Aspire Case & P4 775

[Darkfire001]

Okay, I believe I've finally arrived at the "true" culprit of my system reboots.

Basically I get occasional reboots when using my machine, primarily when about to play games, or use other intensive applications.

Assumed it was heating, but I've heard Aspire PSU's have issues. WELL, swapped in another PSU, still had issues, taped up all the wiring (To make sure it wasn't that Aspire Qpack Design Flaw that Plagues many a person) and still occuring.

And today I had a rash of reboots in a row which really suprised me since I was just using a few simple applications.

SO now I'm trying to decide wheter poor Thermal Paste is the issue or "Latent Heat in the Air". I swapped out my ULTRA fan when it broke for a nice Thermal Take fan as suggested by you all ANd its working well although the "idle" temp is a few C above what it was previously.



SO I'm trying to narrow down which of the following three culprits is responsible:

1) Latent Heat: IE Hot air not exiting the case fast enough, in the Qpack case I've got hot air leavint he processor and basically just laying there or slowing migrating out.
2) Thermal Paste: Last time I removed my thermal paste I used a standard lint free cloth to remove the past, but nothing slightly acidic to get rid of perhaps everything, perhaps this could be a factor?
3) Actual PSU? I'll be watching my Temprature and I'll reboot when its only at like 58C although I generally can go much higher. That said there is about a 3 Second Delay between the high Temps and a reboot, so perhaps it spikes up in that time period. My PSU gets damn hot, hotter then any previous PSU I've used. However I get reboots even when swapped out.

That said I turned off windows reboots :|

I'm thinking its how a combination of factors since in the past I didnt have my Aspire Qpack Power button taped up so that may have been causing reboots along with my Thermal Paste and now thats been fixed, but I no longer have such a solid job of thermal paste application.

If it helps any when heating up the Processor temps sort of wave up & down like.

40,48,44,49,45,52,48,56,48,58,50... And so on till I get a reboot.

 

[pengwin]

which aspire case?

 

[Darkfire001]

Could be important Aspire Qpack, the mini case.

I reversed the fan on the back so it sucks air in over the CPU cooler which pulls it down, average Tem while idling is now 40-42C, which I've heard is fine for the most part and will most likely be a bit better after another week or so once the thermal paste has settled, however when playing games the temprature steadly rises and after I'd guess 5-10 minutes of continuous climbing I get a reboot.

That said if I suddenly exit the game and go to the main screen, temprature dissipates quite fast, so leads me to believe it could be the thermal paste and not latent air. Arghh, so confused.

 

[Morph]

I'm 99% sure that I have the answer you need!

I have 2 rigs both with Aspire X-Qpack cases. One is AMD939 setup, other is P4-478. I was getting this intermittently on the AMD machine. I had first assumed that the PSU was faulty so I swapped PSUs. Sometimes I could play for hours with no problems. Soumetimes I couldn't boot because I was getting stuck in a on/off power cycle. The odd thing that I noted was this: When I got a full boot and it shut off it wouldnt just power off, it would go through a full Windows shutdown routine. I tried everything.

Finally, I got the bright Idea to check the power switch. WHen you separate the plastic front pannel from the aluminum panel behind it, you will notice that the pins of the power button in the upper right are very close to the aluminum panel. Mine was actually touching and shorting against the pannel intermittently. Hence, the windows shutdown after full boot instead of just lost power.

To fix it, all I did was put a layer of insulating tape on the aluminum panel behind the switch. Viola! Problem solved 100%.

I love the look and function of these cases. This is one serious design flaw, but easily solved. I hope this helps!

 

[pengwin]

see look at that

i ask great questions

 

[Darkfire001]

The entire length of the Power Button and/or wire is taped up now and still getting the reboots which I'm %100 sure now are caused by Overheating.

The thing that plagues me is why the hell my processor is getting so hot so fast ONLY in the aspire case, when in a standard size case the air disipates fine :|

I'm so fucking aggrivated with this Aspire case, and this stupid Prescott that runs so damn hot.

 

[DragonDoc]

I'm 99% sure that I have the answer you need!

I have 2 rigs both with Aspire X-Qpack cases. One is AMD939 setup, other is P4-478. I was getting this intermittently on the AMD machine. I had first assumed that the PSU was faulty so I swapped PSUs. Sometimes I could play for hours with no problems. Soumetimes I couldn't boot because I was getting stuck in a on/off power cycle. The odd thing that I noted was this: When I got a full boot and it shut off it wouldnt just power off, it would go through a full Windows shutdown routine. I tried everything.

Finally, I got the bright Idea to check the power switch. WHen you separate the plastic front pannel from the aluminum panel behind it, you will notice that the pins of the power button in the upper right are very close to the aluminum panel. Mine was actually touching and shorting against the pannel intermittently. Hence, the windows shutdown after full boot instead of just lost power.

To fix it, all I did was put a layer of insulating tape on the aluminum panel behind the switch. Viola! Problem solved 100%.

I love the look and function of these cases. This is one serious design flaw, but easily solved. I hope this helps!

I had the same issue with that case on about five now. I just pull the Alum panel back from the front panel power switch(screw driver the the round holes). I automatically do that every build with those cases. That is a design flaw but I also still love them. They are really a dream case for a system builder and they look good to.

 

[DragonDoc]

The entire length of the Power Button and/or wire is taped up now and still getting the reboots which I'm %100 sure now are caused by Overheating.

The thing that plagues me is why the hell my processor is getting so hot so fast ONLY in the aspire case, when in a standard size case the air disipates fine :|

I'm so fucking aggrivated with this Aspire case, and this stupid Prescott that runs so damn hot.

Socket 775 fans (S**K). If you don't get them seated just right then your CPU will overheat. I have built many of these and I hate the design of those 775 fans. Who ever designed them was not a builder. :roll:

 

[Darkfire001]

Well, my ULTRA fan died a couple weeks ago (Piece of shit, less then 5,000 Running Hours I'd Guesss).

SO decided to drop some cash on a much nicer fan. I opted to drop $40 on this one [quotehttp://www.thermaltakeusa.com/product/cooler/retail/cl-p0092/cl-p0092.asp[/quote]

It installed well, and Idle temps seem okay at 37C to 39C, however when intensive applications begin to run the temprature doesn't dissipate near fast enough even with the case open. I'm beginning to think I should have used some more Artic Silver rather then the stock coolant with the Thermaltake fan.

 

[Darkfire001]

** UPDATE **

I've "revised" the inital post with a lot more information and a more direct question. CPU Temp idels aroudn 40C, is that acceptable? Because the computer operates fine at that Temp, but it hits 55C+ damn fast, when running a game or a similar high intensity application.