cpu heat

[blueoval]

Friends PC keeps shutting down on him, i personally think it could be overheating. AMD K7 Duron 1000mhz, after running for 5 -10 mins bios states CPU temp - 89f
System temp - 82f
CPU fan speed - (varies from) 5075; 5113; 5152rpm
System fan speed - 0rpm
+12v - 12.352v
-12v - -11.393v
Surely it shouldn't be running at this temp?! any ideas on rectifying this prob would be great help. Also, there doesn't seem to be a CPU temp alarm...should there be?

[boobesque]

open your pc and clean all the fans. dust can clog the fans very easily. nb. you should have 3 fans

[vehelpfulguy]

I would agree, clean out all the fans and the heat sink above the CPU. Do this outside.

Loosen the dust round the fans and heat sink carefully with a non metalic object (drinking straw, wooden toothpick etc)

Suck out the dust with a vacuum cleaner (non metal noozle) and or blow it out with a hair drier.

Turn it on OUTSIDE with the covers off to remove all the dust and to make sure all the fans are still working.

Ensure everything is reseated (cards, fans etc) then put covers back on.

[blueoval]

rite...only got 2...power supply and one over heatsink on board. taken side panel off case and temp dropped to 87f

[mattie]

Does seem too hot, running a CPU without enough cooling could damage it, consider upgrading the CPU fan/heatsink if cleaning doesn't improve the situation.

Also, I use a free utility called Speedfan, available from www.almico.com/speedfan.php, it monitors the CPU temp, fan speeds, motherboard temp, hard drive temp etc.

[dodgyshirt]

Assuming that you are correctly giving the temps in fahrenheit, these relate to centigrade temps of 31 and 28 respectively.

The CPU temp is well within safe limits and the system temp could be reduced by simply fitting a case fan to draw the heat out of the PC

[rojash]

As dodgyshirt says, these are not very high temperatures at all. I think you should be looking elsewhere for the cause of the problem. My machine shows the follwoing temperatures:

System 37 C (99 F)
CPU 73 C (163 F)
Aux 33 c (91 F)

[rojash]

Further research found this page:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000687.htm

Which would seem to indicate that your friend's machine is in fact running a little cold!

[Timm]

There could be other things here. Maybe the power supply is conking out?
Is your friend on the internet with this machine? If so it may be possibly a virus.
Is there anything specific your friend is doing when the PC shuts down.

You could try removing all the motherboard components (Memory, CPU/HSFan graphics cards) and reseating them in case there is a dodgy connection somewhere

[boobesque]

pc is too cold... never heard that problem before

[dodgyshirt]

Remember, he is taking the readings after only 5-10mins when the PC will not have had a chance to reach full operating temperatures.

[rojash]

Yeah, but the point is, after deciding on the basis of no evidence whatsoever that the machine is running hot, he's now misdiagnosed the problem and is frantically searching for a way of cooling the machine, when he should be going back to square one to re-diagnose the actual cause of the rebooting.

[blueoval]

i'll start from begining...m8's pc is hooked up to internet, after about 10-20 mins seems to always freeze/crash. i formatted HD re-installed all software, drivers etc, still freezes/crashes. my 1st instinct is overheating, so check operating temps through bios, (it doesn't crash while running bios & nothing else) clean out dusty fan & heatsink. still doesn't crash in bios but does in win xp. not software prob due to format so must be hardware? next i am going to go through ram; cpu; m/board & power unit. could it be anything else? cheers for all your replies...ps graphic designer by trade not pc repair so please be patient with me!!

[rojash]

Well, blueova, I wouldn't rule out a software problem just because of the reformat. It could be a faulty driver. The fact that machine runs OK before XP boots would seem to indicate that if it's a hardware fault, then it's not simply "something's overheating". That's not to say that hardware is ruled out, just that a SIMPLE hardware fault is ruled out.

When you say it shuts down, do you mean that it literally powers down, or that it stops responding, or that it restarts?

[blueoval]

just freezes...stops responding

[rojash]

Diagnosis is always a case of following the probabilities. This is probably not a hardware fault. Is the machine permanently on-line? If so, I would suggest that the next step is to see what happens if you run it for half an hour disconnected from the internet. Also check all the manufactures sites for hardware updates, particularly the video drivers. What AV software is in use? What firewall? Try opening the task manager BEFORE it freezes, go to the performan tab, and see what happens when it freezes. Does the CPU Usage shoot right up?

[dodgyshirt]

I must agree with everythin that Rojash says here.

To take a case in point, I had a problem with one of my newly-built PCs a few weeks ago which kept crashing for no apparent reason. All the hardware tested out OK so I reformatted and added drivers individually over the course of a week until I replicated the fault and finally traced it to the drivers of a D-Link wireless USB Access point which came with my modem/router.

I substituted it with a Belkin PCI card which obviously used different drivers. Problem solved.

The moral, with this sort of problem, be systematical with your approach to it, don't be sidetracked by focussing on one possibility as you have here and be patient.