Over heating CPU?

[walesrob]

Heres the sceneraio:

3 year old PC with AMD Athlon 3000 CPU. It came with standard AMD stock fan, and it seems to have worked fine until a few months ago, now the CPU is getting very hot indeed, and of course Windows shuts down when BIOS detects the CPU is about to melt.

As a temp fix, I've installed another case fan to help keep things a bit cooler, but it looks like a new CPU fan is the answer, any idea which one to go for?

[KeithD]

.....any idea which one to go for?

A spinning one

[andypaul]

Are you overclocking it?

I go with the spining one as well.

As well as the fan is the actual airflow good you can have a fan spining away but seen many a system where the actual layout was not doing the fan or cpu any favours.
Do you have a filter to stop dust clogging up the fan and heatsink?

Also replacing with the same fan will probably do the trick many just wear out i have found.

Dont forget thermal transfer paste and a decent heatsink with or with out cooling pipes.

But a spinning one sounds best

[jonnijon]

I should think it just needs a good clean,go to Maplins or another store like it and buy a can of compressed gas,cost about £8 and blow the heatsink clean and the power unit.Use a small plastic cable tie to poke into the fins of the heatsink and blow with the gas,you will find this will make a great difference.

[andypaul]

I should think it just needs a good clean,go to Maplins or another store like it and buy a can of compressed gas,cost about £8 and blow the heatsink clean and the power unit.Use a small plastic cable tie to poke into the fins of the heatsink and blow with the gas,you will find this will make a great difference.

Indeedy

Although a puffer brush is cheaper than a compressed gas and safer as sometimes cooled gas drops down as liquid if the can not upright. The liquid if not allowed to evaropate away could become a conductor so be careful of shorting out components.

Also make sure you dont blow the dust and what not in to other nooks and cranies on the board.

Make sure you put a screw driver, pen (small sheep if its rob) in between the fan blades to stop them being rotated either the wrong way or to fast) cream crackers the fan.

Anti static precations and if you use a vac dont let it get near the compoents as vacs are great sources of static

[A_flyer]

Rob,

First thing (if not done before) is to clean the computer case, heaters and fans (without forgetting the power supply) with compressed air (either in can, or with a compressor for spray painting, or at a car repair shop) [my English may not be accurate... , but I guess you will understand]
Nota: to be done outdoors or you will see an angry wife giving you the vacuum cleaner...
2nd nota: this have to be done very year for the sake of the computer parts... (I know few people are doing it, but if you do your will have less failure and a computer OK for several years).

If you want to change the CPU heater and fan, you can look at e-Bay for Akasa, Arctic Cooling or Zallman (not an exhaustive list of good brands).
I saw 2 Akasa models in UK there (look for "akasa athlon").


PS: may be some wool from the sheeps clogging the heater...

[andypaul]

Air compressors blooming heck how big are the pc's some people have on here im surprised they dont fly away

[A_flyer]

Air compressors blooming heck how big are the pc's some people have on here im surprised they dont fly away

I'm always using a small air compressor rated at 2 bars with a progressive blower and I never saw any computer nor computer flying away during the cleaning...

But if you use 8 or 10 bars... it's another story!

[joebloggs]

Air compressors blooming heck how big are the pc's some people have on here im surprised they dont fly away

£8 for a tin of air , its even more expensive than petrol i thought air was free ... , why don't we see this on the news ................

giving it a good blow helps, the more bar the better, we've got a weedy one at work, pointless, but at the old place , parts would fly off

anyway are you overloading your psu ? how many hdd's has it got ?have you got a watt eating 3d card ?

maybe ur thermal paste like andy said, is dried up on your cpu, not conducting tooo good.

[A_flyer]

£8 for a tin of air , its even more expensive than petrol i thought air was free ... , why don't we see this on the news ................

Joe, you forgot the Oxygen bars...

anyway are you overloading your psu ? how many hdd's has it got ?have you got a watt eating 3d card ?

Hummm... this will overload the power supply and not the processor. Thus not explain the processor overheat, unless the power supply got a problem.

Look at this power supply test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWt3St_MhSY


Rob, do you test the output voltage of your power supply to verify its health? Either with a monitor software or with a voltmeter. Just to be sure, there's no over/under voltage.

[walesrob]

Thanks for the helpful replies..

The PC was built by myself 4 years ago, and I used a standard issue cpu cooler from AMD. Its making quite a bit of noise, so it looks like a ball bearing failure (its not full of dust and gunk or even sheep parts, I've already cleaned it out), I'll order a new fan, the Akasa looks good thanks Yves.

I'm quite sure the PSU is not at fault here (only 1 HDD, 1 DVDRW, 1 DVDRom, 1 FDD & 1 Case Fan), but if a new CPU cooler fails to solve the problem, I'll try that next.

Oxygen Bars? Hmm, from the same shops that sell Sky hooks, Long Weights and Cleaning Gas??

[andypaul]

Thanks for the helpful replies..

