Overheating

[Rick Phlegm]

My computer keeps crashing whenever I try to play a game. It'll run fine for a few minutes and then just hang with the last sound played stuttering in the speakers. This has been going on for a good few months, but I could play the odd game here and there with no problems.

Initially, when I would play Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory the computer would actually just power off about 10 minutes into playing it. Thought overheating might be the problem (a large housefan pointed at the inside of the computer kept the crashing at bay) so I got a thermaltake case with proper ventilation, one fan in front, one in back. This kept it from turning itself off but now this other kind of crash started happening after a few weeks. Now it's started deteriorating so that I can't play anything without it crashing a few minutes into play.

Then I downloaded Speedfan and checked the temps (didn't know how to check the temperature before this):



This is when the computer isn't even doing anything, just a bit of browsing and running Winamp. When playing a game, the temperature rockets up and crashes the computer somewhere in excess of 80 degrees.

So is the CPU faulty or am I still doing a shit job of ventilating the machine? Thanks for any advice and sorry for the long-winded post.

[clocker]

What CPU?
What heatsink/fan?

[Virtualbody1234]

How about cleaning the dust out of the heatsink.

[Rick Phlegm]

What CPU?
What heatsink/fan?

It's an AMD Athlon XP 3000+

No idea what heat sink & fan's on it tho. It came pre-installed. The fan does have an AMD logo on it tho if that's any help...

How about cleaning the dust out of the heatsink.

Thanks, I'll try that. As soon as I can figure out how to pry it off of the CPU.

[Gripper]

No no..Just use a little art brush to clean the gaps between the fins,and blow out the dust with canned air,or carefully with a vacuum suck the dust out,use the brush to stop the fan on top of the heatsink from spinning.
caeful not to touch the motherboard or memory chips with the vacuum.
If you have managed to take the heatsink off dont forget to redo your thermal paste before you put it back on.

[Rick Phlegm]

I've got a liquid cooling system that's been sitting on my desk for weeks. Didn't want to try installing it if the CPU was faulty but I might give it a go now.

[Spicker]

I've got a liquid cooling system that's been sitting on my desk for weeks. Didn't want to try installing it if the CPU was faulty but I might give it a go now.

if u cant figure out how to take the HS off the cpu, good luck installing liquid cooling

[ApacNTS]

well you could always go to tomshardware guide and watch that watercooling video, looks simple enough in the vid atleast. oh and that little silver thing next to the fan on the lower corner, just lift that and the HS should lift off easily.

[Rick Phlegm]

I've got a liquid cooling system that's been sitting on my desk for weeks. Didn't want to try installing it if the CPU was faulty but I might give it a go now.

if u cant figure out how to take the HS off the cpu, good luck installing liquid cooling

Yeah, that's another reason I've been kind of putting it off.

I'm fairly confident I'll be able to install it without much trouble, I was just unfamiliar with the funny latch that hold the heat sink on this motherboard. I've got a mate coming over to give me a hand to be sure and to make sure I don't do anything too stupid while blundering around the innards of my PC.

[tesco]

To take that latch off use a flat head screwdriver...push down toward the motherboard then pry out so the latch goes around the hook.
Also make sure that the screewdriver doesn't slip off the latch, or it could be bye bye motherboard!