

[marvin_ita]

Seems strange to me that you can't see any temperature for the GPU. Maybe you cannot see GPU temperature, but lm-sensors should be able to see the northbridge temperature (and the GPU is integrated in the chipset, so it's the same).

+1 for Dan's post: you can find some 40mm fan or you can try with a better passive cooler (but I would suggest the fan, since passive coolers are only good if you have a good airflow in the chassis).

[glennzo]

This is all I get:

[glenn@phenom17 ~>$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +40.0°C  (crit = +95.0°C)

nouveau-pci-0068
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:       +6452.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +110.0°C)

Something is almost as hot as the sun.

[Dan]

Kinda like cold fusion ... 'cept not quite so cold. <....>

[DBelton]

Zips off email to Dept of Homeland Insecurity, since it appears there is a nuclear device hiding in your case!

I got a lot of really flaky problems one time when my video was overheating (yea, another crappy fan on a nvidia card) and it was right below the northbridge, so heat from the video heated up the northbridge. I first noticed the problems when trying to read from my cd or dvd drives. I would get numerous read/write errors, or it would take forever to read anything.

I fixed mine by first replacing the crappy fan on the video card, then added an extra fan on the northbridge.

[glennzo]

I've been thinking about ways to make the little add-on fan permanent so that I can once again stand the PC back upright. It would take a good amount of effort. Therefore, I've concluded that disassembling the PC to remove the board, releasing the GPU heatsink and replacing the thermal compound is probably the least time consuming of all of my contrived options. After all, how long does it take to get a mainboard out of a PC, 10 minutes?

Since the addition of the "little fan" there have been no issues with lockups or reboots.