Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Delirium on September 01, 2005, 09:00:39 PM
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I've been having a problem with overheating on my CPU, it isn't overclocked but runs at 46-51C in AH and 41 off AH in basic windows. It is a pent 3.0 with the stock fan it came with, I ended up recently repasting it to the heatsick/fan is came with and it seemed to fix the problem, but no it is back again.
I took one side off of the computer, no luck. so I took off both sides and have a room ran placed up against the opening in the case.
Does anyone have any ideas?
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The issue is, I'm thinking about getting a new PCI-E MB and a new PCI-E vidcard with a bigger power supply (I currently run a 400) as well as a new case.
Does anyone have any recommendations? I'd really like to continue to use the Pent 3gig cpu but have the option of upgrading the cpu easily in bios without having to purchase another mb in the forseeable future.
Thanks in advance!
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Is that 3.0ghz a prescott by chance ? Ive heard that they run hot. 46- 51C Is warm , but not hot enuff to cause a crash IMHO . Im an AMD guy so id have to look at the temp threshold for that chip , but it seems that it should run stable at those temps ...
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EDIT: After looking a few places , those temps are actually good for a prescott, if in fact you have a prescott . But those are stable temps for a northwood as well
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I was reading reviews on Intel 3.0s and saw that the stock fans were lousy. Mine was OEM and didn't come with a fan. Best remedy to heat is a copper heatsink with a good fan on it; unless you want to geek it out and water cool it.
Copper has the best heat conductivity of any commercially available metal.
If you decide to replace the heatsink, try one of these. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Manufactory=&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=577%3A8561&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=585%3A8655&description=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=62&Submit=Property)
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If that is a Prescott, which I believe it is, those temperatures are in line with it. They run hot. Very hot.
If you want it to run cooler, you will need to replace the heat sink and fan. The Thermalright XP-90 or XP-90C is a very good unit and uses a 92mm fan. However, you need to make sure there is room for it in your case.
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I wouldn't worry about it unless you are getting lock ups etc. If you're not getting problems, leave well alone unless you want to overclock.
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This may seem pathetic... how do you tell what type of chip you have? I have the box the chip came in with all the packaging
I apologize, but I am still trying to learn this hardware stuff, for no other reason than to save myself from money and aggrevation from shops.
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It should just say on the box. Where did you buy it from? If it was online, it should be listed as to what core it is. Mine is a Northwood, which runs MUCH cooler than a Prescott, but I'm sure it has some kind of downside.
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Originally posted by Delirium
This may seem pathetic... how do you tell what type of chip you have? I have the box the chip came in with all the packaging
I apologize, but I am still trying to learn this hardware stuff, for no other reason than to save myself from money and aggrevation from shops.
You get yourself a free version of Sandra 2005 lite (free) (http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a=)
It will tell you more than opening your case :aok
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Ok, it IS a Prescott... which means the temps the cpu is running at is acceptable.
Could it be the temp of the vid card causing the lock ups? I have a Nvidia 5700LE 256 meg.
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You ARE getting lock ups. Right, sorry, missed that.
Is it hard lock ups, meaning the whole PC locks solid and there's no way out except restarting?
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OOZ662 there is no downside. Your chip runs faster and cooler - the prescott was a less than optimal design with only one goal, more clockspeed. Clock to clock it was slower than NW.
Intel knows people are buying Mhz not actual efficiency. So they built a chip with reeal high clockspeed even if it meant building it slower than its predecessors.
And consumers were happy paying top dollar for the 'enhanced' chip.
Actually same thing happened already before when switching from P3 to P4 line. Early P4's were much slower than the best P3 - but it was a question of image more than anything.
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Originally posted by FOGOLD
Is it hard lock ups, meaning the whole PC locks solid and there's no way out except restarting?
Yep... sound will continue for about 3-4 seconds and then nothing. I have to pull the plug or hit the reset button the case. It has happened ONCE off AH, otherwise its always in AH.
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Sounds like a heat issue right enough.
Be careful repasting the heatsik fan. Don't just slap on thermal paste. Try a good third party HSF and with good thermal compound. Follow the thermal compound instructions VERY carefuly as putting it on too thick can be worse than none at all.
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It might be a heat issue for the Video card but you said you opened up the case and directed a room fan at it which should have cooled the video card enough to eliminate that. Have you checked to make sure the videocard cooling fan is working?
Only other thing hardware wise that I think might cause lockups like that might be a power supply issue that only shows up when the comp is being pushed and drawing a more power. Does this happen anytime the comp is pushed or just during 3D games like AH? Have you run any stress tests or other benchmarks on the system?
