Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Wes14 on January 16, 2007, 07:48:49 AM
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lately my CPU on my pc can olny run up to 30% or it seems to just lock up/act idle,sometimes the screen just goes black and i have to unplug the pc and plug it back in
after runing for a while it idles down more due to something overheating
(it doesnt seem to do this if AH is running)
all the fans appear to be working
is the cpu about to bite the dust or is it some programming problem?
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How old a machine is it? Whens the last time you backed everything up and reformatted, reinstalled from scratch?
PC's get "clogged" up with stuff just like a drain pipe. I'm a firm believer in once a year burning saved stuff to DVD's, make sure I have all the drivers I need. Then repartition, reformat, reinstall windows & needed software. Then the games I play most often. With a bit of practice you can do it in a day. Figure a weekend for the first time.
You might just be surprised, anyway I highly doubt that its hardware, sounds more like software conflict to me, but I'm no expert.
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the machine is less then a year old
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and i commenly leave my pc running all weekend to run defragment,delete unneeded apps,virus scan,and check for software updates
and i dont think Celron D processors can handle alot of workload at one time,
might get a duel core soon 2:D
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Do you smoke?
do you have pets?
if you answer yes to either.
When was the last time you opened the case and blew out the dust?
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i have a pet (german shepard:D )
and i checked the inside is clean
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It sounds alot like an overheating Motherboard component, or peripheral device rather than the CPU itself.
I would suspect that an electrolytic power capacitor has become damaged. These can fail gradually due to placement too close to a heat source, or simply due to a manufacturing defect.
On motherboards they are often mounted too near the CPU socket, or near other large heatsinked components.
Look for small cylindrical (mini Beer can) shaped devices mounted perpendicular to the circuitboard, with one end fitted flush against the circuitboard.
Obvious signs of damage or failure include bulges in the side of the can, discoloration, or leaking electrolyte.
Not much you can do if you find this except replace the motherboard or peripheral device that is failing, as most computer repair shops won't repair or replace electronic components these days.
Good Luck!
CptA
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What brand of PSU do you have ?
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PSU?
(please not im poorly computer oriented)
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Looked into that PSU=Power Supply Unit?
i know that the PSU on this pc is plenty powerfull enough
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My guess is that the heatsink/fan is poorly installed and the cpu overheats / throttles.
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Also be sure to check the heatsink fins, even if the fan is clear, the fins can easily get clogged.
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can electronics that has a big magnetic feild mess it up(even thou its a few feet away)?
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Originally posted by Wes14
i have a pet (german shepard:D )
and i checked the inside is clean
Don't let a general look see fool ya. My mother's system fried and I came over and took it apart and inside the case was ok but inside the power supply was pet hair. Get one of them air blasters and regularly spray into the vents of the power supply as well as all over the motherboard and really well into the small fins on the heatsink and fan. The pet hair plugged the power supply fan on the inside.
All the Best...
Jay
awDoc1
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ill check for that bellybutton soon as i can
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hey Wes, how do you know your computer is overheating? Do you measure temps?
maybe you have hijack trojan.
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i can take a guess thats its overheating when the CPU just drops to just above idle. and i run Norton Anti-Virus 2007 every weekend so i dont see how
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Do you have a thermal monitoring program that came with the pc? If not look for one (speedfan and everest come to mind) that will tell you what your cpu temps are or go into the bios and look at the hardware monitor ,you should be able to see temps for the cpu and chipset.
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i do know that my pc will shut down if it gets to critical tempature levels
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Originally posted by Wes14
i can take a guess thats its overheating when the CPU just drops to just above idle. and i run Norton Anti-Virus 2007 every weekend so i dont see how
Heh Symantec products are known backdoors for viruses these days. Get a solution that actually works.
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Originally posted by MrRiplEy[H]
Heh Symantec products are known backdoors for viruses these days. Get a solution that actually works.
then what?
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You'll find many people hate Norton and McAfee...both for good reasons, and silly reasons. They do what they claim to do...albeit in such a way that uses way too much of your systems resources. They are not bad programs, just...too much.
For the home user, I'd recommend Grisoft AVG Free edition. (http://free.grisoft.com)
It's a no frills antivirus, that stops a good portion of evil doers and it's the best bang for the buck. :) No bucks even!
I'd also get Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) to be rid of the evil background adware etc. Good, and also free.
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yea.. last time i downloaded a free virus scanner (on my old 98) it gave me a freakin virus that diabled the antivirus and eventually lead to the crash of that pc:furious
soo yea..i rely dont wanna download stuff:noid
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Grisoft is a legitimate antivirus, I've used it and spybot for years on customer's PC's. Both of those applications have ran in my networks when funding was tight, and gave me few, if any, problems....but I understand not trusting something free.
