Topic: SME 7.0RC3 on Compaq Armada 1700 - Critical Temp. Reached

[drfresh]

Hi all

Yes I KNOW it's a very small system and not recommended and so forth. But I only use it as a mail server, and it's fine. Well actually I'm now using an even smaller system running SME 5.6.

But I have this problem, that after I have installed it (sometimes even before it's finished) the system goes down saying something like "Critical Temperature Reached...". But I don't think it's true. I haven't got that problem in Win2K on the same machine and the fan is working fine.

Can it be, that SME detects something wrong thus making the power down (it's SME that shuts it self down)

Once I managed to get through the installation and configuration and started a restore, but it went down during that and was therefore not able to restart...

Thanks for any help on this (I know) strange problem...

Dr. Fresh

[jfarschman]

Dr Fresh,

  Have you tried feeding it ice cream.  That really cools me down.  

  Seriously though... let's looks at a few potential problems.  Then you can look under the hood.

  1.  Variable Speed Fans - if you have a fan that should work harder when the system is hotter and it doesn't, then you have a problem.  Not sure if this would be a kernel problem.  Probably a CMOS/BIOS problem.

  2.  Bad/Fault Fans - If your fans are dead, or stopped you will have problem.  Be sure to check the power supply fan as well.

  3.  Dirty Heat Sinks - Dog you have dogs or cats?  Or do you live in a dusty place?  

  4.  Poor Thermal Conduction from CPU - Generally, there is some thermal goo between the heat sink and the CPU.  If someone forgot to put this in place your heat sink will not be ass efficient.

  5.  Poorly Engineered System - It's possible they didn't engineer the system correctly.  I doubt this.  CompaQ made ugly machines... but they should work.

  6.  Overloaded System - Did you add more hardware then you should?

  7.  Hot Environment - If the room temp is too high the CPU temp will be too high.

Fixing it....  I'd try taking off the cover and taking a pointing a house fan at it.  If that work then get another fan for the back of the case.  These are sold in good computer stores general in 3 packs.  They are inexpensive and worth it.

If the house fan doesn't work then you've got a problem with either the CPU fan.... or thermal conduction.... which would include the thermal goo and or dirty heat sinks....  Or possible the variable speed fan.

Hope this helps.

[CharlieBrady]

Can it be, that SME detects something wrong thus making the power down (it's SME that shuts it self down)

I doubt that it is. Unless you've installed additional software, there's no monitoring system. I think a hardware/BIOS system is more likely.

[drfresh]

Thanks both!

I think it's a BIOS thing too. And it seems that BIOS settings is on the HD??? But that partition is probably gone after installing. It seems that the fan goes off slowly (slows down) after booting, and therefore shuts down. Well it's going to the garbagebin and I'll keep my OLD but trustworthy server... It's been running for more than three years almost constantly (24/7) and only been rebooted a few times!

Dr. Fresh

[dgaukrog]

The Armada 1700 was released before ACPI had been completely certified, therefore it needs a bios update to conform to ACPI specs. Win2k didn't care about ACPI, but I think you'll find that if you tried to install XP you'd get a similar problem to the one that SME presents you with.

Go to www.hp.com/support and search for Armada 1700, then download the system ROMPaq, which will create a bootable floppy to update the BIOS.

The Compaq BIOS setup utilities could be run from a partition on the HDD, but they can also be run from a floppy.

I wouldn't threow the 1700 out just yet.