S.O.S. I need assistance please.

[ImmortalMachine]

I saw this haven for great minds of tech, and I was hoping to get some advice on my PC setup. Well, I literally got a tower dropped in my lap about 2 years ago for Christmas from my sister, it runs pretty well, but there is one huge problem, it overheats QUICKLY, and shuts off. I literally have to remove one of the tower doors and put a fan bigger then the case a few inches from the processor to keep it cooled, on top of that, I went to my bios and clocked it as far down as possible. It was registering 110c on speedfan before a circuit breaker tripped, now it rides at around 90c. Aux is 125c GPU/CORE both at 48c.

I used Dxdiag to dump system info, but I don't think it gives enough information on system properties, could you help me out with a good dumper.

Thanks a whole bunch.

 

[snowbrd]

Do you know what is overheating? If its the cpu then you may want to take off the cooler and redo the TIM. AKA Thermal paste.
if it is the cpu and that doesn't work. You may want to get a better cooler. Try the hyper 212+ evo as it is cheap and a standard for budget air cooling.

 

[Seebs]

Hello IM (I'll call you that since your name is kinda long)...

1st of all: to OCF; you'll find a wealth of knowledge and people willing to help/share with you.

And now for the "meaty" stuff.

We need more information from you in order to get you pointed in the right direction.

So here's what you need to do:

* Donwload and install these programs:

1. CPUz: Download
--- This program will give you plenty of information about the HW in your computer.
--- We will need you to run three instances of it (CPU - Mainboard - Memory).

2. GPUz: Download
--- This one will give you all the information you need to know about your video card.
--- Only one instance of this program is needed.

3. HWMonitor: Download
--- This program will show plenty of information on all the components in your computer.
--- Only one instance of this program is needed.

Once you have downloaded, installed and opened all the instances of the programs you will then take a screen capture of your desktop (hit PrtScn on your keyboard), paste the copied screenshot into mspaint and save the image.

Your screenshot should look something like this:



Then come back to this thread and post a reply with that image so that we can see what HW you have in your computer, how it's configured and what may be causing your overheating.

Here is a little "walkthrough" on how to post images to this forum...



It would also be quite helpful if you could take a picture of the actual computer with the side door removed so that we can see what's inside the tower and what may be causing the issues you're having.

Once we have all that information; we will be able to tell you what might be the culprit and what you'll need to do in order to solve your problems.

Laters...

Seebs

 

[ImmortalMachine]

Do you know what is overheating? If its the cpu then you may want to take off the cooler and redo the TIM. AKA Thermal paste.
if it is the cpu and that doesn't work. You may want to get a better cooler. Try the hyper 212+ evo as it is cheap and a standard for budget air cooling.

No idea what a TIM is homie. I have taken apart slot A to slot B hardware many times, messing with stuff that requires precise knowledge of application first, I want to be very careful with the diagnosis, it's my only good comp at the moment, and I would rather not brick it on a hunch.

Seebs, let me just say, you are like a hardware heart surgeon, tons of excellent details that I was looking for. I will attempt to get a good picture of the case as well, not sure how well though considering my phone camera sucks. Anyways THANKS A WHOLE BUNCH for even posting that stuff!

 

[snowbrd]

TIM is thermal interfacing material. An example would be like arctic silver 5 or Arctic mx 2. Basically it is the silvery gooey stuff that you place on the cpu to transfer heat from the cpu to cooler.

 

[ImmortalMachine]

Well here are my stats, unfortunately my phone keeps stalling out, it wont allow me to switch over to the desktop version of hotmail to upload attachments to myself.

I would say my current upgrade ceiling is around 700$ or so, I will go higher if necessary to secure a decent box, my goal is to hopefully extend the life of my current tower for just 3-4 months at its current operating potential, however if hardware constraints are the culprits for much of its failings, I would love to be able to just put in add on's to upgrade, I am a gamer so graphics matter, I am unable to run BF3, I realize I might never be able to run it on this hardware setup, but it is a goal, right now I would be happy with just being able to play Fallout 3 without having to turn on a fan to cool it down,



Thats what I use to help cool it off. As far as I know there are 3 fans, but none of them seem to be doing the job.

 

[ImmortalMachine]

TIM is thermal interfacing material. An example would be like arctic silver 5 or Arctic mx 2. Basically it is the silvery gooey stuff that you place on the cpu to transfer heat from the cpu to cooler.

Interesting, I believe I have some paste lying around somewhere. Not sure if its TIM though.

