Over heating?

[courtney4]

hey guys
Every once in a while my computer will just made a click noise and shut off completely. Most of the time when i turn it back on the same thing happens again and again until i leave it idle for a while. This almost always coincides with hot temperatures.

Anyway, im in a huge heat wave atm, temperatures are reaching 30-35C and my thermometer in my room is reading up to 28 degrees. Needless to say it turns itself off a fair bit. Is this acceptable? i have cleaned out my fans but i really bought this system not too long ago. I have a amd x2 4400+ , 2gig ram, asus sli deluxe, 1900xt, 550w psu all not overclocked.

Is there anything i can do? should i get intouch with the people who custom built my pc? how can i tell which piece of hardware is heating up to much and can i underclock it or something.

thx

 

[The_Prophecy]

Take a look at your temps with Everest Home Edition. Post your IDLE AND LOAD temps here. Once we know what's overheating, we can tell you what to do about it.

 

[courtney4]

Temperatures
Motherboard 41 °C (106 °F)
CPU 42 °C (108 °F)
WDC WD2000JS-00MHB0 66 °C (151 °F)
Maxtor 6V200E0 41 °C (106 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 2446 RPM
Chipset 5444 RPM

ok so room temperature is aroudn 25 degrees atm, i have just finished playing a game of fifa 2006. Last time i checked my Cpu and mobo were in the high 30's when idle and into 40-45 when busy. Erm, GPU, i cant actually get a reading on it but i assume its going at around 80-90 degrees i will look into this more.

thx
ps. any other temps u need?

 

[The_Prophecy]

Your motherboard is high, as are both your hard drives (the Western Digital especially). How many case fans do you have in your system right now, and how big are they?

 

[courtney4]

i usually have just a single 120mm fan, however, i have added another small fan on the side of the case recently

The hard drive issue is strange. I have a faulty hard drive when i ordered my PC so they sent me another. I placed the harddrive in the place which was easiest to get too, directly ontop of the other one. However, the temps were, as you say, very high. So, i did a bit of shuffling and spaced the hard drives apart. I also emailed the company i got my pc from and they simply said 'um dont bother looking at temps, if its too hot it will auto shut down'. For some strange reason the temp of the western digital always remains high, even when the other is around 30 degrees it never goes low. I think perhaps just a broken thermometer because it does not seen right.

Is there anything i can do to help keep my PC cool. Atm i have windows and doors open but it sucks trying to play any games atm lol

thx for help

 

[courtney4]

after playing WoW for a few hours

Cpu 49 degrees
Mobo 44

 

[jap0nes]

your hard drives seem dangerously hot to me. dont mount one right above the other, leave some space for air to circulate and put a fan blowing air directly over it.
about the other temperatures, seem fine to me. It could be a generalized overheating. try to organize cables inside the case to improve air flow.
oh, and you can do a test and run the computer without the side cover.

 

[courtney4]

your hard drives seem dangerously hot to me. dont mount one right above the other, leave some space for air to circulate and put a fan blowing air directly over it.
about the other temperatures, seem fine to me. It could be a generalized overheating. try to organize cables inside the case to improve air flow.
oh, and you can do a test and run the computer without the side cover.

i have a air space between it, i have 4 racks which go like this

[empty ]
[WD HD]
[empty ]
[maxtor]
__________floor.

There is actually much less air flow to the maxtor (cooler one). The WD hard drive is in exactly the same spot as the maxtor used to be in but for some reason is over 20 degrees higher! When i move the maxtor down to the bottom, with reduced air flow, it only raised in temp by about 5 degrees max.

I think the thermometer is buggered. 95% of the time it says 60+ then the other 5% its telling me 30-40.

Wierd thing is my PC turned off at about 7 this morning when the temp in my room was 25C, now its been running for hours playing WoW at 30C ( hottest its ever been). I think maybe it turns off when the system is taken by suprise and the fans havnt increased speed enough, it oftens happens when i come out of standby

thx for the help

 

[courtney4]

about testing...if i took off the side cover and placed a traditional household fan blowing air into the case would that be ok? cos i could test out if the hard drive monitor is working correctly as well

 

[jap0nes]

yes, that's a good test

oh, about the 60C... when it indicates 60C if you touch your hand does it feel like too hot? i think 60C is not tolerable by your hand, 40C is a little warm.
do you have an exhaust fan blowing hot air out of your case? if so, the air it blows out is too hot?

 

[courtney4]

yes, that's a good test

oh, about the 60C... when it indicates 60C if you touch your hand does it feel like too hot? i think 60C is not tolerable by your hand, 40C is a little warm.
do you have an exhaust fan blowing hot air out of your case? if so, the air it blows out is too hot?

whenever ive touched the hard drives they were warmish but not hot. I couldnt feel a difference in heat at all. I do have an exhaust fan but the air coming out is not hot. Infact if i stick my hand infront of it...its kinda cool.

 

[courtney4]

Wow..omg

i sent them an email explaining the problem and stating my temperatures and the reply i got was:

temps seem ok, let me know if you want me to send you a new PSU, i think thats the problem.

Interesting....do u reckon its the PSU?

 

[jap0nes]

Wow..omg

i sent them an email explaining the problem and stating my temperatures and the reply i got was:

temps seem ok, let me know if you want me to send you a new PSU, i think thats the problem.

Interesting....do u reckon its the PSU?

could be. if the psu is underrated (you have a pretty demanding system) it will probably overheat, and if it has a temperature control it will shut down. Or it could not be able to deliver enough current to some rail

 

[waylander]

What case do you have and is there a fan in front of the hard drive cage?

The temps don't look that bad except for the video card but that would create artifacts before it shuts down.

When it shuts off does it just turn off or do you get a blue screen error first?

 

[Plekto]

Sounds like you need:

(fanfare)

A Dremel and some case mods!
(this is becoming a bit of a mantra for me, isn't it? )

You need airflow.
Dissassemble the computer from the case entirely before cutting, of course.
- Cut out the rear grille(s) covering the fans.
- Install a slot fan. Leave 1-2 slots between the GPU fan and the slot fan for airflow.
- Hard-wire the case fan into the power supply so that it's on full speed all the time.(ie - don't use the MB's connector. I run mine off of the DVD drive's power cable with a 4 to 2 pin adaptor.)
- remove the brive bay cover between the two drives. That's your new intake and drive cooler. If need be, install the drives in 5.25 bays with 3.5 adaptors and open up a 5.25 bay - this will allow air to flow around the drive on all sides instead of being wedged in a 3.5 inch bay with 1mm of airspace.

Your case and component temps will drop by 5-10C just by increasing airflow and a few dollars for the slot fan.

 

[jap0nes]

dont you think it's better for him to claim his warranty BEFORE he cuts his case?

 

[courtney4]

i appreciate the advice mate, but the last thing i wanna do is start messing with my computer. I am very paranoid about things breaking and i really dont think i have enough knowledge and experience to be creating extra fans + holes etc. Plus as jap0nes said, i still have my computer covered in warranty for free collection and repair. They wont touch it if i mess things around.

The PSU is made by atrix and is 550W. I do not ever see 'artifacts' so i dont think its the video card either. I think it is most likely the PSU. One thing which is rather strange is when i put the power cable into the PSU i get lots of crackling sounds....normal?

thx v much for all your help. God bless Toms hardware forums!