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Overheating PC

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felix001

felix001

Technical User
Nov 15, 2008
102
GB
I recently finished building a new PC.
Its consists of ...

2 x 3.4 800Mhz Xeons
2 x 512Mb RAM
Coolmaster sileo Chassis (foam sound proofing)
Collmaster slient 600 Watt PSU
2 Intel NICs
Adapatec SATA RAID Card
2 x 500 Gb Seagates

Now the thing is I built the server it powered up, i installed my software, and everything was fine.
This morning, I thought i would check the temp of the system, so I rebooted the server to try to get into the BIOS, and it just frozer after the RAM and CPU check, just before it initiates the IDE buses.

My thinking was is that this might be a heat issue. So I left the server off for 30 minutes and powered it back up. I could now get into the BIOS.

This was the reading,
System 34 C / 93 F
CPU 1 48 C / 118 F
CPU 2 42 C / 107 F

My first thoughts were overheating CPUs but these seem to be within the temperature limits of the CPUs. Could it be that there were overheating at point of freezing but once I turned the machine off they cooled down. Or am I looking in the wrong place ...

 
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If you turned it off and then let it sit for 30 minutes then they will have cooled down. You need to run some sort of temperature monitor software (many motherboards come with one) while the system is up to keep an eye on the temps. I would recommend running some sort of stress test/benchmark program while watching the temperature monitor to see how high they go.

Also, I would double-check that all of your cooling fans (including the one on the CPU heatsink) are working while the system runs, and verify that the CPU fans are attached correctly. That foam sound proofing also acts as foam insulation, so it's especially important to have proper airflow.

You didn't mention which Xeons you have. What's the model number? The old Netburst CPUs ran pretty hot at 3.4 GHz. The newer models are much cooler.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
 
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IDE buses?? I am guessing this is an old system that you've rehashed together? certainly not the socket 771 series cpu's that are around at the moment?

TBH I would be checking that you have adequate case cooling, what happens if you leave the side\top of the case off? I should also add that if you don't have decent cooling then the foam inside the case would be doing a great job of INCREASING the heat rather than decreasing it.

On a different tangent, why only 1gb of ram with two Xeon's? it seems to me to be ever so slightly mis spec'd with the cpu's either being overkill for what you want or the memory just not being adequate for a server based machine.

Simon

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 
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At the mo im looking at adding 1 additional 5 1/4 fan to allow additional air flow across the fan , along with beefy up the fans that are already in there.

I think im also going to get rid of the foam around the PSU to allow the heat to decapitate from all sides of the PSU rather then just one.

Thanks for the input guys... especially the comment regarding overheating RAM.

FYI, the reason this only has 1 GB in is I brought this as a bundle so will be upgrading this to 4 Gb shortly....
 
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They have ram fans also, that clip right onto the ram stick and they work great for ram temps! As long as you have good airflow that is!

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!
 
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Another thought...I have a server that, for some reason unrelated to heat or anything else I can figure, just hangs in BIOS on 1 out of 10 reboots. I tried flashing the BIOS to the newest, that had no effect. It's probably a defective BIOS chip or something like that, but it only happens occasionally, and I'm a temp & ventilation FREAK, so that's definitely not it. It's just part of the machines "PC-nality"...

Just for yuks, see if there's a newer BIOS available for the machine. Might be worth a shot.

Oh yes and I agree that you need MORE RAM!!! [smile]

Tony

Users helping Users...
 
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Tony, I have one PC case, where it does not matter what main board (except one server board) and PSU are installed, they all fail in some manner or other, e.g. drives getting recognized on boot and then not, graphic card flipping out, and uncommon restarts...

that case cost me a whole weekend trying to figure out what was wrong...





Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
 
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Ben,

That just supports my argument that every PC has its own "PC-nality". I oversee five at my home and 12 here at work (built them all) and each has its own quirks. You just learn to live with them and their quirks, like this mobo doesn't like this type of RAM, but it works fine over there on that one. I just accept their differences and move on.

I can only sit in envy of folks who can deploy a single image to all their PCs...that would be heaven <sigh>

Tony

Users helping Users...
 
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I think im also going to get rid of the foam around the PSU to allow the heat to decapitate from all sides of the PSU rather then just one.
Click to expand...

Whoa!!! Don't lose your head over it...it's just heat.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
 
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Does anyone know of a good "live CD" for stress testing my machine and in the turn the temperature...

I currently have ESXi installed on it so I dont really want to install another OS.

Thanks,
 
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hierens and ultimate boot cds are cool, but neither give a stress test with temp settings, while booting it from off the live cd...

any other suggestions ?
 
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