 

[Robert17]

You may want to change out your CPU cooler as snowbrrd suggested. Looking at your voltages/temps and your bclk+multi you are running an overclock that's stressing the ability of your system to dissipate heat. If you can take a snap of our open case that would be helpful. Your fan configuration can matter as well; just adding a fan or two in addition to improving your CPU's heat sink could be all you'll need to do in order to enjoy your comp for quite some time.

 

[Ajay57]

My humble advice what till Seebs comes back before you touch or change anything as that guy knows what he is doing! AJ.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

I asume this is your CPU: Pentium D 830, you may want to lower your bus speed to 200 and your FSB to 800 and set the multiplier to 15. Also I can barely read the pics you uploaded, set the rez a bit higher

 

[Seebs]

Thanks for the pictures IM... Exactly what I was looking for. And now for the good/bad news.

Bad news first:
- Your computer will have a very hard time running BF3 (even at its lowest settings). Hell; even Fallout 3 will just bring it down to its knees.
This is why:
- CPU: Your CPU is 5 generations behind. Not nearly enough "oomph" on that poor thing to be able to do much more than web browsing nowadays.
- GPU: Your video card is also 5 generations behind. It's still is a good card, but it won't be able to handle the graphic demands of current games.
- RAM: Your RAM is 2 generations behind. We're in the era of fast DDR3 memory and yours is on the slow end of the DDR2 line.

I'm guessing here that this computer in question is one of those "prebuilt" towers that one could buy at places like Best Buy or Circuit City a few years ago.
I'd say HP or Compaq... Or something similar. And I'd also be willing to bet that before having it "fall on your lap"; your sister never bothered opening the case, or replacing the TIM on the heatsink for the CPU.

Am I getting warm here?

The reason it is overheating may very well be that the TIM between the heatsink (I'd bet money that it is the stock heatsink provided by Intel) and the CPU has degraded after the many years of use and it's not capable of doing its job any more.

My first suggestion would be to give the computer a good cleaning (inside the tower); then remove the heatsink and clean off the old TIM from it and from the CPU... And then do a new application of TIM (this one is really good and not very expensive).
After you've replaced the TIM and re-installed the heatsink; turn that puppy on and see if that helps with your temperatures.


And now the good news:
- $700 would be more than enough to buy you a computer that would be able to play BF3 at decent settings. The computer I play BF3 on only cost me about $500 (excluding peripherals) and I can play BF3 at 1280x720 and get between 50 and 60 FPS without a problem... If I go up to 1920x1080 resolution my FPS drops to the 30 - 40 range, but it's still playable.


My second suggestin would be to not even waste time/money trying to upgrade that computer. The components in there are so old that there really isn't an upgrade path for you any more. You're much better off starting with a new computer.

 

[ImmortalMachine]

I want to preface my post just by saying Seebs Thanks a WHOLE WHOLE WHOLE WHOLE bunch, you are super wise, and am lucky to be helped by you and I totally realize that. I also want to thank you others who have come to my aid as well to try and help with very little background on my box.


Now to the nitty gritty.

1) How can I underclock my cpu, I already dropped it as far as it will go on the bios screen.
2) The bad news regarding BF3 was as is expected, my machine is a dinosaur.
3) Irony I have been able to run it just fine with a giant fan jammed next to the tower on low/medium settings, it actually recommended high settings, but given the drop in frames I dropped all the flash, and I am one level away from max level. ( I have been having a ball btw, just wish I could experience it without all the tweaking, you know what I mean. )
4) Actually my desktop was assembled by my sisters ex boyfriend lol. ( On a completely weird and unrelated note, they also gave me several other pieces of brand new incomplete computers. I have no clue why, they just did, they knew I was the family geek so they gave me all their pc stuff after buying 2 epic 3.2GB dual core laptops unfortunately they were MAC's...
5) Since it was not a prebuilt, I am afraid of messing with the processor on the motherboard, I wouldn't know what to expect to pull it up. Example : Where would TIM previously have been put, and what to look for as not to crack the processor trying to pry it off the motherboard.

Also I have done extensive part research, very little factory installation information exist for the amount of modifications that have been done inside the tower, such as the 3 fans I told you about, I have no idea if they were part of the package or separate.

And here are some pictures I was able to take, I deeply apologize for the quality, and the lighting, my only current cam is from a prepaid phone.

 

[Seebs]

1) How can I underclock my cpu, I already dropped it as far as it will go on the bios screen.