The PC was built by myself 4 years ago, and I used a standard issue cpu cooler from AMD. Its making quite a bit of noise, so it looks like a ball bearing failure (its not full of dust and gunk or even sheep parts, I've already cleaned it out), I'll order a new fan, the Akasa looks good thanks Yves.

I'm quite sure the PSU is not at fault here (only 1 HDD, 1 DVDRW, 1 DVDRom, 1 FDD & 1 Case Fan), but if a new CPU cooler fails to solve the problem, I'll try that next.

Oxygen Bars? Hmm, from the same shops that sell Sky hooks, Long Weights and Cleaning Gas??

I think new fan, new paste. Worth getting a filter costs not a lot and will save you a lot of the cleaning out malarky.

Fans just wear out end of story, in fact a big percentage of failures are due to not keeping fans filters and airflow in tip top shape
on electrical equipment like Mr admin says will wear things out quicker or even make them fail far far quicker.

In professional equipment when a fan makes a noise which cant be cured change it otherwise..

Trust me buy a few quid puffer brush far far cheaper may take a little longer but if you wanna waste 8 quid on fesh air good luck.

for eight quid you could buy another fan

[KeithD]

Water coolers are the best, and extend the life of the CPU.

[andypaul]

Water coolers are the best, and extend the life of the CPU.

Even better dont switch it on will last far longer

[A_flyer]

Water coolers are the best, and extend the life of the CPU.

Yes true, but for Rob on a computer which is 4 years old. I don't find it useful.
If you buy (or build) a new configuration up to date I agree with you.

[andypaul]

Yes true, but for Rob on a computer which is 4 years old. I don't find it useful.
If you buy (or build) a new configuration up to date I agree with you.

A bit like putting a turbo on a morris minor or a 2cv

[A_flyer]

A bit like putting a turbo on a morris minor or a 2cv

Bah, there was a guy in France that put a V8 engine on a 2cv. It works well. Just the guys he was overtooking on the motorways where very surprised...

[andypaul]

Bah, there was a guy in France that put a V8 engine on a 2cv. It works well. Just the guys he was overtooking on the motorways where very surprised...

From what i remeber of a mates 2cv when we were students was not straight lines but going round corners that raised the heart beat

[aromulus]

Bah, there was a guy in France that put a V8 engine on a 2cv. It works well. Just the guys he was overtooking on the motorways where very surprised...

When I was a heck of a lot younger.....
My much older brother put a proper Alfa Romeo engine inside a Renault "DAUPHINE"....(Already badged as Alfa Romeo Dauphine)
As the Standard engine was notorioulsy slow...( not many of this lot know about them, eh...Yves...???)
He didn't think of changing the suspension system tho.... So the cornering left to be desired a lot.....
Power assisted steering was not invented yet.... So it was ok only in a straight line.....

So, as I remember it, some traffic cops were left wondering what went past them.....

[joebloggs]

Bah, there was a guy in France that put a V8 engine on a 2cv. It works well. Just the guys he was overtooking on the motorways where very surprised...

my brother in the late 70's had a Nova kit car, he put a porche engine it in, use to nearly take off , as it had a fibreglass shell

same colour as this one ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_qc6...eature=related

he use to make wiring looms for them in his bedroom and sell them , installed a remote controlled hydraulic roof , which sometimes, would go up and down on its own , and had digital rev and speedo in it

he sold the car, after another car mounted the front of his car and stopped on his roof , the front of the car was only inches above the ground

[KeithD]

Upturned skip with windows

[andypaul]

Upturned skip with windows

On corners i was thinking more a potential coffin

[walesrob]

New Akasa fan installed and its all working like a dream, CPU temperature a solid 54 for the last 3 hours.

Thanks for help Yves, Andy, jonn and er, Keith.

[andypaul]

New Akasa fan installed and its all working like a dream, CPU temperature a solid 54 for the last 3 hours.

Thanks for help Yves, Andy, jonn and er, Keith.

As for that joe lets not mention him

[walesrob]

As for that joe lets not mention him

er, yeah and Joe the Manc

[KeithD]

er, yeah and Joe the Manc

You've put the M upside down

[A_flyer]

New Akasa fan installed and its all working like a dream, CPU temperature a solid 54 for the last 3 hours.

Thanks for help Yves, Andy, jonn and er, Keith.

So quick???? there's not only sheeps in Wales so...
You found it at the nearest Tesco?

[walesrob]

So quick???? there's not only sheeps in Wales so...
You found it at the nearest Tesco?

Nearest Tesco is 50 miles away.

Luckily we have the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, and they have an excellent well stocked computer repair department. Only cost me £4.

[A_flyer]

CPU temperature a solid 54 for the last 3 hours

Wow! It's a heater...
My Core2Quad is stable at 34°

[KeithD]

My Quad cores about 48, and that's with an water cooled PSU as well, but then it does have 2 graphic cards, 2 DVD's, and 6 hard drives