Overheating

[Gost2036]

Alright I'm out of ideas(not that I had many to begin with). My processor seems to be overheating as of late and I don't know why. Its been running fine for the last 3 months that I've had the machine. Last night it overheated while playing City of Heroes and I let everything cool for a bit and opened up the case to make sure nothing had gotten in the way of the cpu fan. Everything looked good so I turned it on and made sure all the fans in the case were running. As far as I can tell everything was running fine.

Today however when I loaded up a different game and played for a bit it overheated and autoshutdown again. It seems to be fine for basic computing but so far I'm worried to try and play anything because I don't want this computer dying on me.

Any helpful suggestion or ideas would be most welcome.

Intel Quad core Q6600 2.4 ghz

[Gurndigarn]

Well, the obvious possibilities:

Does the case have adequate ventilation, that doesn't get covered up when you replace the casing on it? If you don't have animals or young kids, you might want to open the case, leave it open, and see if the problem repeats.

Is the computer placed somewhere that blocks ventilation, or is near a heater?

Does the CPU fan stop running if you wiggle the wires to it? Does it look like it's running at full speed?

If the processor has heat sinks on it, are the sinks secure to the processor?

And if all else fails, just try a new CPU fan and see if that does anything. Or mount an exhaust fan to remove excess heat from the case if it's a case-type issue.

[Gost2036]

Damn your quick.
To answer your questions. I think the case is ventilated enough but I am running it without the side panel on currently and it still overheated. I have this case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133041

The compute is between my desk and the closet but there is a about 20 inches of space from the tower to the closet door. Not a ton of air circulation but not enclosed either.

The processor fan is running but I have no clue if its running at full speed or not. The wires however seem to be secure.

I don't know if the processor has heat sinks on it.

And if all else fails I will begin looking for a new cpu fan.

[lordlundar]

Well, to start off with, if there's a fan, there's a heat sink. The fan is there to cool off the heat sink.

Second, an empty case is only showing one part of the issue. What the display shows is it's perfect engineered condition. If you can show a picture of your case, it will give a better picture. Inside, Rear fan, Front fan would be ideal.

Most likely, something is blocking the airflow. Unless you have a specially engineered heat sink, that airflow is the only way your case is keeping cool. The airflow usually runs from the front of the case, over the 3.5 drives, then flows out to the expansion cards which blows out the side panel and over the CPU fan system where it's picked up and blown out by the rear fan and power supply.

While a few cables won't cause a major disaster, a mess of cables in the airflow will produce dead air pockets that, when combined with the cables produce a brick wall for air.

Best advice I can think of without those pictures is to look in your case guide for an airflow diagram, and have only the minimal number of obstructions in the path. And if there's a fan, it should be running. A fan that is not running is blocking the airflow.

[Gurndigarn]

I think the case is ventilated enough but I am running it without the side panel on currently and it still overheated.
<snip>
The compute is between my desk and the closet but there is a about 20 inches of space from the tower to the closet door. Not a ton of air circulation but not enclosed either.

OK, if it's still overheating with the case off, it's not likely to be a problem with obstructed airflow. It's probably on the motherboard.

Heat sinks are something that sit on top of the chips (usually), are silver or black (usually), and have some sort of baffles to increase the amount of surface area. Wikipedia has pictures of a few different types (click on the pictures for a view with enough detail). The basic premise is that they transmit heat very easily: they touch a chip, transistor, voltage regulator, etc. that gets hot during regular use, suck the heat out of the thing that gets too hot, and dump the heat into the air. Most CPUs in modern computers have them, though not all. If the heat sink is not touching the chip properly, then it won't suck the heat off it properly.

From the sounds of it, your fan is working properly, though I remember one wonky incident where we had to check the number of blades on the CPU fans: apparently, the factory used two different fans for a game they shipped, but one of them wasn't good enough, so as the game aged and CPU heat output increased, the games with the 11 bladed fan would start having heat issues, but the seven bladed fans worked fine.

Anyway, if you don't see any issues with fans or heat sinks, and nothing else in the cage is generating unusual amounts of heat, then you probably have a bad board. More than likely, it's the motherboard.

[Geek King]

Might I also suggest an exterior desktop-sized fan pointed into the little alcove where the computer is? The room itself might be the issue if the airflow isn't moving the air around enough to bring cooler air in for the PC fans to suck in.

[LostMyMind]

Are you sure it's the processor that is overheating? It could be the video card. Since it only happens when you're playing a video heavy game. Your video card could be overclocked and just need to be brought down to stop the overheating.

[protege]

My home computer would occasionally overheat. The solution, was to fit extra fans in the case. While I was at it, I reversed one of the case fans (which is right over the processor). Not only do I have air being drawn in through the front, but forced out the back. The side fan, helps draw hot air away from the processor. Most, if not all computer stores sell cooling fans. These can either be powered off the motherboard, or tapped into an unused power connector.

But, if you want a new case, there are a few Thermaltech ones that rock. I have one on the server at work--with 6 fans in it, it actually puts out *cold* air

[PCGameGuy]

Another possibility is a clogged heatsink. I am always shocked when I remove a fan off a heatsink as to how much dust anf stuff can get packed into the heatsink. If it is full of dust and fluff, the fins won't radiate the heat well and it will over heat. A few seconds with some compressed air may solve the issue at that point.

Just a thought.

[Naaman]

Also check your ATI\Nvidia control panel, you'll find an option to monitor the temp of the graphics card (Nvidia has it as part of the NTune package, ATI I think is under the 'overclocking' tab). Then download Speedfan and 3DMark. Install and open the monitoring software then install and run 3DMark, looped if you're able.

Let it run 2 or 3 times then ALT-TAB to the monitoring software to see what's running hot.

You can forgo the 3DMark if you can find a Thermal corruptor and a */Dark or Rad AT, just get them to keep throwing off powers and ALT-Tab to the monitors.

If it's the CPU - cleaning is good but if you can splash some cash I always prefer to get a new heatsink, alternatively just getting a tube of Artic Silver then cleaning and re-appplying the thermal paste can make aworld of difference, the cheaper stuff can bake out and become useless.

If it's the GPU then strip the HS and clean, replacements are available but they're a bit more fiddly

BTW - what CoH server do you normally run on?

[Gost2036]

Thanks for the advice, I think I may have found the problem after doing some hunting online about the board and processor combo. It seems the thermal paste used is of a not so great quality and because that is an easy fix I pulled the fan off the cpu and cleaned both off. After I applied some new thermal paste and double checked that the fan was set correctly, everything seems to be working. I ran one of the games that crashed it last night for about 2 hours. Just for testing purposes and not because I go hooked into it of course. So far that seems to have fixed it. I may put another fan in just to make sure air is being circulated enough anyway though.