Sometimes misidentifies processor, and inconsistent results?

Kimmy · Post by **Kimmy** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:49 pm

Hi! I have been using CoreTemp for quite a while on my old machine, and when I built a new machine last fall I installed it too. I sometimes get odd results. I've taken screenshots to try to find out what might be going on.

The processor is a Phenom 9950 BE, and has a huge Scythe Mugen heat sink in a well ventilated case. Usually when I start up, I see something like this:

Which I think seems fairly believable.

But sometimes when I start up, CoreTemp shows me something like this instead:

The computer isn't doing anything different. I can't see any reason why there should be a 20 degree difference on some start-ups vs others.

Also, I just noticed that some of these weird results mistakenly identify my processor as an Opteron 1300 BE "Budapest":

I really like CoreTemp, and plan to continue using it, but it would sure be nice to figure out why it starts up weirdly 5% of the time. Is there any more information I can get that would help identify what might be going wrong?

-k

Post by **The Coolest** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:31 pm

That's most definitely strange. I have never had such a problem reported before, it could be something to do with other software you may have running or maybe something in the BIOS?

Could you download the latest beta and see if the same problem occurs with it too?
http://www.alcpu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=571

Kimmy · Post by **Kimmy** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:13 pm

I am pretty sure the high temperature reading is not real: if I reboot when CoreTemp is reading high, the bios information that comes up when I restart shows a CPU temperature that's just a few degrees above room temperature, like CoreTemp usually shows.

The Biostar hardware monitor utility always reads higher than CoreTemp, but it also does not show there being a temperature rise. It always says about 39 to 45 degrees, whether CoreTemp is showing me 26 degrees or 46 degrees. (I don't believe the Biostar utility is accurate at all anyway...)

I have just installed CoreTemp 0.99.5 beta (64 bit version) The motherboard is a Biostar TA790GX 128M, if that matters, and I have just updated to the latest bios. So far I have not observed a return of the wacky temperature readings or processor misidentification, although I have only started up a few times. I will update this thread if I see the weird behavior again.

By the way, I notice that in the screenshots I posted, the CPUID number is 0x100F23 in all four screenshots, even though the processor is identified differently in two of them. Does that mean anything?

-k

Post by **The Coolest** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:19 pm

Good to hear that it seems to be fixed with the new version.

Regarding the CPUID numbers, that's not very important as Core Temp relies on much more than just the CPUID number to check which processor and what model you have installed.

Kimmy · Post by **Kimmy** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 4:06 pm

Ok, I'm back in Budapest...

AMD Overdrive is reporting the same information (zero degrees, 1600MHz) but has called my processor an "AMD Engineering Sample".

It appears as though whatever is going on is something unusual in my system rather than in Coretemp. I will experiment with AMD Overdrive and see if that might be the source of the trouble.

-k

Post by **The Coolest** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 6:13 pm

Yep, most definitely looks like the problem is with your processor.
The register bits supplying information about the CPU are changing on-the-fly.
This is the first time I hear/see such a problem.
You have a gem there