Nazo
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2002
- Messages
- 3,672
So one problem that has been plaguing me pretty much since day one with this motherboard is that god-awful control center software MSI provided. At first I didn't care much since I had a pretty minimal CPU and I've long since stopped overclocking, but I recently upgraded to a more midrange-ish CPU and I've caught it running to some pretty high temperatures (just in the BIOS I saw it doing 50C the other day.) I've upgraded the cooler and thermal compound, but I had some problems and besides want to monitor temperatures. Unfortunately, their crappy bloatware MSI Control Center software has always been pretty unreliable.
Basically when I try to run the software most of the time it will just sit there taking up 100% of one CPU core on a separate process while the EXE you actually run to start it shows a dialog that says to wait while it's loading. I've let it sit there for a very long time burning through 100% CPU usage on at least one core with no results other than wasted power and more heat, so it's not just a matter of patience. (At one point I believe I quite literally waited more than thirty minutes.) I've tried uninstalling it, deleting the files it left behind (I couldn't find any leftover registry entries,) rebooting, reinstalling, rebooting, and running it again without running any other software first (and I try to keep startup stuff to a minimum -- no quickstart programs or etc.)
I've tried skipping over the main EXE that the start menu icon loads, running the "ControlCenter.exe" file directory (this is the one that hides in the background using 100% of a CPU core while the other process shows the "wait while loading" dialog.) No go. I tried using the "MSICCRS.exe" server process that basically lets mobile devices connect using an app, but sadly it won't let me connect or do anything without the actual control center running first. I've even tried with compatibility mode settings though that obviously shouldn't be needed. Oh, and it goes without saying, but I've been running it as administrator (this much actually needs it anyway.)
The truly galling thing is, every now and then, just to screw with me, it just randomly decides it will work for a day. Yesterday when I first installed this new HSF, it worked fine when I was checking idle temperatures. I didn't have time for a proper gaming run to test load temperatures though. I also made a slight adjustment to the fan and wanted to at least see the new idle temperatures, but no go. The part that most ticks me off is NOTHING HAS CHANGED! Nothing. I haven't changed any settings to anything. I hadn't looked in the BIOS. I didn't install ANY new programs. I didn't remove any old programs. I didn't even change my browser settings! Yet yesterday it worked every time I tried it. That's not the only time. I got it working in the past by -- or so I thought -- updating the BIOS. But I didn't use it much because, at the time, I had that minimal CPU and just needed to make sure that the dinky third party heatsink I had to use with it worked ok (I accidentally ordered one without a HSF. Woops.) I also ran it a time or two with the new CPU recently, but I wasn't really monitoring properly and didn't really check in games at the time (this software is horribly bloated, inconvenient to use, and frankly I just plain hate it. I really miss the likes of Motherboard Monitor 5 from back in the day...) I currently have the latest BIOS and I have not changed the BIOS since then, so at this point it's just screwing with my head at a terrible time (I finally had time to run a real game session and now instead I've wasted hours trying to get this crap to work.)
Also, every once in a while it will actually start. I'll get my hopes up, and then it freezes. As in if I move something over the window and then back off, it shows a hall of mirrors image of whatever I moved over it. It takes it a few moments to actually freeze and I can interact with it a bit, but before I can get as far as the temperature monitor it's frozen. Just in case it was some kind of conflict I've even tried closing down absolutely everything I possibly could. Mouse software, audio manager, even a bunch of system services such as the print spooler, all to get the list of running stuff down to a bare minimum as well as I could. Still won't start.
As noted in the title, SpeedFan can't do anything with this motherboard. I've found another program "Hardware sensors monitor 4.5" (aka "Hmonitor") which SEEMS like it gives numbers that could maybe be believeable, but, A. it's commercial software (with a limit of only 10 minutes run time in the free version) and B. I still don't know if I can trust its numbers. I have a CPU 1 and a CPU 2 sensor with CPU 2 idling about 2 or 3C above CPU1, but if I run Prime95 CPU 2 shoots up to 75+ within about one minute (which is just suspiciously fast) whereas CPU 1 only goes up to about 48C (which is suspiciously low, but maybe possible as this is a very energy efficient CPU for the most part.) If I try to very quickly reset and check the BIOS I'll see around 44C or so, but this definitely isn't inspiring confidence as if I trust CPU 1 it's going down a bit fast or if I trust CPU 2 then the temperature changes very quickly as that could maybe imply is possible with this HSF and I need to redo/replace it (which is kind of the sort of thing I need to know here! I THINK this heatsink should be better than classic ones as it's one of those new tower of fins with copper heatpipes to carry the heat from the CPU, but at the same time I wonder how fast the heatpipes are and the fins have overall a far lesser area compared to a classic heatsink including I think the stock one as each fin is exceptionally thin.) Or if I trust neither it's useless obviously.
