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Overheating, or Here We Go Again...


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(Sigh)OK, as many of you long-timers may know, I've spent the past 18 months having overheating problems. I patiently waited for CMBB in hopes that the problem was just with CMBO (Incidentally of all the games I own (including modern 3D games) CMBO is the ONLY one that causes this)

Long story short - I have replaced, in this order, the motherboard/processor (to a Shuttle AK31 w/ T-Bird 1.4) went to 256 DDR ram, added a Geforce4 MX420, bought a new aluminum case and heatsink/fan, and added various case fans (I think 3 total case fans)

Basically everything except my hard drive (which has never shown ANY problem) and my power supply has been replaced.

Last night, my computer hit that BIOS set 160'F and shut down. I have been monitoring my temperature with the latest SiSoft. Under normal load the readings are 90'-110' F for the CPU and 80'-90' for the board.

While playing CMBO and now CMBB, the temperature begins steadily creeping upwards and after say 5-10 minutes of steady playing (i.e. no escapes to desktop) it is over 140' and nearing 150' Very cool nights, like when the house is 60' or lower, it will hover around 140' while playing and I can keep going, but any time its over 65-70' in the house, I basically can't play the game.

I am about to frigging throw this thing off a cliff. I need help, what else could it be, the power supply? I am at wit's end here. Thanks for listening.

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What kind of HSF are you using? The early T-Birds are notoriously hot running and require a pretty serious cooling device. Also, did you apply the thermal grease properly? It should be a thin layer, not gooped on. If it is, that's likely the source of your problem. If you can, get some Arctic Silver 3 thermal paste for the CPU. Just using that instead of regular paste can bring you down 5 degrees. A couple good websites with HSF reviews and cooling stuff are www.overclockers.com and www.hardocp.com.

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Thanks, thing is, I know little about the actual working on computers, so I take it to a store and tell him, "It's overheating, please give me the best heatsink and fan you've got." I also mentioned the Arctic Silver, but he used a different brand. I don't know what kind of HSF e gave me, but he said it was a good one.

Didn't help.

What if I was to go to an Athlon XP, are they much cooler (and will they work on a Shuttle AK31?) I am loathe to spend more money, but sheesh it is either that or buy a new computer which I also can't afford.

[ November 13, 2002, 01:11 PM: Message edited by: Panzer Leader ]

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But beware the Thoroughbred A. They run just as hot, if not hotter, and have a smaller die size so though are a real pain to cool. The 2200+ is a Tbred A and some of the lower speed ones are Tbred A cores. Be sure to get a Palomino core XP. I don't think your HSF itself is the problem, but I think it isn't mounted tightly. I suspect CM runs a CPU at 100% very easily, which is why it heats it up so bad.

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I am getting a new computer. This sucks and practically the only game I want to play is not working. Right now I have the case open and a desktop fan blowing into it. Seems to be working. Who knows.

I think after so long of being an AMD fan, my next computer will be a pentium (ugh)

Is the Athlon XP 1600 and 1800 a palamino? I think my Shuttle AK31 mb will support those (need to check for sure)

Incidentally, when I opened the case, I cleaned a bunch of gunk from between the heatsink and HSF. Weird, considering those items are only a couple months old.

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Was the gunk dust/garbage kind of stuff or grease? If it was dusty stuff I have the same problem on my T-bird 1.2. THe dust caked the heat sink so bad no air could flow thorugh it. My comp kept crashing and I finally noticed this problem. You should be fine with any XP on the market at the moment because the low speed Thoroughbreds are just barely hitting the market now. I only heard about it on Monday. The AK31 can handle the palomino XPs for sure

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Wow PL, this is the strangest problem I have heard yet. That's too bad. I don't understand why that would happen with a modern processor and plenty of fams. Are you overclocking? Is your PC near any other kind of heat source? (lights, heaters, etc?). For what you spent on all that new stuff you could have just bought a Dell tongue.gif . . .just kidding. It's just that my Dell PIII 866 never does this and I have everything on high res and best graphics. No slowdown either. What's your vid card?

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Myu machine runs acceptably cool between September-May. But in the summer, it gets warmer than I'd like - not hot enough to shut down, but enough that I am leery of running anything demanding like graphically-intensive games.

I've got mine in a Lian-Li aluminum case with two big fans in front and one in the rear - as well as a slot fan near the graphics card. There's room for a blowhole fan but I need some of those plastic rivets to mount it - self-threading screws just don't seem to work on this case. Add in rounded IDE cables and it should run cool all the time. But it doesn't. the motherboard itself is fine - usually 31-34'C year round... but the processor (An Athlon XP 1800+) can get up to 65'C or more in the summer. Right now it stays at 49-53'C even after a night of gaming.

I suppose location matters - my desk is in an alcove in the living room, over the staircase to our upper flat. There are no windows so airflow in the area is not the best. In the summer the corner gets warm, but in the winter the stairway makes a nice cold zone and I almost need to dress for thew outdoors!

I guess that's one good thing about Buffalo winters - I'll never have to worry about the machine running too hot :D

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I think the HSF installation was botched, and he probably got a cheapo fan too. Panzer Leader, if you want it done right, do it yourself. There are all sorts of technical forums where you can learn how to do it. It isn't difficult. It's just a pain in the rear. Check the sites linked to above. You don't need a new computer. You need proper cooling.

Treeburst155 out.

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Yeah like Treeburst155 said, the HSF probably isn't seated tightly. A complete replacement isn't really necessary. The heatsink you have can be the best in the world, but with a cheapo fan won't do much better than the stock HSF. The stock fan on my 1.2 T-Bird is like 60mm wide and 5mm high. A decent aftermarket fan is a 80x25mm unit. You don't need an 80 CFM Delta fan, most any 80mm unit will do.

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Is rather odd, I got something similar. First time I played it, screen froze with... lets say 70's type trees, very colorful, red, GREEN, AND PURPLE!1 I immediately thought, video card... hmm, reboot, f00king drops into bios setup complaining that my cpu is too hot? I was like LoL! This game isnt what I'll call extremely system demanding... heh(at least not visibly). Only other time I had cpu overheating problems is when a fan went out, and I didnt realize it. ;) Problem seems to happen appx 50% of the time but it jus' dont add up.

me has not0riovs AMD 2000+, GF4 Ti4200, DDR Asus board, 256 DDR 2100. . . and so on...

Oh BTW,

---------------------------------------------

Originally posted by Panzer Leader:

Right now I have the case open and a desktop fan blowing into it. Seems to be working. Who knows.

I've done that before, just too damn noisy, and it was one of those big square mambajambas. redface.gif

[ November 15, 2002, 02:46 AM: Message edited by: Major Jerkov ]

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