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alway
alway
Join Date 06/2007
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Heat Problems

March 9, 2008 9:23:32 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Recently, our other computer has been randomly restarting, and we suspected it was a heat issue.

I finally got around to checking BIOS to see if that was the case, and was suprised at what i saw...

We indeed have a heat problem, system heat is a nice steady 30C, but the CPU temp was 72C... and it rose another 5 degrees in the 10 or so mins i watched

anyone got any suggestions?

technical
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alway
alway
Join Date 06/2007
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Reply #1 March 9, 2008 9:42:09 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
anyone got any suggestions as to what i should do? i cant finish my SoaSE game til its fixed
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SRSLYWTH
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #2 March 9, 2008 9:49:50 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
you could open the sidepanel of your computer and put a fan next to it as a temp fix till you can buy a new cooling system for it.worked for me awhile back when i found my fan was shutting off at random times..
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alway
alway
Join Date 06/2007
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Reply #3 March 9, 2008 9:53:23 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
we already have the sidepanel removed, all the other components are reasonably cool according to BIOS (30C)
its only the CPU thats overheating

our fans are also both running at 2500rpm and 2000rpm
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harkov
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #4 March 9, 2008 9:53:58 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
well if you haven't overclocked your system it shouldn't be overheating. Unplug your system, open your case and make sure that the heatsink is properly seated and that the cpu fan is running. Clear out any ridiculous amounts of dust. Make sure the cpu heatsink is properly seated, for instance on the default intel core 2 heatsink make sure that all four pins are pushed in all the way.

If you can't find any problems you could try reseating the heatsink yourself. Make sure to completely clear away the old thermal paste (off both the cpu and the heatsink bottom) with 90+% isopropyl alcohol, using either q-tips or coffee paper. Apply a thin layer or dot of a thermal paste (like Arctic Silver 5) around the middle of the cpu heatspreader and gently lower the heatsink onto it. If you just can't get acceptable temperatures with the default heatsink you could try an aftermarket cooler. The most effective one is the thermalright ultra 120 extreme, but it's huge and requires you to buy a fan. The thermaltake big typhoon is decent and cheap and can be found at radio shack. Some people like Zalmans... I use the Tuniq Tower, but it's pretty big. If you get an aftermarket heatsink make sure it will fit your case and it supports your socket/processor.

And that in a nutshell is all there is to know about cpu air cooling
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the_Monk
Join Date 01/2008
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Reply #5 March 9, 2008 9:56:02 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
anyone got any suggestions as to what i should do? i cant finish my SoaSE game til its fixed



You shouldn't be doing anything untill that gets fixed.


You'll have to remove your heatsink&fan from the CPU, clean all of the old thermal compound off of it with some isopropyl alcohol then clean your CPU fan, then re-apply a very small amount of thermal compound, put the heatsink&fan back on your CPU.


That's the only thing you should do. Heat (besides static) is your PC's worst enemy, choosing to not do what I've suggested is signing your PC's death warrant. You choose.


For further help relating to PC (general) troubleshooting I might suggest other forums (since this is NOT sins-related) such as "Experts Exchange" etc.

thanks,

the Monk
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Ingtar
Join Date 04/2003
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Reply #6 March 9, 2008 9:56:55 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
If you know what you are doing, you can clean off and replace the silver that conducts heat to the CPU fan. Perhaps a better fan can be found for a relatively small price. I found that my silver compound had gotten dust in it. The fan was not as tight as it should have been as one of the clasps was broken. Replacing the silver and the fan worked for me.
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alway
alway
Join Date 06/2007
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Reply #7 March 9, 2008 9:59:42 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
we havent overclocked as far as i know, and the problem has been going on for quite some time, it just has become more and more frequent lately

already tried replacing thermal paste and such about a month ago to try to fix the problem.... didnt work
might be dust though

we havent really replaced any parts or anything in the CPU or fan stuff there that i know since comp was reassembled by my dad (basicly he replaced stuff part by part)
the restarts started a long time ago, but recently have been gettin worse and more frequent

just gotta be careful we dont get burned touching that hot CPU... 77 C = about 170 F... almost enough to bake cookies on
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harkov
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #8 March 9, 2008 10:02:07 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
also sometimes motherboards lie. If you have a recent processor (beyond pentium 4) then you can use the Core Temp program to check your temperatures. It's what all the cool overclocking nerds use

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
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the_Monk
Join Date 01/2008
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Reply #9 March 9, 2008 10:05:07 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
You put too much thermal paste on and "insulated" the CPU.......there should be less than a pea-sized amount (I mean TINY) of thermal paste put on otherwise you're only making things worse.

Again, further help should come from your local PC-shop or online tech support forums, as this doesn't relate at all to SINS.


Hope you get things worked out, 77c is killing your CPU.


the Monk
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