Case fan cooling not enough for video playback and causes shutdown?

[Xenohitsu]

Here's a pic of my custom build: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6650230&postcount=2377

I have two case fans, one currently in use as an outflow (the back of the case in the above link). I removed the second one because I wasn't sure if I'd need it- I wasn't using the system for gaming, but I noticed the computer powered off when I'd play video for a minute or more. This hadn't happened before with video and I think it may be because I removed one of the two case fans. So the question is, if I put an in-flow fan on the side of the case facing the low-profile video card (ATI 4350 HD)), but the airflow doesn't seem to curve upwards towards the out-flow fan because the video card blocks a bit of air ( I had it facing the heatsink, but I could raise it so it's above the card, which may facilitate flow), should I move the side case fan to the front of the case (the front slot is kinda hard to attach the case fan- it's somewhat inaccessible). My alternative option is to use the onboard video (ATI 4200 HD), which would have more open airflow from the side to the back of the case.
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Biostar 785 GE 128M AM2/AM2+/AM3
Sempron x2 2300 2.2Ghz
8GB Corsair DDR2 800Mhz 5-5-5-18 (4GB installed)
OCZ Onyx 32Gb SSD
MSI 4350 512MB Low Profile
Seasonic S12 330W 80+ Bronze
2x MassCool 80mm FD08025B1M3/4 RT
Cooler Master DK9-7E52A-0L-GP
Linux Mint Debian Edition 32-bit

 

[Mjolnir]

Whoa, old system there. Nice. My first step would be some cable management. You'd be surprised how well some decent cable management can increase the air flow of the case. It also looks a lot neater and makes the computer (the inside) at least more presentable.

In terms of fans and what not. Bottom right hand corner of your case via the picture, pop a fan there. Is your side-case fan exhaust or intake? For a passively cooled card, perhaps in this case having your side-case fan as an intake (bringing cool air from outside, inside), is the better option?

Edit: the cable for the fan that connects to your mobo for the back of the case seems rather lengthy. See if you can route that around the top of the motherboard down past the HDD cages following the edge of the motherboard.

There also seems to be some room behind (looking at the picture) your lower HDD cages to put some of those IDE/SATA cables with a handful of cable ties, using the holes you'd use for HDD's. Just a couple things you could do.

 

[Theocnoob]

Also not all fans are created equal. 1 High speed 120mm delta beats 5 silent noctua 120mms but is 10 times as loud.

Do what Mjolnir said use as many fans as possible, and the side fan should be an intake.

 

[Xenohitsu]

Whoa, old system there. Nice. My first step would be some cable management. You'd be surprised how well some decent cable management can increase the air flow of the case. It also looks a lot neater and makes the computer (the inside) at least more presentable.

In terms of fans and what not. Bottom right hand corner of your case via the picture, pop a fan there. Is your side-case fan exhaust or intake? For a passively cooled card, perhaps in this case having your side-case fan as an intake (bringing cool air from outside, inside), is the better option?

Edit: the cable for the fan that connects to your mobo for the back of the case seems rather lengthy. See if you can route that around the top of the motherboard down past the HDD cages following the edge of the motherboard.

There also seems to be some room behind (looking at the picture) your lower HDD cages to put some of those IDE/SATA cables with a handful of cable ties, using the holes you'd use for HDD's. Just a couple things you could do.

I actually built it several months ago using some new parts- case fans, open box mobo, and the Sempron was an OEM but I got it for really cheap- $33 and it's almost as "fast" as an Athlon II X2 250u on Passmark.

The problem with my cables is I don't know how to move them- it just seems like a nest of cables and even if I untangle them they kind of just hang loose. Yes, I had an intake for the side fan and I put it back there. I wasn't able to put the intake in the front because the fan requires the screws input from the front of the case, and I was unable to remove the front/faceplate, and it was a cheap plastic, but elegant case, so I didn't want to risk breaking one of the latches that keeps it in place (one of those things that requires pinching so it can exit a circular keepspace, whatever those are called.

Will look into the wire management sometime. I see there are many people who figure out clean solutions; I just didn't want to do anything makeshift because I didn't want the side of the cables touching the motherboard (preventing a short, unsure if unlikely), so I figured it was better nesty than sorry. But since then I had hid the LED and power button wires behind the motherboard through one of the openings on the side of the case, though now there's little slack for them.

And I just tried online video (Youtube Flash) and it turned off again (though the power didn't turn off- just the monitor), even after switching to onboard video. I used to use Ubuntu so maybe there's a small possibility that LMDE has some error in playback and video acceleration or something. But I think it's a temp issue, because before it would play at for about a minute and then the screen would go blank, but now the video doesn't even start.

About the fans: I bought two for $4 total and they're 80mm. Not sure if that's what's keeping it warmer than usual- the MidATX case doesn't take larger than 92mm for the exhaust, but looking at the side of the case, I'm noticing that it can support up to three 120mm or so for side intakes, which I might need to consider now, because it was probably designed that way after that type of issue came up. My case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Image...503-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

 

[arcanise]

try taking some cardboard/plastic and some good tape and try to make a ir duct to force all the air from the fan to blow straight on the GPU

 

[Xenohitsu]

try taking some cardboard/plastic and some good tape and try to make a ir duct to force all the air from the fan to blow straight on the GPU

Sounds like a good idea. Did you mean the GPU heatsink? I will position the duct over the fins. I currently had it about half and half- half below the card to cool the heatsink, and half above the card so any other heat might flow upwards towards the exhaust fan.

