Over-heating Problem

monomaniac

I've mumbled on about this problem a few months ago but never really found an effective solution.

Ok firstly I'll outline my system specs (though it's the case, heatsink and fans that are relevant here)
Athlon XP 2200+, MSI KT6 Delta MB, 1Gb RAM, 2 x 80Gb HDs, Radeon 9700Pro.

And now the relevant parts:
Zalman silent flower cooler and fan:
http://www.peats.ie/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?view=1&id=5323&type=6&path=14x122x308

2 x rear fans:
http://www.peats.ie/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?view=1&id=7044&type=6&path=14x122x308

Artic VGA cooler;
http://www.peats.ie/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?view=1&id=8041&type=6&path=14x122x308

Bequiet 350W http://www.hitide.ie/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/32/products_id/215

Thermaltake Hardcano 9 fan Controller:
http://www.xpcgear.com/tthardcano9.html

Peats chicago case (no longer stocked)- those that have been into Peats should know this one - black standard case with a side window.

**************

I'm having major air flow problems and can't find the culprit. I could talk about what I've tried and done all day but here's the summary:
When I have the side of the case OFF I get temps of around 45-50c idle depending on how much the fans are turned up.

When I put the side of the case on the temp will rise slowly to around 60-61c idle. On max load it will eventually crash.

Therefore I've been keeping the side of the case off and enjoying a silent PC for DVDs and a cool PC for HL2.

I've tried underclocking the PC but it makes no difference. At this stage I'm thinking of trying a new CPU heatsink though I'm suspecting it's to do with bad air flow in the case.

Another thing I'm suspicious about is that my Zalman CPU cooler blows air onto the heatsink but my PSU has a fan that sucks air out. Could the PSU be extracting the cool air?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

mm

The Dr00g

I doubt this is problem with airflow in the case. Sounds more like bad contact between the sink and the chip. Re-install the sink, and make sure there's plenty of heat-paste "goo" between the chip and the sink. I mean plenty. Installing sinks properly is a bit tricky of course. You have to lower the sink parallel onto the chip, *not* at an angle in order to get the first clips in place... Then you nudge the clips into place while holding the sink firmly in place, but of course not pressing down hard as this will push too much goo out of the sandwich and possibly damage the chip.

Then just make sure there's mucho airflow directly onto the sink.

Hope this helps.

monomaniac

After ruling most stuff out it most likely is the heatsink contact. I have the flower heat sink - it doesn't matter that a few of the copper plates (the leaf/node-like parts of the sink) are bent very slightly?

I bought some expensive paste in the summer and re-applied it the sink - didn;t make much of a diff at the time.

One last thing I forgot to note - I only realised recently that i have always been overclocking my CPU since I bought it a year ago. it's a 2200+ and I thought it was supposed to run at 2Ghz instead of the correct speed of 1.8Ghz.

Is it possible I've damaged the chip, burnt the paste or done something to the heat sink?

I'm now under-clocking my processor and will re-apply the heatsink with some new paste tonight. And I'll take my time doing it and make sure there's plenty of paste.
Cheers for advice!

BloodBath

It's probably contact but do not apply loads of thermal paste. You only apply a very thin layer over the core. Overclocking to 2ghz should have made no difference as you prbably didn't raise the voltage.


BloodBath

The Dr00g

Ah, heh heh... I guess I got a bit carried away with the goo just then.

I'd usually put about a 1mil thickness of paste on the core.

The Dr00g

PS - Hope you don't mind me stealing your sig style Bloodbath. I like it. Neat.

gline

The Dr00g wrote:

Ah, heh heh... I guess I got a bit carried away with the goo just then.

I'd usually put about a 1mil thickness of paste on the core.

I wouldnt even use 1 mil thickness, too much in my opinion, its only supposed too be used to fill in the micro cracks and "pot holes" on the cpu, i put a blob on and lightly apply it to all areas of cpu wit a bit of plastic from a plastic case, till it is extremly thin (seethrough) and that does the job, u can read different feelins on how much needs to be applied in loads of different boards around the world, but i have found this to be satisfactory , only applying a TINY layer on the whole cpu surface

monomaniac

Cheers for all the replies. I re-applied my heat sink with a small amount of artic silver and it did make a difference of a couple of degrees to the CPU temp but they're still running pretty high.

What I'd really like to know is why my PC seems to crash aboves temps of 62 CPU / 52 SYS? No blue screen, no VPU recovery msg, no system log - just a frozen screen.
I tested it last night by closing the case up, turning down the fans, running a temp monitor and running an avi file on loop. Lasted 45 mins before crashing.

Would this be the CPU overheating?
I'm pretty certain the mobo is incorrectly reporting the sys temp as I have a therm on the fan controller which reports temps 5 - 10 degrees lower. i read that with the case open sys temp shouldn't be much higher than room temp.

I think I chose some bad components for a well-cooled, part-time silent PC:o

gline

"When I put the side of the case on the temp will rise slowly to around 60-61c idle. On max load it will eventually crash"


is it near a radiator or something, your temps shouldnt rise when you take the side off, how hot is the room??? those temps sound way too high to me. Is the heatsink fan running really slow or something??? is there a lot of cables in the way of the air flow????

monomaniac

Temps rise when I put the side of the case ON - I know that's an obvious statement but they rise 10-15 degrees which seems quite a bit.

I turn the RPM of the fans way down to achieve the silence.

Cables are tidied away at the back of the case.

No radiators near PC - room temp around 25.

I don't care about the high temps as long as I've a silent PC for watching vids etc. - I've got sensitive ears:D

ARGINITE

I turn the RPM of the fans way down to achieve the silence.

Do you turn the heatsink fan down as well?
if so this is your problem.

TacT

sounds like there's just too much thermal paste on there, a mm of the stuff is way too thick. As gline said, you want to only fill the tiniest little gaps in the metal for good contact and lower temps. I'd say about .2mm would be better. I drop a rice grains worth on the middle of the core and spread with a piece of plastic for a very, very thin layer - mount hsf and give it a little twist and apply a little pressure to ensure good contact then clip into place.

Also - are these fans taking air in from outside of the case and not just circulating warm air around the case which could also cause them temps to rise. The most important one here is that the fan blowing onto your hs is getting some cold air from outside the case, if it's circulating already warm air, it can only get hotter

monomaniac

TacT wrote:

Also - are these fans taking air in from outside of the case and not just circulating warm air around the case which could also cause them temps to rise. The most important one here is that the fan blowing onto your hs is getting some cold air from outside the case, if it's circulating already warm air, it can only get hotter

That's a very good point. Although I do have 2 fans blowing air in from the front the case isn't great (grills etc) so I reckon to begin with there's not much cool air getting into the case once the side is closed up.

On top of that you have the 9700 Pro generating quite a bit of heat (despite the Artic VGA cooler) and the mobo is renowned for having heat issues.

Therefore by the time the air being BLOWED onto the zalman it would be v hot indeed. So I'd guess changing to a HS and fan that SUCKS air off the HS would make a big difference.
Does that make sense?

I'm thinking about getting this -

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?view=1&id=8007&type=6&path=14x122x308

Anybody got this HS?

Cheers again for replies/advice.

BloodBath

You really shouldn't be having that much trouble cooling an xp. I have a completely crap heatsink on mine and practically no air circulation inside the case without reaching those temps. It's running at 1.9ghz and never goes over 50c. You have an excellent cooler on yours as it is. I doubt buying another will make a difference.


BloodBath