Over heating???

[Big Gay Al]

I have an AMD Athlon XP 1.3 ghz processor on a Gigabyte 7IEXH mobo with 512 megs of RAM, a clone ATI 9250 Radeon video card, and a host of other stuff that probably doesn't matter yet.

The problem I'm having is UNLESS, I leave one side of the case open, with a fan blowing into the tower case, my system lapses into a constant reboot cycle.

I am fairly certain it's not the hard drive, as I have a drive bay that I can swap drives (after power off) and tried a different drive, with the same results.

Talked to a tech, and he confirmed what I thought, that if the CPU was over heating, the system would shut down. Problem is this, before I put the fan to blowing on the system, I've seen the temp meter in the BIOS screen top 74 degrees centigrade. The CPU fan is working. But I'm at a loss as to what is going on. Anyone else ever have this problem?

[NeoGen]

Check if the heat dissipator is well attached to the CPU. Sometimes if they're not well stuck together it won't do the heat tranfer that is supposed to. Spread some artic silver paste between the cpu and the heat dissipator for better heat transfering.


I get worried when my system goes beyond 50 degrees celsius, and I have set on the bios to shutdown at 60.

[chaz]

I'd just take it out to the garage and blast it with the air compressor first, but dont get real close....Make sure the heatsink is free of dust.

[vaughan]

Is it overheating when just idling or when running 100% load? Is it a stock cpu fan or an aftermarket addition? As NeoGen said check the fan is doing its job and the heatsink is making good contact with the cpu. Are there any other case ventillation fans in your computer?

[NVM]

XP 1.3 Ghz? err, what kind of AMD talk is that?.. :P

[Big Gay Al]

Check if the heat dissipator is well attached to the CPU. Sometimes if they're not well stuck together it won't do the heat tranfer that is supposed to. Spread some artic silver paste between the cpu and the heat dissipator for better heat transfering.


I get worried when my system goes beyond 50 degrees celsius, and I have set on the bios to shutdown at 60.I'll check that out. Thanks. I had thought they were well together, but on thinking about it, it's possible the dissipator is just "sitting" there.

[Big Gay Al]

Is it overheating when just idling or when running 100% load? Is it a stock cpu fan or an aftermarket addition? As NeoGen said check the fan is doing its job and the heatsink is making good contact with the cpu. Are there any other case ventillation fans in your computer?So far as I can tell, the temp increases while it is idle as well as while it is running at 100%. There are no other case ventillation fans currently. Haven't been any since I put it together over 2 years ago. It is a stock CPU.

[vaughan]

Link to motherboard info:

http://www.giga-byte.com.au/Motherboard/Products/Products_GA-7IXEH.htm

[Empty_5oul]

where you say in a constant reboot cycle, do you get anything on the screen, do you get as far as the BIOS? and can you get to the windows screen?

[Big Gay Al]

where you say in a constant reboot cycle, do you get anything on the screen, do you get as far as the BIOS? and can you get to the windows screen?I can get to the BIOS screen, that's how I found out the temp on the CPU was running high. It will go past that, if I don't stop it, and look like it's starting Windows, then the screen goes blank, and it starts booting up all over again....until I put the fan to blowing into the case that is.

[chaz]

It should be under no load at the bios screen, it should not be near that hot. Either the cpu fan is dying and slowing down to the point it cant keep up with the heat generated by the cpu, or the cpu heatsink which the fan is mounted on is full of chit and needs to be cleaned out. As long as the power supply fan is working it should be enough for that machine. I think if the heatsink was not making enough contact, it probably would have kamikazi'ed by now.

[Big Gay Al]

According to the bios screen, the fan was running about 5000 to 5500 rpm. And the temp would actually go up while it was sitting in the bios screen with me watching it.

I decided to try a different one, so I got CompUSA's "Copper Pro Gamer Fan" which is rated to 2.2ghz. At first it seemed ok. But then the temp started rising again. The only way I can keep it cool is to leave the side cover off, and have a fan blowing into it.

I think maybe the CPU is damaged.

[Big Gay Al]

Just checked the temp, with the side open and fan blowing in, temp seems stable at 40-44 degrees Centigrade.

[chaz]

Ok, I dont see that particular cooler, but I assume it's a fan and heatsink combo? A copper heatsink should be more than enough. Is the power supply fan working? It wont matter how good the cooler is if we cant evacuate the hot air from the case. If not, another psu is in order, if it is working, then a case fan or 2 should help. The local radio shack has them, but they're a bit pricy compared to newegg.

[Big Gay Al]

Ok, I dont see that particular cooler, but I assume it's a fan and heatsink combo? A copper heatsink should be more than enough. Is the power supply fan working? It wont matter how good the cooler is if we cant evacuate the hot air from the case. If not, another psu is in order, if it is working, then a case fan or 2 should help. The local radio shack has them, but they're a bit pricy compared to newegg.Considering it was running consistently at about 50-54 degrees before, under the same conditions with original fan/heat sink, I see it as an improvement.

Yes, the PS fan is working. So I'm now thinking about where to put a case fan.

I just don't understand what changed, as it was working fine until Friday night, "boom" so to say, it started the reboot cycle, and over heating. THis is just plain strange.

[SlackPawn]

The case fan *must* be an exhaust fan, and therefore must be at the rear of the case. If you use an intake fan, that will destroy the negative pressure in the case, which in turn destroys CD drives. The CD drives can only get ventilation by means of the negative pressure inside the case.

When you check that fans are running, be sure they are running well instead of running very slowly. Sometimes the lubrication fails and causes the fan to run at 1/3 or 1/4 normal speed. To re-lubricate a fan, peel the label and inject a couple drops of thin machine oil, preferably silicone type. This won't last, so only do this if you don't have any new ones handy. The fact that you get good cooling with the case open, sort of points to the power supply fan.

The quantum change in heating could also happen if the core voltage somehow got raised. You can measure the core voltage by probing with a voltmeter on the solid metal tabs of the power transistors in the regulator circuit. Be careful not to touch more than one thing at a time with the probe. If that voltage is too high, maybe clearing the CMOS would fix it.

If the regulator is misbehaving, look for leaking capacitors. You can recognize them by the bulged-up top.

To get more ventilation, I leave an empty hole where the second floppy would go if you had one. This also obviates any need for a hard drive fan because the hard drive can be located near that front opening.

[Big Gay Al]

My system finally died completely on Sunday Night. I was able to confirm it was the CPU as a friend had an old Athlon 950 that we tried on the mobo, and it worked fine for over an hour before I finally shut it down.

Today I finally broke down and bought a Sempron 2500+ on an Asus A7V8X mobo. Connected it all up, and it's running fine. According to the temp monitor program I'm running now, temp is steady at 41-42 degrees celsius (whatever happened to centigrade, I always liked the word "centigrade".)

I'm happy, but my bank account isn't. :)

[vaughan]

Now you have a new rig what DC project are you going to crunch with it?

[Big Gay Al]

Now you have a new rig what DC project are you going to crunch with it?Actually, I'm going to play Fighter Ace more often. ;)