Intel Pentium 3 @ 600MhzTemps

[kjv1611]

I recently picked up an old dirty PC, monitor, etc, at a yard/estate sale for tinkering and such. And honestly, only b/c we sort o' dickered on the price of some various things, and just did a whole heap of junk for a small price.

Anyhow, the PC still seems to run okay, though I intend on doing a fresh install of everything, once I can get to it.

My question is this:

The processor at start-up, in the BIOS is running between 43 and 46 degrees. Well, that's at startup after I've started it up, restarted, etc a few times.

From what I've read, the max temp is much higher, but are the 45ish temps ideal for that processor? If I were to clean re-apply thermal paste to the CPU, and reset all of that, would it be worth my time at all?

Right now, this is mainly for discussion. This machine is obviously not really important for anything.

The specs are, as of right now:
Pentium 3 @ 600Mhz - or possibly a little higher, I forget.
256MB PC100 Ram or 512MB PC133 Ram - I actually had it running with both the PC100 and PC133 for a little while, but it seemed to cause issues... or else just the PC133 Ram caused issues, not sure..
100GB Hard Drive - apparently, the thing was upgraded, hard-drive wise, pretty recently.
Running Windows XP.

Hmm, come to think of it, for what I paid for the whole lot, the hard drive is worth more than what I paid for everything. That makes it all worth it, knowing the deal I landed.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[Noway2]

Interesting, the specs of the PC almost identicaly match one I still have that I cobbled together back in 1997: P3, 600MHz, 256MB ram...

Anyway, generally speaking, the cooler that things run, the longer they will last and the more reliable they will be.

Mid 40's (C) isn't too bad for a processor, but the real metric would be deg C rise over ambient. If your ambient is 15C (cool) and you are in the mid 40's it would be much different than if you were at 30C and in the mid 40s'.

At the very least, I would suggest cleaning out any dust and making sure that the CPU fan is working correctly. As you said, you got a lot for a very small investment. Why not put a small amount into it and make sure that you get your worth out of it?

Regarding the specs, I do recall that there is / was an speead compatibility issue with PC-100/133 and the ram. I am not surprised that you may have run into trouble.

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, I've seen issues with some in dealing with the 100/133 diff, but others didn't. I'm sure I've got plenty of PC100 laying around if I can put my hands on it - actually got a little box full of various pcs of RAM, just have to find it - 90% of what I have, spare memory, is in there!

Yeah, the ambient room temps in the location probably are little warmer than "typical", I suppose. I'm in South Carolina, so that plays a part - humidity and all. Another part is that I moved my "computer world" out to a "Florida Room" that is not fully insulated, nor on the main air supply. With the portable AC unit, though, it's actually about the same as the rest of the house... and I only run that when needed.

Anyway, I do tend to agree that it'll be worth pulling the CPU and all, cleaning up a bit, and proceeding. After all, I already spent the time to get to everything except the CPU and Power supply. Although I have no intentions of opening up the power supply just to get some dust out.

BTW, here's a link I meant to include earlier that I stumbled accross:

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=948

10 year old article from anandtech about the P3s... and before the AMD K6-3s came out (which got rebranded to K6-2, and which the K6-2 of mention was my first personally owned PC... and it was home built).

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Well, thought I'd post an update here. Still not enough time to open up the CPU area and reseat the HSF, but I did figure out the booting issue. The issue (which wasn't there before I got the thing and started tinkering) was apparently due to the PCI USB 2.0 card I plugged in. It aint the first time I've seen such, so I should've guessed it right away. I just haven't had any issues with any of those in quite a while, not to mention I've not really needed to use any in quite a while. That's one thing that used to drive me batty - many times a seemingly good USB PCI card would foul a system up in a heart beat. I can't help but wonder why... but I've never really taken much time in investigating the why of it.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[Noway2]

Just to hazzard a guess as to why, the USB cards most probably use some form of PCI bridge chip to tie them at a rather low level to the PCI bus. While most IO devices tie to the bus, USB also runs a high rate of interrupts. A USB 1.0 or 1.1 will run a frame rate of 1mS, while a USB 2.0 will break this up into several micro frames. These in turn translate into packets that must be processed in real time. Consequently, the USB card, with any active devices, will cause a high rate of interrupts which have to be chained in (ie shared) with other devices.

Also, just out of curiousity, I was wondering what part of SC you were located in. I am curious because of your comments about the "higher than typical temperatures", which I can relate to asI am located in central NC.

 

[kjv1611]

Greenville (Upstate).

So, central NC? I'm guessing Raleigh or thereabouts? My younger brother moved up there for a job just about a year or so ago.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Another update on the PC. Not that it's a terribly important PC of course, LOL

I finally found my little box of RAM modules. It was the old "if it were a snake it would have bit me" deal, really. It had been within arms reach the whole time, but I just overlooked it - in a sorta bright green diaper wipe box.

Well, I've got it now running (not this moment, as I'm at work) with 512 MB PC100 Ram, consisting of 4 128 MB sticks.

Also, I noticed (and was wondering before) that the board is indeed a Tyan server board. What got me wondering originally was that I noticed the board could supposedly support 2 P3 CPUs. The cool thing about that is that I've got another old PC now (eMachine) that is pretty much done for, and I was going to possibly use some parts. Well, the processor is the same, or about the same speed. So, if I do finally get around to opening the CPU portion up, and re-applying HSF, I might also try to stick both in and see how it goes.

