OT Computer Q.

[632 Regal]

probably (hopefully) a stupid question. I have 2 identical PCs one here at home and one at work.

The one here at home runs hot...like 145-150 degrees at the CPU, work not so hot. The other readings are around 113 with ambiant around 80~85.

Recently it has been freezing but I think I have that under control but with cpu temps that high it's a matter of time for another bout of freezing conditions.

Im running AMD 1200 and without looking I dont remember much about the rest, I do have a lot of ddr.

The CPU fan was rated very good when I got it a couple years back and I only recently looked at the temps. Everything is clean and blown out about every couple months with little to almost non existant dust in the fan or sink. I also have 2 additional case fans to help.

Any clues or help is appreciated as my post numbers per day are dwindling.

[DanDombrowski]

Um, did you reapply thermal paste when you cleaned out the heatsink? Putting on too much can be bad. Check to see if one fan is spinning faster than the other.

Or, for the amount of your time its worth, just order a new fan. Or swap out the one from work and get a new computer at work.

[brodee]

if the CPU was bought seperate from the PC and was a retail package then the fan should be under the AMD warranty (depending on age). I have no clue where you bought it or any of that, but if the above is true in your case then you can warranty out the chip and fan togehter and get a new one.

[632 Regal]

yes, applied new compound as I thought this was an issue, the CPU still works as I am here. Everything seems OK as of today but the temp issue bugs me. Ill check and see what the work one runs at, maybe it is a shitty cpu fan but was rated up to 2800 and I have a 2100 cpu. Maybe its marginal, ill look up new fans.

[BigKriss]

I understand the heat issues, but maybe the RAM has crapped itself and it now freezing the computer, can you select the amount of volts going to the CPU?, maybe you can lower this and lower the cpu temps in the process.

[Derek A.]

Are you still running windows 98 on these machines ?

[Gayle]

I had a dell when I was in school that developed a heat related problem. It was summer and when the room temperature got to about 80 it would crash. Then it would work ok when the room cooled down.

I had a 3 year extended warranty. First Dell sent someone to change the fan unit. Then they sent someone to change the mother board. Then there were a couple more organ transplants--it can't remember what. Then when it got to the point they were going to send someone to change the video card, and by then I had spent a week of my life talking to one technician after another, finally a guy who was up there on the dell support food chain decided this was nuts. He called my computer in for an autopsy. They gave me a (sorta) new one (refirbished). It worked out for me cause the one the gave me had a faster chip and more memory.

What I learned out of this is that the same thing happens to computers when they overheat as happens to e34 engines. Progressive part failures.

I hope your experience does not turn out to be as frustrating as mine was. Good luck.

[Randell]

AMD chips run pretty hot, 150F is high but i think the thermal limit is about 85C (150 is 65C)... Unless the contact between the heatsink and the CPU core is poor, 150F shouldn't cause lockups

if you suspect a memory issue, get a program called 'memtest86+'. Put this on a floppy or CD and boot your machine off it. It will run some pretty gruelling tests on the ram (let it run overnight) and display any errors. http://www.memtest.org/

Same thing with the CPU.. there are a few programs that specifically hammer the CPU and get it as hot as possible in order to check system stability... prime95 is the most popular, but someone has made a more basic version (that achieves the same thing) called sp2003. http://sp2004.fre3.com/

[Bill R.]

core voltage and to overclock, if i raise the core voltage to high then the cpu does the same thing as yours...The same thing occurs if i overclock it too much.. it starts to freeze up.... Are you overclocking this one? and is there a chance that your power supply is screwing up, do both machines have the same motherboard and the same brand power supply




yes, applied new compound as I thought this was an issue, the CPU still works as I am here. Everything seems OK as of today but the temp issue bugs me. Ill check and see what the work one runs at, maybe it is a shitty cpu fan but was rated up to 2800 and I have a 2100 cpu. Maybe its marginal, ill look up new fans.