Basically when I try to run the software most of the time it will just sit there taking up 100% of one CPU core on a separate process while the EXE you actually run to start it shows a dialog that says to wait while it's loading. I've let it sit there for a very long time burning through 100% CPU usage on at least one core with no results other than wasted power and more heat, so it's not just a matter of patience. (At one point I believe I quite literally waited more than thirty minutes.) I've tried uninstalling it, deleting the files it left behind (I couldn't find any leftover registry entries,) rebooting, reinstalling, rebooting, and running it again without running any other software first (and I try to keep startup stuff to a minimum -- no quickstart programs or etc.)
I've tried skipping over the main EXE that the start menu icon loads, running the "ControlCenter.exe" file directory (this is the one that hides in the background using 100% of a CPU core while the other process shows the "wait while loading" dialog.) No go. I tried using the "MSICCRS.exe" server process that basically lets mobile devices connect using an app, but sadly it won't let me connect or do anything without the actual control center running first. I've even tried with compatibility mode settings though that obviously shouldn't be needed. Oh, and it goes without saying, but I've been running it as administrator (this much actually needs it anyway.)
The truly galling thing is, every now and then, just to screw with me, it just randomly decides it will work for a day. Yesterday when I first installed this new HSF, it worked fine when I was checking idle temperatures. I didn't have time for a proper gaming run to test load temperatures though. I also made a slight adjustment to the fan and wanted to at least see the new idle temperatures, but no go. The part that most ticks me off is NOTHING HAS CHANGED! Nothing. I haven't changed any settings to anything. I hadn't looked in the BIOS. I didn't install ANY new programs. I didn't remove any old programs. I didn't even change my browser settings! Yet yesterday it worked every time I tried it. That's not the only time. I got it working in the past by -- or so I thought -- updating the BIOS. But I didn't use it much because, at the time, I had that minimal CPU and just needed to make sure that the dinky third party heatsink I had to use with it worked ok (I accidentally ordered one without a HSF. Woops.) I also ran it a time or two with the new CPU recently, but I wasn't really monitoring properly and didn't really check in games at the time (this software is horribly bloated, inconvenient to use, and frankly I just plain hate it. I really miss the likes of Motherboard Monitor 5 from back in the day...) I currently have the latest BIOS and I have not changed the BIOS since then, so at this point it's just screwing with my head at a terrible time (I finally had time to run a real game session and now instead I've wasted hours trying to get this crap to work.)
Also, every once in a while it will actually start. I'll get my hopes up, and then it freezes. As in if I move something over the window and then back off, it shows a hall of mirrors image of whatever I moved over it. It takes it a few moments to actually freeze and I can interact with it a bit, but before I can get as far as the temperature monitor it's frozen. Just in case it was some kind of conflict I've even tried closing down absolutely everything I possibly could. Mouse software, audio manager, even a bunch of system services such as the print spooler, all to get the list of running stuff down to a bare minimum as well as I could. Still won't start.
As noted in the title, SpeedFan can't do anything with this motherboard. I've found another program "Hardware sensors monitor 4.5" (aka "Hmonitor") which SEEMS like it gives numbers that could maybe be believeable, but, A. it's commercial software (with a limit of only 10 minutes run time in the free version) and B. I still don't know if I can trust its numbers. I have a CPU 1 and a CPU 2 sensor with CPU 2 idling about 2 or 3C above CPU1, but if I run Prime95 CPU 2 shoots up to 75+ within about one minute (which is just suspiciously fast) whereas CPU 1 only goes up to about 48C (which is suspiciously low, but maybe possible as this is a very energy efficient CPU for the most part.) If I try to very quickly reset and check the BIOS I'll see around 44C or so, but this definitely isn't inspiring confidence as if I trust CPU 1 it's going down a bit fast or if I trust CPU 2 then the temperature changes very quickly as that could maybe imply is possible with this HSF and I need to redo/replace it (which is kind of the sort of thing I need to know here! I THINK this heatsink should be better than classic ones as it's one of those new tower of fins with copper heatpipes to carry the heat from the CPU, but at the same time I wonder how fast the heatpipes are and the fins have overall a far lesser area compared to a classic heatsink including I think the stock one as each fin is exceptionally thin.) Or if I trust neither it's useless obviously.