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Originally posted by FOGOLD
Be careful repasting the heatsik fan. Don't just slap on thermal paste. Try a good third party HSF and with good thermal compound. Follow the thermal compound instructions VERY carefuly as putting it on too thick can be worse than none at all.
I've never done it before, but I read up enough (I think) before hand. I applied paste a little bigger than the size of a pea and smoothed it out with a knife.
]Originally posted by 345 Have you checked to make sure the videocard cooling fan is working?
It is running... I blew the dust off it earlier.
]Originally posted by 345 Does this happen anytime the comp is pushed or just during 3D games like AH? Have you run any stress tests or other benchmarks on the system?
It has never happened in Silent Hunter, it has happened in windows once, and it happens in AH often.
Can you recommend a proggie to stress test it? I am currently running a 420W power supply btw.
Thanks for the help all, I appreciate it.
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Originally posted by Delirium
I've never done it before, but I read up enough (I think) before hand. I applied paste a little bigger than the size of a pea and smoothed it out with a knife.
With Arctic Silver (the best kind) you use a drop just smaller than a grain of rice on the heat spreader, put the CPU in place, put the heatsink down on top of it without smoothing it at all, rotate it 1 degree in each direction, and put the straps across the heatsink.
If you decide to redo it, make sure you clean both with 99-100% rubbing alcohol, brake cleaner or ArctiClean 2 (do not use any citrus products unless you plan on going over them again with one of the above) and a LINT-FREE cloth; seriously, like a coffee filter. Don't let anything but the thermal paste touch either side; no hair, no dust, and especially no fingerprints.
The layer of thermal paste should be very very thin. As in around 0.003 inches(at least with Arctic Silver; I've never used anything else); hence the reason why you smush the two together instead of spreading it with a knife. By spreading it around, I'm guessing you introduced air pockets and grooves in the paste and/or had some leak over the side of the heat spreader.
In conclusion, ANY old material will cause the interface to get screwey, including air, hair, fingerprints (fingerprints can be thicker than how much paste you need), old paste that wasn't removed with a tough cleaning agent, ect ect. The whole reason for the paste is to fill in the microscopic grooves that manufacturing tools leave behind on the heat spreader and heatsink and make them as if they were one piece of material.
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Originally posted by Delirium
Ok, it IS a Prescott... which means the temps the cpu is running at is acceptable.
Could it be the temp of the vid card causing the lock ups? I have a Nvidia 5700LE 256 meg.
I just had a similar heat issue, but with an OC'd AMD Barton. I repacked the thermal grease and blew the cat hair out of the cpu fan... it runs a full 10-15 cooler.
I have the same 5700le that has been OC'd from 225/400 to 450/500 using coolbits... the NV36 chip on the LE is an underclocked Ultra that's rated to run at 475/450.
Basically your LE is an Ultra, if you're not overclocking it, try out coolbits (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815) Its a puny reg file
Here's a breakdown of what cards have the NV36 (http://hi-techreviews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=622)
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Originally posted by Delirium
Yep... sound will continue for about 3-4 seconds and then nothing. I have to pull the plug or hit the reset button the case. It has happened ONCE off AH, otherwise its always in AH.
Del, I have a 3.0 Northwood with a nVidia 6800 and I am getting EXACTLY the same lockups. Hard lock, VOX repeats a few times and then I have to reboot, I cant ALT-ESC or CTL-ALT-DEL.
At first I suspected my power supply, but that is not it. I have ruled out any hardware or driver issues. I think it is somewhere in the settings of AH. After I did a clean re-install of AH (and I mean clean, no saved settings, no skins, no custom sounds) I have not had a single lockup, where before I would have 4-5 a night.
I have no idea why, or what, part of AH was set wrong or was porked to cause my lockups, but they were IDENTICAL to yours and the clean re-install fixed it.
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I have formated and reinstalled AH already...
I also ran a bench test and everything is ok, via 'burn-it' with Sandra.
I am COMPLETELY at a loss for what may be going on with my system. I really want to fix it rather than just buy new parts and perpetuate this problem.
In short, I'm desparate for help...
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Well...lets give some other general things a try.
1.Go into DXDIAG's Sound tab and put the Hardware Acceleration to 3/4 instead of Full
2.Check for BIOS and Chipset driver updates. I'm not sure how to update chipset drivers, seeing as I didn't know they existed until this computer.
3.Make sure everything's seated nice. Video card, sound card, the works.
4.Use a program to determine voltages. That's my guess as to what's wrong, but I'm not to sure with this one.
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1. Done, was already set at 3/4 per Skuzzy's recommendations.
