Overheating.. Not Sure Why. Need Advice

C

cuddy

Geek Trainee
G'Day From downunder!!

Well... my Computer is overheating Again. Being an IT guy ive tried almost anything i can to fix it. I built the machine early last year.Initially i had a Faulty Mobo that caused overheating.

My Missus always had the heater in our room set to "OMG Could it Be any Hotter in Here" During Winter which caused it to overheat still. So i got a Zalman Cooler and Some intense Fans for it.

Its Still Overheating. Only Under Load. Gets to about 65 degrees Celcius while light gaming (Shutoff is at 75 deg).. and will turnoff under heavy loads. I have changed the Power supply. Swapped the Ram out. Disconnected the DVD drive. Tried Underclocking the CPU...... All To no Avail.

Im running out of ideas Guys... Short of the new mobo being faulty.. the CPU being faulty.. which is a rare event... whatever it is is obscure.. So any Exp here would help.

2 other points
--> BIOS identifies my RAM as being of the 533Mhz Type.. I am Sure it was the 800Mhz Variety.
-->On Booting it says Hard Drive is Ultra DMA able but not Enabled or something.. Have 0 Idea if these things are contributing to my problem but might help.

If anyone here has more suggestions please do so.. before i have an annuerism.!!
 
First of all, you don't want to overclock if it is running hot. Make sure your ram is the same in both slots and is the right ram for your PC...what kind of case do you have... check the processor fan and heat shield....
 
Can you please confirm other factors -

  • Case - make and model if possible
  • Case fans - number, size, locations, etc
  • General setup - RAM, G Card, other expansion cards, etc
  • Mobo, confirmed FSB, CPU type and stated speed, etc
  • Case temp during normal operation and under load.

For example - a Pentium 4 Northwood 2.4Ghz can be overclocked easily to 2.8Ghz and slightly higher using a good air cooler without raising the temp to dangerous levels. However, my Prescott 3Ghz which, with no load at all, tops 55 degrees. Under gaming it moves dangerously close to 70 and has shut down on me when the room temperature was fairly high (yeah I know... in the UK...).

Bottom line - different CPU's have different cooling needs so it is important to know what is under the hood....
 
I dont Overclock my Machine.
Its an AMD 4800 x2. 2gb RAM that im 99% sure is 800mhz. Its an Intec Case (Generic). Front Inflow Fan is a 120mm Antec Tricool set to High. Rear Has a 80mm Antec Tricool and a 80mm generic one. CPU cooler is a Zalman. Mobo is a ASRock Alive-NF7G-FULLHD Grpahics is an ASUS 8600GT Magic. Also have a TV Tuner card installed.
 
On the face of it it seems you are doing everything right. Heat IS the #1 enemy of the PC (apart from dodgy hardware - like ASRock! only joking....:D). The new type of CPU's require less power and therefore produce less heat, resulting in better performance without the need to stress the CPU.

However, if your case is too small to allow a good flow of air through it, heat will accumulate and will make it much harder for the various components to cool down and stay stable. The way I see it there are three options and how I would try to single them out:
  • The case is too crowded not allowing enough cooler air through - leave the side door open and let the system work while opened. If matters improve - there is your answer.
  • CPU's come with a cooler which should be enough to cool them even under some stress. The fact that you replaced it with a better cooler should have made at least a bit of difference. Perhaps when the new CPU cooler was installed, not enough thermal compound was used if any. Remove the cooler, clean the surfaces and re-apply (I like to drop tiny droplets on various areas of the CPU to try and get a more even spread) to see if it makes any difference. Most coolers come with the sticky stuff but you will be surprised how many users install them without bothering or using too little. The cooler will need to be cleaned as especially in small cases they tend to clog up with crap. Check that the fan is turning.....
  • The mobo's sensory is buggered giving you bad readings which in turn shut the system down. If it was a Pentium I would say to disable the auto shutdown in BIOS to see what happens when the critical temps are reached. As it is AMD I am not sure the chip will freeze rather than burn.... so you can do this but don't blame me if your chip goes up in smoke.... :x: I had and ASrock once and I will never go back to this make. I might be wrong but never trusted this make very much. The only way to test this is obviously by replacing the board. Not very easy as you do not want to invest in a test board and they are not exactly laying around.... are they.

I can go on but you have enough to go on for the moment....
 
Sounds Like a Plan.. I was going in to get new thermal paste but the shop here is closed until Monday. Ill talk to the guy that runs it, as he installed the mobo/ CPU cooler for me.. If it sounds liek this mobo has gone bad i will get this one replaced... I might go a gigabyte.. the first one i put in this was an ASUS M2n board and it read high too and shut down.. then this ASROck one went in and was ok for a while.

Do you think that because my GF has the heater on really hot (i mean.. i sweat like a pig when its on) maybe dries out the thermal paste ?

thanks for all your help.
 
cuddy said:
Sounds Like a Plan.. I was going in to get new thermal paste but the shop here is closed until Monday. Ill talk to the guy that runs it, as he installed the mobo/ CPU cooler for me.. If it sounds liek this mobo has gone bad i will get this one replaced... I might go a gigabyte.. the first one i put in this was an ASUS M2n board and it read high too and shut down.. then this ASROck one went in and was ok for a while.
Click to expand...

Personally, I think the mobo should be replaced as a last measure as it could be dearer than a better case.

cuddy said:
Do you think that because my GF has the heater on really hot (i mean.. i sweat like a pig when its on) maybe dries out the thermal paste ?

thanks for all your help.
Click to expand...

I do not think so, not at such a short space of time... Decent thermal paste should last many months even under pressure.

As long as the cooler's fan is spinning, there is enough decent paste on the CPU and there is a good flow of air cooler than 30C through the case, you should be OK. Try and achieve these three before turning your attention to the mobo.
 
Ive had my Air conditioning Set to the lowest (coldest) setting possible.. even in a freezing cold room it is overheating. :(
 
Right, so you opened the case and allowed the PC to run. Then you made sure that the room is as cold as possible.

Now while the PC is running, go in to the BIOS's temp monitor and see what is the temp there. Try and touch the heat sink as close to the CPU as possible. It is very simple - anything higher than 40c will feel very uncomfortable. If the CPU is indeed higher than 60c, your finger will know it, ;)

If the heat sink feels warm but you can keep your finger on it without discomfort, the problem is not the CPU or the cooler....
 
I removed the cooler and CPU.. and found thermal compound down the sides of the CPU. I cleaned the CPU and heatsink and applied the Zalman paste that came with the cooler.. a paper thin layer. I am ripping a DVD as we speak to test and 3/4 of the way through the cpu is at a nice 37 Degrees C.

Fingers crossed it is fixed for good now. Thanks for all of your help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top