Game crashes on overclocked system

[rrezende]

I´ve been running this Celeron 566 @ 850 1.81v (mobo won´t allow a higher voltage) for a while. The system seems to be stable: no problems with Seti@home, Sandra 2001, 3DMark 2000, Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament. Motherboard Monitor reports the temperature range for the CPU is 28ºC (idle) to 54ºC (full load after hours) and for the motherboard is 40ºC to 46ºC (I live in Brazil- it´s hot).
Heavy Metal-Fakk 2 crashes to the desktop after 15 minutes of game. The game runs fine when the CPU is not overclocked. Shouldn´t Quake 3 crash as well ? I can loop 3DMark 2000 for 12 hours and there´s no problem.
I´m thinking about getting a system fan. I just have the CPU and the power supply fan. I use standard heatsink/fan because we can´t find better ones here. Does anyone have any idea of what I could do ? If heat and voltage were the issues, why everything else is working fine ?

Thanks in advance.
P.S.: The game runs without a single problem at 566.

System specs : Celeron II 566@850,Soyo SY-6BA+III,128MB CAS 2,Viper II,Quantum Fireball 20 GB,Asus 50x,HP 9300, SoundBlaster Live! MP3,US Robotics v.90,Realtek RTL8139,Iomega ZIP 100, Samsung SyncMaster 750s.

 

[ejsmith2]

That's actually rather impressive. I think the max temp for most of the pentium3's is around 62C. If you're pulling 54 on the outside, the core is probably around 60C.
Try taking off your side panels (all of them, top-bottom-front) and put a house fan blowing on the motherboard/cpu. If your temps drop, then you should look into some case/system cooling.
As for the instability, it's just a matter of precision. Some games don't use every last little instruction that a cpu/gpu is capable of performing.

 

[Crashman]

It sounds like your overheating. Find out where you can get a better heatsink/fan, maybe a larger standard unit. I use the OEM Intel 933 fan, it is good, maybe easier to find in your county. I get unstable around 54C.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[rrezende]

Thanks a lot.
I´ll try to get that OEM cooler and set up a case fan.

 

[rrezende]

I just can´t find any good cooler in Brazil. I found Thermaltake FC0370-2 (socket 7 orb for space-limited boards). Do you think it should be enough ?
Ok, I know it´s not a very good one but it costs U$30,00 here and the only Globalwin FOP38 I found in the country costs U$80,00. The Globalwin is 2/3 of the price i paid for my cpu.
What do you think i should do ?
Thanks.

 

[Crashman]

Is there any way you order them from the U.S.?

Suicide is painless...........

 

[rrezende]

Yes, there is. However, I´d have to pay 60% customs plus about 15% state taxes plus transportation (which is usually very expensive - around U$60). I´m sure I can´t buy it myself cheaper than U$80,00.
Besides, the Globalwin would not fit my motherboard. I use a slocket to fit my Celeron in a slot 1 mobo. The Thermaltake barely fits, so most hardcore coolers would not fit.
I did order the Thermaltake Golden Orb. I know it´s more fancy than efficient but I think that if it, at least, locks itself tightly onto the processor it might work. My current cooler doesn´t allow the CPU to go higher than 48ºC when I bend the clip. However, it doesn´t remain tight.
I don´t want to lower the lower temperature but bring the higher temperature down. I want to avoid the high thermal amplitude I´m getting (25ºC between the lower and the higher). I´d be glad if I could bring the higher temperature (under full load) to 45ºC.

 

[Crashman]

Reasonable choice given the circumstances. It is a midgrade cooler.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[rrezende]

Thanks a lot for your help ! Sorry taking so long to reply.
It´s been almost a month since I installed Thermaltake´s Golden Orb. I had to return the first one they sent because it was making a weird mechanical noise.
Now, the fan is "silent" and ok. It spins at 5000 RPMs average. The CPU temperature is in the 28ºC to 46ºC ( it´s at 31ºC right now ). My case doesn´t get hot at touch on the top as well.
I was able to finish my game without any problems and everything is fine.

Thanks again.

 

[Crashman]

Glad to here everything is going well now.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[peteb]

hey great - a success story! Well done!

-* This Space For Rent *-
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[puppetmasta]

its looks like you are running at little warm there. I guess its because it is hot where you live but anyways, it should be fine, but you want your cpu to be at about 25-30 idle temp and then 40 C under load. So you are a bit high. Some games demand more cpu load etc. dont know why q3 wouldnt crash it though, just play around with trying to cool that cpu some more and i think that will solve your problem