 

[arcanise]

yes all on the heat sink, then maybe another fan to help circulate air around and out of the case to improve the effectiveness of the airflow

 

[Mjolnir]

Try a duct yes. Also, with a case like that, I had one like it where the only way to install a front fan was to use the inside. Get a thin screwdriver and 'thread' it through the fan mounting holes to screw it in the front. Pretty simple really. Just takes a bit of awkward screwing lol. You may wanna remove your Graphics card to install the front fan to allow room for your arms/hands. But you can do it ^^

 

[Xenohitsu]

Try a duct yes. Also, with a case like that, I had one like it where the only way to install a front fan was to use the inside. Get a thin screwdriver and 'thread' it through the fan mounting holes to screw it in the front. Pretty simple really. Just takes a bit of awkward screwing lol. You may wanna remove your Graphics card to install the front fan to allow room for your arms/hands. But you can do it ^^

This is also great advice. Now that I think of it, I most likely have one of those thin screwdrivers that I can use. And threading it through the double mounting holes is what I was thinking, but now I know what to look for. Thanks!

Yes, the GFXs card has already been removed.

If I made a duct for the onboard video, if need be, however, would I face it over the Northbridge mini heatsink?

 

[Mjolnir]

I'm not sure about ducting for onboard video. Depends where the chip is? I don't see why your GPU would be shutting down though.. Those passive heatsinks are designed for those cards so that they don't get too hot. Even without much airflow they shouldn't really be overheating.. Are all the drivers and such up to date? (Including motherboard chipset drivers) etc? :\

 

[Xenohitsu]

I'm not sure about ducting for onboard video. Depends where the chip is? I don't see why your GPU would be shutting down though.. Those passive heatsinks are designed for those cards so that they don't get too hot. Even without much airflow they shouldn't really be overheating.. Are all the drivers and such up to date? (Including motherboard chipset drivers) etc? :\

That's seems more like a probable reason now. I don't remember installing the ATI driver for LMDE. (I did a Bios check and the case fans are running fine at ~2700rpms. I wasn't sure about motherboard chipset drivers- I used the default one and never flashed it. I'm going to see if the Catalyst driver can be installed/Xorg (?). Edit: The regular version of Linux Mint and w/ Ubuntu have device driver check that allows me to install the Catalyst/Nvidia drivers. Since I didn't see it listed in the menu when I recently did a fresh install, I probably assumed it was already installed.

I did find a thin screwdriver but they didn't tighten but instead screwed endlessly loose so I used twisty ties by looping it from the 92mm hole around to the 80mm hole and now it hangs firmly attached to the front of the case. The intake also is also positioned to flows upwards towards the exhaust.

I just noticed the Update manager needs a 565MB update, so that will take a while and I'll find out if it was that or the video driver which I need to check on.

 

[Theocnoob]

So you've used a temperature monitor of some sort to determine that overheating is definitely at fault here, right?

And nothing is really dusty or otherwise mis-mounted or running incorrectly? Heatsinks for example?

 

[Mjolnir]

I would say just update everything, motherboard bios version, chipset drivers in the OS, and display/ati drivers as well and see if you still have the issue. Let us know what happens!

 

[arcanise]

and do the duct it never hurts to stream line airflow

 

[Xenohitsu]

So you've used a temperature monitor of some sort to determine that overheating is definitely at fault here, right?

And nothing is really dusty or otherwise mis-mounted or running incorrectly? Heatsinks for example?

The only temp monitor I checked was in the Bios, and said the CPU temp was 36 degrees C. Though, on startup there's a screen that displays for a bit too shortly the case temperature, cpu and fan speeds. I'm almost done with downloading the system updates so I'll post whether it fixed the issue shortly after I restart.

There isn't much dust as again it's a fairly new system though I was thinking that some wire or object could be too close to something that shouldn't be.

 

[Xenohitsu]

I would say just update everything, motherboard bios version, chipset drivers in the OS, and display/ati drivers as well and see if you still have the issue. Let us know what happens!

well I won't update the motherboard bios until i need to (my current one should be fine: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/bios.php?S_ID=455), such as when I decide to upgrade to the Phenom II 1065t or new revision, but everything else software wise is being updated.

 

[Mjolnir]

K. download this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1930/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.5.1.html

Run it, and see what the temps are whilst idling on your GFX Card (Not the onboard, reinstall the card if need be). Then try to watch a video or whatever the issue was, and monitor the temperature.

 

[trents]

To check if temps are a problem, take the case side panel off and set a box fan or other large household fan to blow into the open case. If the instability persists, its probably not an overheating problem unless the cpu heatsink mount/thermal paste application need to be redone.

 

[Xenohitsu]

Ok,I got it to work- it worked when I installed Catalyst (which wasn't installed at all), as the system update didn't fix it alone. So video/flash works now.

I installed it by typing sh ./ati-driver-installer-11-2-x86.x86_64.run in the home folder or right-clicking and choosing the auto-run prompt on the file, which prompted a WINEy looking screen for the Catalyst install. And the reboot from there worked. My system temps were around 25C while the CPU was 36C in Bios. I will check out that GFX temp utility soon. Edit: looks like it's Windows. not sure if I'll try it out. Thanks for all your help.

 

[arcanise]

still thing you should make that air duct just to make your GPU all happy and stuff