I've never installed 2 CPUs on one board before.. just never had the CPUs at the same time to do it, and had the need or desire.

When you are installing 2 CPUs like that, do they have to be the exact same speed, or will they work so long as the fit the sockets?

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[Noway2]

Actually, I am located in High Point, near Winston-salem / Greensboro.

Greenville huh? I been through there a couple of times on my way to Tacoa, Ga. The biggest customer of my previous employer is/was Patterson Pump in Tacoa.

 

[SkipCox]

Same speed and same sSpec number. What's the model of your Tyan board?

Skip

 

[kjv1611]

I'll have to give it a look this week. Right now, it's on the back burner.. I have it sitting in a room, not connected to anything - got too many other things to catch up. I'll do my best to at least get the model # and such off of it within the next few days.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[GabrielBL]

Going off how old the hardware is, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the case itself probably wasn’t designed for airflow to cool it, not that mid 40’s is high, like others have said. Can you go into the BIOS setting and see what type of fan settings you have? Need the mobo model number to tell if it has speed sensitive fan switching, doubtful, but worth a shot. Clean the heat sink and fan, remove dust and other stuff from inside the case and look at the case fans. If they look haggard, replace them.

The other trick I’ve been doing since the mid 80’s to increase airflow is to take a Dremel tool and cut out the fan guards of the aluminum case. They are very restrictive and have always helped. That said, don’t stick your fingers in there, but it should help.

Gabriel Blanc-Laine
VP Sales & Marketing

http://www.Qtask.com

 

[kjv1611]

SkipCox,

Just posting back to say I've not forgotten about this one.... I've just not gotten around to that particular computer - too many other things been working on.

Hopefully, I'll get to it this week, at least, and post the motherboard details.

GabrielBL,

I think the airflow in the case is more than enough for what's in it. The only thing it could use, I think, is reseating the heatsink on the CPU. I did get the dust cleaned out of the CPU fan at some point a couple weeks ago, but haven't messed with it since.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[goombawaho]

The solution to any computer problem involving a Pentium III is to smash it with a hammer. It's so old it's not worth any effort. I know I'll get people telling me how useful their old machine still is, but I can't see it still being useful for most "normal" applications.

 

[kjv1611]

My applications wouldn't be normal. And honestly, I probably have a whole pile of pcs and pc parts that fit your criteria. But I generally don't just flat out toss them until ALL hope is lost - I mean, they dead!

Besides that, I've had an AMD K6-2 (K6-3 renamed to K6-2 series) CPU @ 500MHz, original board I installed it with and everything... and here's it's path, still being useful:
1. Myself, original build - first computer build - mostly a relative did it, and I learned.
2. Passed it on to another relative to replace their old Dell 486 machine.
3. Got it back, let it sit for a while, planning to do a some side install project to toy with - of course, never did...
4. Got an elderly neighbor who was still using a VERY old computer:
a. I don't remember the CPU/Ram specs, though it is now sitting there waiting for being tested/mutilated/etc
b. It did not have a SINGLE USB port, and only one PS2 port (black in color, I think).
c. It had one of those old round serial ports.
d. It did have a CD drive, but the thing was so shot, that when I did put in a CD to try and "help" my neighbor, it just scratched or burned a notch into the CD, and never read a thing!
e. hard drive - don't remember, obviously old. ;0)
e. All that, and it had been UPGRADED extensively, she told me.

That neighbor actually moved from a long way up north, and moved to SC after her husband died. Her husband spent loads on this old thing, and used it to keep up with all his farming activities.. she used it to get on AOL once in a blue moon. Oh yeah, AOL sent her an old version of Norton to use on her PC, and it froze the thing slap solid! ;0)

Well, I re-set up the old AMD K6-2 setup, 512MB PC100 SD Ram, I believe, and took it over, customizing, explaining it. She thought she was in HEAVEN by comparison. LOL. And even her kids and grandkids are now excited. But then I guess that'd be almost like going from DOS to Windows 3.1 or something.

So, I figure this 600MHz may still get SOME use somewhere - whether I do, or whether somebody else just actually wants an old clunker.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Just a post here as an update on a thought. I haven't yet had the time to get the thing out and look at it more diligently. However, I did have an idea of a good use for the thing. I doubt I'll be able to sell it even if I have everything reinstalled, so I'm thinking of turning this one into a dedicated disk wiper.

For IDE drives, I've got the onboard IDE connections.

For SATA drives, I've got a handful of SATA PCI cards, so I can easily install 1 or 2 of those, and use it to wipe SATA drives that way. So, with that, I won't have to worry about keeping any other machine tied up just to format a hard drive.

Once I do get around to digging that one back out again, I'll be sure to post the motherboard model #/markings as well.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[goombawaho]

Could I pay you $50 to throw that machine out??? That's a PERMANENT fix don't you know.

 

[kjv1611]

[ROFL]

Yeah, I probably do need to choose that route in various areas. I'm usually pretty bad about holding on to stuff, thinking, well, I might need this rusty old nail one day down the road....

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me