The best antivirus I've used is Nod32. (http://www.eset.com/) I've never paid for anything to remove adware/spyware...so can't help you there.
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and the weird thing is that even with my pc's problem i dont see any problems leaving norton on with AH running (other then a tad bit higher ping)
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I, personally, have never had any problems with Norton antivirus alone. It's usually when a customer has the full Norton suite when i see problems. McAfee has caused me severe personal trauma through the years...
Your problem is tough to diagnose because you said "(it doesnt seem to do this if AH is running)".
If it were heat or power supply problems it would definitely crash during AH. Also any background task would tend to 'upset' the computer while playing AH. It's not going into standby or something right? Your actually using the computer and then the screen goes black?
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yea the screen went black about 2 times now.pc power light still be running but acting like the cpu shut down on me or windows did:confused:
and both times it happened the cpu was at 100%
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to be more precise the cpu went like this
20%,30%,0%,100%,-black screen-
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Try using the task monitor to see which program is spiking to 100%
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right now IEXPLORE.EXE (internet explorer) is spiking in the 80s and the Hard drive/Cpu monitor(i just enabled it) occasonally kick it up to 100%,but no signs of black screen yet
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Sounds very much like spyware/adware. Try downloading and running spybot, it's the best I know of. AdAware personal edition is good too, it's 'easier' but nowhere near as powerful as spybot. IMO
Edit: if you see something that says 'newdotnet' don't remove it yet. You need to first download something called "LSPFIX" Removing 'newdotnet' can quickly ruin your day, as it bungles up your network connection so that once it's gone, you can nere search again.
You might want to seek the local geek if you see that adware/spyware
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wait,Doh i know why thats spiking,im browing with firefox and using internet radio with IE but still thats still a lil high cpu usage then it normally is,hmm
normally IE Cpu usage is 20% normally when runing on a 56K ouput brodcast site
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though i was browing with IE and using firefox for the Radio:confused:
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Safest call, is to support your local geek (like me :) ) If he's like me, he'll do it for a Dr. Pepper and a moon pie.
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Originally posted by republic
Safest call, is to support your local geek (like me :) ) If he's like me, he'll do it for a Dr. Pepper and a moon pie.
:lol hmm wonder if my geek friend could help,and
as i think i said earlier i may drop the CPU on this and go to AMD duel core or w/e and get sound/graphics cards that arent crap:)
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Originally posted by Wes14
yea.. last time i downloaded a free virus scanner (on my old 98) it gave me a freakin virus that diabled the antivirus and eventually lead to the crash of that pc:furious
soo yea..i rely dont wanna download stuff:noid
I can also attest for AVG
Its found stuff McAffe didnt
And was abot to get rid of stuff McAffe found and couldnt.
I now use both McAffe and AVG anti spyware
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Originally posted by Wes14
wait,Doh i know why thats spiking,im browing with firefox and using internet radio with IE but still thats still a lil high cpu usage then it normally is,hmm
normally IE Cpu usage is 20% normally when runing on a 56K ouput brodcast site
Just for chuckles.
Disable your anitvirus and see what your CPU usage is then.
Might be your nortons.
Ran into the exact same thing recently fixing a computer for a friend of my wife
needless to say Nortons is no longer a part of that machine
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i can take a guess thats its overheating when the CPU just drops to just above idle. and i run Norton Anti-Virus 2007 every weekend so i dont see how- Wes
i wouldn't assume that a cpu dropping to idle is due to overheating. you can pop the cover off, ground yourself out, and feel the cpu (actually the heatsink) with your fingers. if it is very hot to the touch, it is overheating.
but your cpu temps may be normal when this behavior occurs. if temps are normal, the wacky behavior you describe might be a trojan or virus not detected by Norton's, esp if you do not update your virus signatures often.
after years of using Nortons I switched to Bit Defender due to very good reviews. I find it catches things missed by Norton. I highly recommend it, and it is less of a resource hog. I also recommend Spyware Doctor to go along with it, its a high quality application, updates almost daily. always use a good firewall too.
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acually i did a risky move but it did something to fix it.
i made the Pc run at 100% by loading up alot of stuff and kept it like that till i noticed it overheating then shut it down and let it cool down,now it seems to running at most of its normal power(weird).i think that something reseted when it was shutdown at high temps
and now im seeing better Fps on AH:D
-thanks for all your input
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You may have one of those bizarre problems I run across from time to time. The ones that seem to have no cause, no way to troubleshoot, no solution...
Just weird computer voodoo.
:confused:
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or Windows hates me:rolleyes:
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If he's using a thermal pad on the CPU it may require a burn in to melt the pad on the cpu. It works properly only after melting in.
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the problem came back (not as bad) when some idiot hit the powerline up the road and made the power act up here,i think it reseted:furious :furious