[632 Regal]

absolutly no over clocking and the voltages are in check. Had a ton of true vector errors so updated zone alarm to newer and actually came with a serial! dropped a ton of garbage, cleaned the registry and defraged several times and im still here. Going to check the work clone to see if its the cpu fan.


core voltage and to overclock, if i raise the core voltage to high then the cpu does the same thing as yours...The same thing occurs if i overclock it too much.. it starts to freeze up.... Are you overclocking this one? and is there a chance that your power supply is screwing up, do both machines have the same motherboard and the same brand power supply

[Jon K]

Jeff it is really funny you have this issue, because I just got my motherboard back from Epox (the capacitors all leaked... sounds like an E34!) and I assembled the PC and I too have like 65 - 67C temps... I am running an AMD 3200+. I am not sure why it is so high. I am using the heatsink/fan that came with the CPU (retail) but I came home from college (doctors apt, sick) and dug up my big alpha heatsink from back in my overclocking days. it's really important not to apply the thermal paste stuff too thick, it actually makes the thermal conductivity worse.

[Jay 535i]

You could take the cover off the case, and leave it off. That should drop the temp a bit.

[ryan roopnarine]

if i built a amd computer from scratch and saw temps around 60C i'd think nothing of it, them amd bastards make their stuff run waaayyy hotter than intel. but if you say that an identical machine runs much cooler, i guess you have a problem.

[632 Regal]

work pc runs about 10 degrees cooler...still going to look into a better cpu fan.

[emw525E34]

Yikes Jon, If yours is running to 67 Deg C, it is way too close to the rated max at 70 deg C. Although the chip itself could possibly handle 75 deg C but would not be going for days, I would think, without freezing or self-reboots.

The AMD 90nm chip should run a lot cooler. my 3200+ Athlon64 runs at 36 degC nominal and peak at 48 degC. It has Ttake Pipe101 heatsink with 4 heat pipes and Tornado fan, in an Antec Sonato case with custom push fans and internal vents to ease the cooling. It runs 24X7 in ambient non-aircond 30 degC room temp. My eDonkey mule!. 450GB of disk!.

[grave77]

10 Deg isn't a a difference Jeff, get the RAMs off the working pc and install in the freezing one. run it and see how it goes. also a bad OS such as 98 or ME will do more than you would expect. it's better you run win2000 .. its the best OS untill now... I had it installed for more than 2 years without the need to reinstall it. maybe some guys will tell you to use XP I would not prefer that as XP uses alot of resources to make ur pc run will all those animations and colores.

AMD CPU can be faulty since the day u buy it, just like my brothers PC AKA ///MPOWER in bimmer. I got him an AMD 2200+ and it didnt boot properly ... I changed the fan to the original big fan also it didnt change ... it only worked on reduced speed ... like at 1800 or 1600, you can try this too... reduce the speed of the CPU clock from the Bios setup.

after all .. if nothing helped you up then ... pick it off and take to the dealer if u still have the CPU under warrente.

Good luck

[632 Regal]

Barry the lockup probs just started within the last month or so. Im running XP pro in 32 bit mode. Looking through the system probs it looks like zone alarm took a crap cause it was registering faults many times everyday so I got a newer copy and havent crashed once since. I did order a couple new fans for both machines these (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=674621&CatId=0) maybe these will drop the temp a bit even though I dont think thats an issue anymore.

still want that window sticker?

[Jon K]

Barry the lockup probs just started within the last month or so. Im running XP pro in 32 bit mode. Looking through the system probs it looks like zone alarm took a crap cause it was registering faults many times everyday so I got a newer copy and havent crashed once since. I did order a couple new fans for both machines these (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=674621&CatId=0) maybe these will drop the temp a bit even though I dont think thats an issue anymore.

still want that window sticker?

i put on my alpha PAL8045 heatsink with silver thermal grease and I am now at 47 degrees C... all better! It looks like the pad on my stock heatsink had worn away from being hot and removed so many times.

[grave77]

Well ... the Cooler you got is good .. but the one I saw was called Jet CPU cooler. made specially for AMD, it's a shitty CPU when it comes to heat while it performs better that Intel.. anyway ... I googled you the images ... you can check them here (http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=Jet+AMD+CPU+Cooler) .

Yes mate I'm waiting for you to finish it or to tell me what you need to do so :) .. as my car is at the work shop replacing lots of ****. tell me what you need to do the sticker so I would take care of it.

[632 Regal]

I looked at the jets but for the wattage it uses and the ratings I went with the other one...plus 25 bux each isnt a bad price. the reviews on it were vary good with most people at least getting a 10 degree drop.

[632 Regal]

New CPU fan dropped temp 30 degrees! Actually if I didnt check it twice after hammering it I wouldnt have believed it.

just a fyi followup.