Link to the manual for your motherboard. Download the PDF; go to section 4.4 and have a look at what the settings do.
In your BIOS:
- Go to Advanced Settings.
- Click on Jumper Free Configuration.
- The AI Overclocking option should be set to AUTO for now. We will go deeper once we get your computer working properly.

2) The bad news regarding BF3 was as is expected, my machine is a dinosaur.
3) Irony I have been able to run it just fine with a giant fan jammed next to the tower on low/medium settings, it actually recommended high settings, but given the drop in frames I dropped all the flash, and I am one level away from max level. ( I have been having a ball btw, just wish I could experience it without all the tweaking, you know what I mean. )

Your computer is a dinosaur for sure. I can's stress this enough... Don't go spending money on upgrades for that computer; you're much better off building a new one from scratch.

4) Actually my desktop was assembled by my sisters ex boyfriend lol. ( On a completely weird and unrelated note, they also gave me several other pieces of brand new incomplete computers. I have no clue why, they just did, they knew I was the family geek so they gave me all their pc stuff after buying 2 epic 3.2GB dual core laptops unfortunately they were MAC's...

Had me completely fooled on that one. I was sure it was a prebuilt unit. Still; doesn't matter... We just need to get you up and running here.

5) Since it was not a prebuilt, I am afraid of messing with the processor on the motherboard, I wouldn't know what to expect to pull it up. Example : Where would TIM previously have been put, and what to look for as not to crack the processor trying to pry it off the motherboard.

Replacing the TIM is super easy. And don't worry; the only way you'd crack that core is if you hit it thing with a hammer. Your particular CPU comes "lidded" (in fact; every CPU has been "lidded" for quite a while now) so you won't hurt the chip by removing the heatsink and replacing the TIM.

As for removing the heatsink...
Watch this video... It is that easy.



And as for cleaning the CPU and heatsink to get the old TIM off and then applying new TIM and re-installing the CPU heatsink.

Watch this video... It is also that easy. The guy on the video does the whole thing with an AMD processor/heatsink, but the same method applies to Intel.

Also I have done extensive part research, very little factory installation information exist for the amount of modifications that have been done inside the tower, such as the 3 fans I told you about, I have no idea if they were part of the package or separate.

Don't worry about finding out factory installation specs, or anything like that.

Computers are like LEGOs... Each part only fits where it's supposed to go so there is no risk of you putting something where it doesn't belong.
The only thing you have to be careful with is the wiring. Since removing the heatsink to apply new TIM will require that you move/disconnect a few of the cables in there; just make a note of where each one that you disconnected came from and you'll be OK.

Pictures were OK...

Good luck and do keep us updated on your progress.

Seebs.

 

[ImmortalMachine]

Thanks for the video's, great information as always, I will be digging out the TIM in a few days that I pretty sure I have and applying the line method, I will stay in touch regarding getting a new machine and paypal you for possible ideas on new rigs for my price baseline. You have been very helpful in the short term, normally this help isn't free. (Something that runs the best game, at the highest settings of the current standards is what I am looking for, I am not looking to get a machine that can decrypt quantum ciphers or map sequential cancer progression. )

 

[Seebs]

Thanks for the video's, great information as always, I will be digging out the TIM in a few days that I pretty sure I have and applying the line method, I will stay in touch regarding getting a new machine and paypal you for possible ideas on new rigs for my price baseline. You have been very helpful in the short term, normally this help isn't free. (Something that runs the best game, at the highest settings of the current standards is what I am looking for, I am not looking to get a machine that can decrypt quantum ciphers or map sequential cancer progression. )

Your welcome. That's what we're here for man; so feel free to ask as many questions as you come up with (the only stupid question is the one you don't ask)...

Don't worry about the paypal thing either. And as far as a nice gaming computer; we can definitely help you out in building one that will give you a great gaming experience...

Oh and BTW... The computer you have now, as well as the one you plan on building could very easily map sequential cancer progressions... Have a look at out F@H section of the forums... Or give this article a read.

 

[ImmortalMachine]

Is folding, like drag racing for OCed machines?

Bah, nvm, just read your other link. lol.

Edit: Wow.... and I was only joking, about the sequence mapping, how funny is that. Awesome stuff dude, if I get a nice rig, I sure as heck wont mind linking up with your folding team to add some points, and do some good for the world.

Edit Edit: Reminds me of SETI online. I used to do that a whole bunch before games got so demanding on my old hardware. (Used to run Electric Sheep as well, awesome screen saver)