Gigabyte AMD 780G motherboard overheat, can claim warranty?

[karhoe]

Hi there,

I have bought my HTPC few months ago. And it seems like the PC will just turn off after using for a while. At first, I thought there's airflow issue as the PC is placed in the cabinet, so I took it out.

This is the cabinet which I placed the HTPC in

The back is covered except for a hole the size of milo to connect the cables. I have already moved it to the top of the cabinet after the pc kept turning off by itself for the first few days.

But once a blue moon, the PC will also turn off by itself, just like that. It should not happen as I already placed my pc on top.

Recently, I have been downloading some 720p and 1080p mkv HD rips. Watching 720p is fine, but when I watched 1080p (using MPC-HC), the video becomes laggy and the audio could not sync with the video.

But another issue is, after watching the 1080p movie (The dark knight) for a while, say 1 min, the PC will just power off just like that. I tried 3 times, happened 3 times in a row. No prob with my main pc using 9600GT

Hence, I installed speed fan to monitor the temperature. I detected few sensors, but I only enabled some sensors, mainlt Temp 1, Temp 2 and Core.

Some sensors give funny reading, but one thing I realized when I open the dark knight, one of the sensor temperature raised within seconds from 71 top 79. Other sensors also did increase.

Pics attached


This is the interior of the casing, the casing fans are very slow, I could not feel the wind at all. But some PC work fine even without any fans.





Can anyone tell me which is the right sensor?

Someone here mentioned that Gigabyte AMD 780G motherboard, has overheating issue with the first revision. And now that they have released a new revision, can I know if I can send my motherboard in for 'repair' for this overheating issue? And they either fix the overheating issue or give me the new revision?

I am using Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mother...?ProductID=2758

Thanks

[Chai]

Your HTPC is too slow to run 1080 movies. Is it possible to upgrade your CPU cooler?

[karhoe]

Why should I upgrade the CPU cooler, they are designed to work fine on stock cooler right?

Based on google search result, the part that overheat is the northbridge, that's why rev 1.1 and 2.0 features a much bigger NB heatsink

[Chai]

Well, since you mentioned that your CPU is getting hot, that's why I suggested that. Try putting a fan on top of the northbridge heatsink see whether it helps or not.

[PsYkHoTiK]

Airflow airflow airflow... Cooling the part is one thing, though it doesn't matter too much if there is a big heat buildup inside the case (aka removing the hat out of the chassis). Does it run cooler with the case open?

I also always set the temperature shutdown on my mobos (mainly due to OCing and one can't readily tell if the pump stopped working).

[Zenphic]

The Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H Nb's sensors aren't accurate from what I've read. Mine stays at around 82C most of the time. No problems so far.

[Adrian Wong]

It looks like your CPU is overheating while decoding your HD video. It's different if you use a newer graphics card like the GeForce 9600 GT that supports HD decoding - the work gets offloaded to the GPU.

In yours case, I would look into the CPU. First of all, what CPU are you using? The AMD Athlon A64? Frankly, I don't think it's fast enough to handle HD decoding.

Also, look into the cooling. You might want to improve both the case exhaust fans and the CPU cooler. The case exhaust fans are important in evicting the hot air within the case, and getting cooler fresh air into the case. The CPU cooler will then perform better, although the standard AMD cooler is really not that good.

[karhoe]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

It looks like your CPU is overheating while decoding your HD video. It's different if you use a newer graphics card like the GeForce 9600 GT that supports HD decoding - the work gets offloaded to the GPU.

In yours case, I would look into the CPU. First of all, what CPU are you using? The AMD Athlon A64? Frankly, I don't think it's fast enough to handle HD decoding.

Also, look into the cooling. You might want to improve both the case exhaust fans and the CPU cooler. The case exhaust fans are important in evicting the hot air within the case, and getting cooler fresh air into the case. The CPU cooler will then perform better, although the standard AMD cooler is really not that good.

These are the specs

Athlon 64 X2 5200+
Team PC6400 1GB DDR2 800 x 2
WD3200KS 320GB SATA 3GB 16MB
Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H
Silverstone ST400
HDMI cable
Pioneer SATA DVDRW
Aztech WiFi USB
Genius wireless Keyboard with integrated mouse
XQBOX HTPC 200

Btw, the mkv rip that I am watching, is not using GPU to decode the movie, it's using CPU.

So let's say the CPU is not good enough to handle HD decoding, but all I know is stock cooler are adequate to cool the PC as long as there is no OC, and I do not OC.

Airflow could be one of the issue, but I am more concerned with the NorthBridge, many people has said that this motherboard NB will overheat easily, and if that is the issue, can I send it back for warranty?

Gigabyte released rev 1.1 and 2.0 of this motherboard just to address the overheating issue. Do you think if I send it back for warranty, they will do something about it?

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by karhoe

These are the specs

Athlon 64 X2 5200+
Team PC6400 1GB DDR2 800 x 2
WD3200KS 320GB SATA 3GB 16MB
Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H
Silverstone ST400
HDMI cable
Pioneer SATA DVDRW
Aztech WiFi USB
Genius wireless Keyboard with integrated mouse
XQBOX HTPC 200

Btw, the mkv rip that I am watching, is not using GPU to decode the movie, it's using CPU.

So let's say the CPU is not good enough to handle HD decoding, but all I know is stock cooler are adequate to cool the PC as long as there is no OC, and I do not OC.

Airflow could be one of the issue, but I am more concerned with the NorthBridge, many people has said that this motherboard NB will overheat easily, and if that is the issue, can I send it back for warranty?

Gigabyte released rev 1.1 and 2.0 of this motherboard just to address the overheating issue. Do you think if I send it back for warranty, they will do something about it?

Okay, confirm your CPU cannot handle the load. The Athlon XP is too slow to do HD decoding.

The stock cooler should be okay, but like Psy mentioned, airflow is also important. Otherwise, the heat builds up within the case and even a good cooler cannot help prevent the CPU from overheating under full load.

North bridge? I don't think it is the problem unless you overvolt / overclock it. Again, airflow is important. You can greatly improve the cooling of the north bridge chip by improving the airflow in and out of the case.

[karhoe]

Hmm, I really read on few sites on Google saying that the NB overheat. If not, Gigabyte wouldnt have released new revisions.

It's a waste that the CPU cannot handle the load, I will try to configure the MPC-HC to decode using GPU, right now its using CPU, if it's still laggy, I might add the HD 3850 that is due to arrive soon ^^

But I am just not satisfied with this motherboard, even during normal usage, the temperature gets prettty high, sometimes I could feel the heat from the casing.