MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum Sudden NB Heat issue

Question

Greetings. Just when I thought I had it set up great.
I got this board about 2 weeks ago and at first set it up with one drive. It ran great and cool. I recently added more drives. Ran great and cool.
Then I enabled NVRAID for two Raptors. Aside from the Shutdown HANG bug, it ran great and cool. But because of this bug, I moved too the SI RAD. I enabled the SI Raid and reloaded Windows. Took a bit of trial and error with he drive connectors, but I got it working.
After installing all of my apps and imaging my drive, it has been running idle most the day. I started playing COD2 MP and after playing it awhile (About a half hour) I noticed some graphical glitches (quick blinks) and I  quit the game. I looked at core center and it said my CPU fan was only running at 880 RPM! I rebooted and I looked in the case and noticed that the fan was fine, and the area around the CPU was quite cool. However, I noticed a lot of heat being generated from the Northbridge Chip. So much so, it was hot to the touch and since my video card sits right on top of it, it was hot, as well as well as my optical drive.
I looked at Core Center and it showed my CPU fan at 2850 RPM, and my NB fan at 6750, then  is showed "SLOW" then 6750. I can't explain why it keeps switching like that. Visibly, it looks fine, but generating enormous heat. Is it because of the SI RAID? I had the NVRAID enabled and had no problems. I SWAP to the SI RAID as I was having the shutdown bug from having NVRAID on. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am kind of lost at what to look for. I can go back to NVRAID and wait for a fix, but don't want to go through the motions if it is not because of the SI RAID.
Appreciate the help.
J

Answer 1

The first thing I did to my board, after making sure it worked, was take that chipset fan off and examine the TIM. What I found was that it has a fairly thick (1/16" or 1.5mm) tim on the chip, surrounded by a material that keeps the heatsink from contacting the board area. I can't imagine this would provide good cooling so I took it off and reseated it w/ my TIM.
If you want to take this heatsink off, you can do so easily by using only your finger tips to squeeze the plastic barbs. Don't use metal pliers. If you can't do this w/ your fingers,use something plastic or fiber tipped like this.
It doesn't require much pressure at all to squeeze the barbs - all your trying to do at this point is get the barb in the middle of the hole, instead of spread out on the bottom of the board.
Don't try to poke them any further up with anything.
Now that you have the barbs in their holes, grasp the outside of the heatsink and pull straight away from the mb, using as little rocking motion as possible. It will be stuck on there like a piece of dried out gum - which it probably is . Double check your barbs if you meet alot of resistance.
Now to clean off the tim from the heatsink, you will need to be careful here, so as to not remove the padding surrounding the chip. I used a Q-tip and wet the top of the chip with acetone. Then i used another Q-tip, not quite so saturated to dab off the material. Repeat this until you have removed it all. I didn't go as slow and careful as I could have here and dissolved a little of the inner edge of the padding. Thats probably ok, just don't dissolve the whole pad!
 I wouldn't recommend removing the padding, as it will help prevent excessive pressure to the corner of the chip when reseating the heatsink. Now that you have the chip and the heatsink clean, apply your new tim.You might not want to use arctic silver as it is somewhat conductive and if you get it on the area surrounding the nf4 chip, that might cause a problem. I use this for everything, as it is non-conductive, and works great. I've compared cpu temps between this and AS5 - I get no difference, even after weeks.
Now that you have your new tim on, reseat the heatsink. What you want to avoid here, is pressing unevenly on one side of it to get the barbs thru the holes. It is possible to chip the corner of the chip if enough pressure is applied to it - that's why you don't want to remove the padding around the chip, as it will resist some of the rocking motion
If your paranoid about this step, get someone else to push the barbs while you hold the heatsink down.
Just take your time and it will go smoothly. I just got this board, so I can't say what improvement this mod has made. I can let you know what the temps are when I start running benches.