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CPU heat causing screen system to lock up

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bum4evr

New Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2001
I was tired of my P250 so I went out and bought an AMD athalon1000 which came with the motherboard, CPU, a fan and some RAM (224). the mobo is by a company called "1st mainboard" model AZ11.

Anyhow, I have been having problems with my computer locking up- the screen just freezes and I have to re-boot and 95% of the time when I reboot right away, the screen will freeze up again when I get to the desktop.

Its taken me a long while to figure out that the cause of this is that my CPU is overheating pretty severely. I discovered this by removing the side of my case and feeling the temp at the botton of the heatsink as close as i can get to the CPU after a freeze up, which sometimes was too hot for me to leave my finger there for very long.

I can surf the web all day and the CPU never gets hot, i've been on the net for about an hour now and i cant feel any heat at all, its the games that I play that are causing my problems.

There are some days that I spend up to 6 hours playing some of the massive multiplayer RPGs (like everquest) and games like Quake 3 and for some reason, my CPU runs much hotter when I play those games.

I have removed the heatsink it came with and added one I got at a computer store for $21 - on the package it said "generic heatsink" and claimed to work with CPUs up to 1200 mhz. It looks like a hollowed out aluminum block with about 20 wafer-thin copper plates running through it and a fan at the end which blows through. The fan does not face the CPU, the airflow dirrection is toward the back of the case.

didnt help. Then I decided to just keep the side of my case open and placed a desk fan in front of the CPU to blow on it as it ran. didnt help, the games I play are just causing it to run too hot and causing the system to freeze up. sometimes it will freeze up after I am done playing one of those games and am surfing the web, so i guess that once it gets hot, it does not cool down very eaisly.

I am not sure if it makes a diference which 3D card I am using but its an older one- a Diamond Monster Fusion Voodoo Banshee.

anyone have any ideas? what temprature should my CPU be running at? is there software I can download which will tell me what my CPU temp is?

great forums ya have here by the way.
 
You could get MBM to get an idea of your temps.

The hsf that you bought probably isn't any good, you should try a GlobalWin or Alpha (if you're just looking for stability) or go with a nice copper one if you wanna overclock.

You should hope for temps no higher than ~50C or so...though if it's stable, you shouldn't have a problem (which, obviously, you do now)

You can get much more specific information off the front page, too. Better ideas for cooling (system and cpu) and so forth.
 
Welcome to the Forum!
I say look into a new heatsink, there are plenty of reviews on the front page. Also when you put the new HSF on there don't use the Thermal Tape thats on the bottom, pick up some Arctic Silver II. MBM is a good program to check your temps, you don't really want it much more than 50C. Check it out, and let us know what your temps are, though i'm sure you'll end up need a new HSF.
Doug
 
CPU heat causing system to lock up

MBM does not seem to work for me - sensor 1 always shows 22 celcius no matter how hot it actually is- even when I can feel that its hotter then room temprature which is what 22 celcius is about. sensor's 2 and 3 read zero. all the other gauges seem to work though, voltage etc...

Overclocking certianly is not for me, but what about underclocking? is it possible to run a CPU at a mhz thats lower then its intended? If it would reduce the heat, i could certanly live with a 900 mhz or even an 800 if it would stop this freezing up that its doing.

I have had some unexpected expenses this month so buying another heatsink is not an option at this time so i need to find some other way for now.
 
do these voltage settings look ok for a 1000mhz? i might as well check it sence the program shows it.

i tried to attach the pick as a signature but this msg board is not letting me-
the pick of my MBM dashboard is at:

 
I would look into getting a thermoengine with at least a 26cfm YS Tech Fan or for better cooling the noisy 38cfm Delta Fan. If you are willing to go with a delta then a Vantec HSF would be great as they have wonderful clips.
 
Just got my ThermoEngine with 38cfm Delta Fan, it has lowered my temps from 47.5 C without side panels on to 43 C, with panels on. As I run Seti 24/7 I don't know the temps without load. Yes it's loud but not as bad as I expected.
 
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