I just put in a Scythe Ninja 2 cpu cooler and a Noctua NF-P12 fan because my cpu kept running hot, and an annoying alarm kept going off. Everything installed fine, but when I turned the computer on, the alarm immediately started going off. I presume it is because the new fan runs at a different (slower) frequency than the old. I went to the Phoenix Award Bios but could not find anywhere to turn the alarm off or set the alarm to allow for the new fan speed(s). The motherboard is an Abit AV-8 Socket 939 with an AMD 64 Athlon 3400+.
what are your temps like? asking because it sounds like the heat-sink isn't seated correctly, take it out and try again. if thats not the case, try updating your bios to see if you get any new options.
The temperature only gets up to 48 C with prolonged use now. Before the new heat sink and fan, it was getting into the low 60's. So, I don't think it's a problem with the heat sink. Also, the computer/cpu is working fine for prolonged periods, which I don't think would be possible if it were overheating. I'm trying to update my BIOS, but it is an Alienware computer, and I read that some BIOS are customized by Alienware, and the Phoenix Award BIOS may not be compatible. I have an email in to Phoenix now.
According to Phoenix, they can't tell me about compatibility, except that if it had a copy of Windows XP installed on it when I got it, then it is probably Alienware custom BIOS and I can't upgrade (at least through them).
After further looking, I found the controls for the temp and fan alarm in the uGuru utility of the BIOS. It was pretty straight-forward to set up, the fan runs smoothly, the temp is about 48 C most of the time, and the alarm no longer beeps when the internal speaker is turned on.
