On Thu, 08 Apr 2021 09:02:09 -0400, Paul wrote:

| Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there were VRMs.
|
| This is the VCore voltage regulator. It started as a module,
| but was also soldered to the motherboard. That gave it the
| name Voltage Regulator Down (VRD), when it was soldered down.
| My first one put out a measly 35W, had a single phase, and
| used a pretty good sized MOSFET.
|
| Back in the day, there was no feedback. Designers were
| worried about thermal runaway. They had to guess at what
| max power would be, and add a generous heatsink. This is
| basically open loop design.
|
| Then, more recently, power limiters were fitted. At the same
| time, you may have noticed the heatsinks are getting smaller
| and more poorly designed. The design is now closed loop, and
| it's because of feedback about how the VCore is running,
| allowed it to run burning hot.
|
| When I bought my latest board, I hadn't noticed this. I didn't
| even have it as a particular item to check on my checklist.
|
| It was the usual deal. Burned my finger on the heatsink
| when testing the board on the kitchen table. Ended up
| turning off turbo, as well as fitting a fan right next
| to the VRM cooler.
|
| In the old days, a board would not leave the factory, if
| a customer could burn their finger on it. Today, this
| seems to be OK.
|
| Some manufacturers, their "auto-overclock" is too aggressive
| and they're using the wrong VCore. The user is then forced
| to do the research, to figure out what values might better
| serve the board.
|
| There is a suggestion that the Kernel Power, is a report
| of overheat, arriving at kernel level. Adjusting BIOS conditions
| and taking it off "auto/auto" may allow reducing VCore heatsink
| below "insanely hot".

Thanks, Paul. The motherboard and CPU in question ran in my main computer for about
3 years with no problems. I didn't change BIOS settings when I moved it. Should the
VCore start giving problems now when it never did before? Besides, it's an H370
that's not set up for overclocking. I could and did disable turbo boost and will
give it some time to see if that helps. Freezing doesn't always occur.

Larc