Something is overheated 3

[MagiMike]

I know there are a lot of similar questions out already but:
When I was sitting by the computer it suddenly shut down.
After that I couldn't start the computer at all. I also felt a strange smell (only a little). So I waited 10-15 min before I tried again and then it started.

My comp is an Athlon with ATX, the cpu temp is stable at 65 C. It has never happened before when it's been going for 12+ hours but now after just 30 min...
And it seems to be fine now also.
Are there any risks in letting it be on for a long time from now on?

I've heard that a computer can shut down themselves and doesn't start until it's cold again when it's overheated. Is it only when the cpu gets overheated or could it be something else (graphics card, power supply)?

 

[cruizectrl]

Theres a few things that your should try just for extra percaution. Sometimes your computer can shut down if too much power is being used. This happens to alot of computer that have a weak power supply (200-250 Watts) and alot of periferals. But if your system is Idle when it shuts down then most likely it is a heat issue since no drives are running. There is software that will send an alarm through the speakers or even through email and/or cellphone. Search for "temperature monitor" at

http://www.download.com.

You need to make sure that all your fans are free of dust by spraying them with compressed air. These fans are located on the actual processor, in the powersupply, and depending on the case they can be mounted in the front and/or the back. If they are not there your should install those right away to get some extra air flow going through. The more air the better so stock those fans.

(You can even get a fan that will fit into a 5 1/4" drive bay. You can check those out at

http://www.pricewatch.com

for good deal.

Make sure that the slots for your expansion cards are covered up (dont leave those open, they screw up proper air flow)

Hope this helps.

 

[MagiMike]

Thanks for the reply.
The power supply is 300 W. Perhaps it's not enough...(but I've only got 2 harddrives and 2 cd-roms).
It wasn't exactly idle, but I tried maxing the processor usage for about 30 min and the temp rose 2 degrees to 67 C. But this is nowhere near my cputemp treshold 80 C.
Would an overheated graphics card stop me from booting up the pc?

 

[cruizectrl]

Yes. Your graphics card needs to be communicated with during your Power On System Test (POST) for the computer to begin booting. What kind of graphics card do you have?

 

[paparazi]

I don't know where you are in the world but it must be pretty warm to have an idle temp of 65C.
My XP2.6+ is at 42C ATM (warm evening in the UK around 25C in this room) You didn't say what Athlon you have?
Although some Athlons MAX at 85C they can become flakey when they reach the mid to late 60's C so this could be your problem.
Do you have additional case fans fitted?
A better, higher rated heatsink/fan unit, possibly copper bottomed or all copper will lower temps 5-10C over a cheap generic unit as will additional case fans.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[MagiMike]

I have an older Athlon 1400 non XP (Tunderbird?).
With my older fan (const 5000 rpm) the temp was around 55 and with the new one around 65. It's one of those fans that change the speed depending on cputemp.
No, no case fans except the one in the power supply. MB temp around 33 C.
My graphicscard is a Geforce 2 400 mx.
My cpufan is Arctic Cooling Copper Silent TC, it has copper bottom

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/copper_silent_tc/

 

[paparazi]

Oh yes! the beast
The 1.4 T/bird was one of the hottest CPU's ever, only the XP2.1+ Palomino core and the very latest XP2.8+ and XP3.0+ come close to matching the heat from this baby, I am familiar with the Artic cooling Silent but not the TC variant, the heatsink is pretty capable but I think the slow 70mm fan is a bit poor, admittadly quiet but not very powerful, still I would leave this for now untill you see how much cooler a couple of case fans take you.
I think two case fans should sort you out, front lower sucking in cool air and rear top exhausting this should lower the air temps inside the case considerably and thus take CPU temps down at the same time.
I would be very pleased if you could get your absolute maximums below 60C, this would take you well into the safe, stable zone. Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[Jethrowks]

over 65 degree SURELY will make your system easy to crash
I have such problem early

u can try to buy a better fan or
u can just reduce the cpu core voltage by 5% or below
(officialy +/- 10 % is acceptable)
which can help reduce about 5-10 degree.

 

[MagiMike]

Is there any way to make the cpufan go 400 rpm faster at the same temperature?
The Motherboard is an Asus A7V133.

 

[G0AOZ]

The hardware monitor in the BIOS will tell you the current rpm of the CPU fan. Check the manufacturer's spec for the heatsink/fan, and see if the BIOS figure is equal to, or below that. If it's below then maybe the thermistor control (built into the fan?) isn't working correctly.

Depends on the construction of the fan assembly as to whether or not you can easily get into the electronics to make the fan run at full tilt all the time. I'd personally not bother trying to do that - just go out and buy a decent heatsink and fan assembly.


ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[paparazi]

If after fitting extra case fans (I personally think these are a must with the hot T/bird 1.4) you get maximums that still go into the 60's C I would ditch the thermo controlled 70mm? fan for a straight 70mm unit or just buy a good replacement heatsink/fan BUT!
I think you will find after fitting two extra case fans (front lower drawing IN cool air, back top EXHAUSTING out warm air) that you CPU maximum temps will have dropped below 60C to a safe stable temperature and CPU fan replacement won't be necessary.
The extra case fans will have the added bonus of cooling EVERYTHING in the case, lowering the working temperature of your graphics card and all important hard drives as well CPU! Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[MagiMike]

Arrgghh!! Yesterday was the 3rd time my computer shut down.
Always within half an hour after bootup (but in between the shut downs I can have it running for several hours without problems). And this time I ran without chassi. I don't know if the fan on the graphics card is working at full speed. Could it be possible that the graphics card shut down the computer during runtime?
It's a Geforce 400 MX 64 mb with TV-out activated.
I'm running at 1024*728 85Hz if it's any help.
640*480 60 Hz on the TV with Overlays (in nVidia detonator)activated.

 

[TMD]

if its always within half an hour of startup and irrelevant of what software is running then the prbolem could be related to the power supply, I've had a few at work where they have been shutting down windows XP, ititially i checked the CPU etc for overheating but always found the temp ok. the problem turned out to be the power supplies in a few of the cases. when changed the pcs worked fine.

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, magimike,

> the cpu temp is stable at 65 C.

That's too high. Your BIOS temp limiter is probably kicking in and closing the PC down. You should be in the mid 40sºC, rising to the low 50s°C in warm room.

A temp monitor should be available from your mo-bo manufacturer's website.

Check that your heat-sink/fan assembly is properly located on the CPU. If necessary, take it all apart, clean the interfaces, re-apply the thermal paste and re-assemble.

Iechyd da! John
00:51 30/06/2003 BST

 

[MagiMike]

Thanks for all the help
In the end it turned out to be the power supply!!

About the cpu-temp
I don't know if the cpu-temp really is that high since my cpu (the Athlon 1400 T-bird) is one of the hottest cpus ever.
Check the test they did on tomshardware with 55 different coolers.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20020916/cooler-58.html

With most of the coolers the cpu-temp is around 67-72 C.