Heat Problems?

[imported_Computer MAn]

Didn't know where to post this but here is my problem. Today I was playing some games for a while and after about 3 hours my games would lock up for around 5 seconds then start up again. The about a twenty seconds later the same thing would happen. This has never happened before.

My question is do you think that this problem is caused by overheating? Using speed fan it says that my northbridge is around 57-59C. All of my other temps seem normal. Do these symptoms sound like overheating.

Thanks for the help. Specs are in sig.

 

[Cawchy87]

IF it was heat related your entire computer would most likely shut down.

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Fixed the problem I guess it was heat releated. I added a fan to the northbridge from an old cpu I had and has been running fine all morning

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Computer MAn
Fixed the problem I guess it was heat releated. I added a fan to the northbridge from an old cpu I had and has been running fine all morning

It's possible too that the thermal compound on the bottom of the heatsink (if there is any) was poorly applied. Some site posted thermal images of an Epox 8RDA+ - the northbridge heatsink was relatively cool. However, a picture of the back of the board showed the northbridge to be quite hot. This meant that there wasn't any heat getting to the heatsink - the thermal "bubble gum" stuff they used was very nearly insulating the heatsink from the chip it was to be cooling. Not a good thing. I encountered the same thing - the heatsink was barely warm. After cleaning the pink stuff off and using some real thermal compound, the heatsink was quite hot - I'd rather have heat in the sink than the chip.
So check out the thermal compound situation sometime.


Heatsink thermal image. The heatsink is only 37.1C.

Backside of the board, northbridge area. Northbridge is near 60C.