2. I have all the updated windows drivers for the cpu, I am not comfortable flashing the bios, I've heard horror stories. I have a Asus P4P800-E Deluxe.
3. I removed everything and re-inserted it.
4. I ran Sandra several times and all the voltages were in green. I could post the results if you desire.
Thanks for the help... I am baffled at what the heck is causing my problems.
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Hmmmm....
I've got a P4 3.0, nVidia vid card and an Asus P4s800...we seem to have a trend here.
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Ok, every other game I have runs fine and nothing crashes... only AH, it did crash once in windows but it was only after I had just logged off AH.
Could it be the way I am preloading stuff to the vid card/ram?
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I wouldn't preload into the video card. It takes up a lot of space.
GIGABYTE GA-8IPE1000PRO-G with a 3.0 Northwood here; runs at 32 C under full load.
My heatsink/fan with the grill removed. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835106032)
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By any chance do you have memory acceleration mode enabled in the bios? I have a p4p800 deluxe and memory accerleration mode runs fine for everything else but crashes AH. Look in your manual and see where it is then look in the bios to check and make sure it is not enabled.
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Memory Acceleration is standard, just checked it when AH crashed again.
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why not run dxdiag and post it for us.
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Originally posted by Delirium
Ok, every other game I have runs fine and nothing crashes... only AH, it did crash once in windows but it was only after I had just logged off AH.
Could it be the way I am preloading stuff to the vid card/ram?
Same here, its only in AH, and until recently (and it sounds like the same time Del started having problems) I had zero stability problems with AH.
I'll post my DXdiag too.
I think it has something to do with VOX, I get the lockups when someone else transmits VOX. Its not every time I hear a VOX transmission, but the lockups always happen during one.
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Try switching to using Wave In (under Voice in Setup). That way, Windows handles VOX instead of DirectSound.
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Well, thanks for jynxing me guys. :D Now I have the same problems.
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I noticed that as soon as I updated Windows (I hadn't since install), this began happening. I'm guessing there might be something that changed and caused this...
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Hmm, thinking back I updated windows before I formated my drive and thats when the problems happened.
Now, I have updated windows before I even came into AH.
I hope this get resolved soon... thanks for the help everyone. :)
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I have no idea if this is the same or not but I was having very similar problems when in game ,stutters,freezes,complete lock ups,ect. I replaced my sound card from SBlive to SB audigy and fixed it. Got it at a comp.shop second hand for 15$ Sounds ok except occasionally it makes 616Fubar sound like Donald Duck.
JB12
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Originally posted by JB12
I have no idea if this is the same or not but I was having very similar problems when in game ,stutters,freezes,complete lock ups,ect. I replaced my sound card from SBlive to SB audigy and fixed it. Got it at a comp.shop second hand for 15$ Sounds ok except occasionally it makes 616Fubar sound like Donald Duck.
JB12
I'm using a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS.
What happens for me is that all non-flying controls quit. I.E. VOX stops, guns won't fire, throttle/aileron/rudder/elevator work fine. This lasts for one second, then the computer does a complete freeze with sound loop. After about 15 seconds, the sound stops.
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Originally posted by JB12
I have no idea if this is the same or not but I was having very similar problems when in game ,stutters,freezes,complete lock ups,ect. I replaced my sound card from SBlive to SB audigy and fixed it. Got it at a comp.shop second hand for 15$ Sounds ok except occasionally it makes 616Fubar sound like Donald Duck.
JB12
Thats not your soundcard, thats Fubies real voice.
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OOZ, that is exactly the problem I am having... I can't fix it, so unless I start buying/throwing in new parts I can't even narrow it down to hardware or a software problem.
I'm frustrated to say the least.
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It is happening more and more often, even in windows when I have alot of IE windows open. I'm guessing that the MB, the CPU, or the RAM is on its way out.
I'll work on it after I get my new hardware in for my new system and try and isolate it by swapping the memory at least to see if it fixes the problem.
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Since I disabled these services, I haven't had a crash yet. The air coming from my side fan went from scorching to a cool breeze during AH as well.
(http://www.shelteringwings.com/images/Disabled.jpeg)
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It's started again...how odd...
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This is without a doubt related to VOX. It never happens unless VOX is being transmitted. I wish there was a way to completely eliminate VOX transmissions, not just turn the sound down so I could test this.
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Yes, it's definately VOX. I'm wondering; there's a bug between SoundBlaster Audigy 2 programs and Norton Antivirus.
Maybe both are interacting. Maybe one is messing with the game.
From browsing around, it seems that SoundBlaster drivers aren't exactly top-shelf either.
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I dont have Norton, and when I'm on AH everything else (AV programs) is shut down. I do have an Audigy 2 though.