I need help desperately with my mystery problem!

[nlc0043]

Ok, so i bought a PC off my roomate which he had a friend build for him no more than 6 months ago so he could play WOW. It stopped working one day so i bought it off him. Come to find out he had accidentially unplugged the PSU from the motherboard. After plugging it back in the computer turned on but since then i can't play any game for more than 10 minutes without the computer restarting in the middle of gameplay or just freezing. Since i bought the machine i have replaced the memory, the PSU and the GPU, none of which have fixed the problem. The graphics card drivers are updated, and DirectX is up to date as well, i just don't know what else to do. I will try to provide as much info as possible, any help would be greatly appreciated as i have run out of ideas.

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Sensor Properties
Sensor Type Abit MicroGuru 2005 (ISA E0h)
GPU Sensor Type National LM89 (NV-I2C 4Ch)
Motherboard Name Abit AB9 / AL8 / BL8 Series

Temperatures
Motherboard 45 °C (113 °F)
CPU 71 °C (160 °F)
PWM 42 °C (108 °F)
GPU 53 °C (127 °F)
GPU Ambient 44 °C (111 °F)
Maxtor 6L100M0 44 °C (111 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 4320 RPM
North Bridge 4320 RPM

PSU 650w Antec truepower trio (SLI ready) ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V

Voltage Values
CPU Core 1.38 V
+1.5 V 1.53 V
+2.5 V 2.58 V
+3.3 V 3.30 V
+5 V 5.10 V
+12 V 12.18 V
+12 V 4-pin 12.18 V
+5 V Standby 5.10 V
VTT 1.23 V
South Bridge Core 1.03 V
DIMM 1.89 V
DIMM VTT 0.93 V
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Motherboard
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 506, 2666 MHz (20 x 133)
Motherboard Name Abit AL8(-V) (2 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Lakeport i945P
System Memory 512 MB (DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (07/06/05)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Realtek ALC880(D) @ Intel 82801GB ICH7 - High Definition Audio Controller [A-1]

Storage
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Maxtor 6L100M0 (100 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Optical Drive _NEC DVD_RW ND-3550A (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:6x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 95597 MB (27951 MB free)

 

[olmer]

Everest? Run stability rest (all but HDD) and see how far you tempr goes.

 

[sieistganzfett]

Intel Pentium 4 506, 2666 MHz (20 x 133) running at 71C (160F)!!! thats the problem, its overheating (thats gotta be the problem with such a temp)... normal operating temp for any cpu tends to be under ~140F (full load), with a room temp of round 75F. the lower the cpu temp the better, i would say around 120F or even 130s under full load is fine for a pentium 4. either there is a lot of dust on the heatsink (fan not cooling it as a result) or there isnt any thermal grease on the cpu to conduct heat to the heatsink. turn the pc off, dust it out, and recheck the temps. if there is no dust. buy thermal grease such as arctic silver 5, clean off the current junk, probably dried out thermal grease from both the cpu and heatsink, and apply a small amount of arctic silver to the cpu, spread out evenly across the cpu with something like a credit card. thats the best advice I can give.

 

[nlc0043]

ok i ran the stability test through everest and the CPU temp got up to 99 degrees celcius. the test ran for about two and a half minutes before my comp just shut off. no restart or freeze it just turned its self off.

 

[nlc0043]

i keep the inside very clean of dust so i don't think dust would be the problem but i will get some thermal grease tomorrow and apply it and let you know, thank you for the suggestion i wouldn't have thought of that. I didn't know that the temp it was reaching was that far above normal.

 

[sieistganzfett]

i found a website that listed max temps for various cpu, but even those max are very hot and not a good ideo. i think it was ~80-90C for the p4.

 

[RKS]

Originally posted by: nlc0043
i keep the inside very clean of dust so i don't think dust would be the problem but i will get some thermal grease tomorrow and apply it and let you know, thank you for the suggestion i wouldn't have thought of that. I didn't know that the temp it was reaching was that far above normal.

you didn't have any TIM? yeah, that might cause a slight issue. Good Luck.

 

[Alopez777]

nlc0043,

DEFINITELY a heat problem. (ie. CPU overheating).

Check for thermal grease under CPU. If you plan on applying thermal grease MAKE VERY SURE not to get the grease on anything other then the CPU and HEATSINK, thin layer of grease EVENLY applied.

Also, make sure your case fan is working. All that heat needs to leave your case. Thats what the case fan is for.

Also, check your heatsink and fan unit. Is it the proper one for your CPU??????????


good luck

alan

 

[nlc0043]

so i went out and bought some Antec Formula 5 Silver Thermal Compound and applied it to the heat sink and cpu. When i took the fan off there was a dried up sorry excuse for a previous application of thermal grease by the builder of the computer. After applying i powered her up and immediately it idles at 11 degrees celcius cooler than before and after running the CPU stress test it topped out at 88 instead of 100 celcius. I have not tried any games yet but i will after and repost about gameplay. Thanks to all for help, i really didn't want to have to shell out for geek squad.

 

[nlc0043]

brilliant! problem solved, i can play my games again! i can't thank you all enough for taking the time to help me. thank you thank you thank you!

 

[sieistganzfett]

i still think topping out at 88C is way too hot. makes me wonder what kind of cooler you are using, if its the stock, or the wrong cooler entirely (more likely it is the wrong one entirely, and that is why it started overheated in the first place) can the system stay stable without any issues under prime95 for at least 8 hours non stop doing "large FFTs"?
the link is basically a review of a bunch of coolers, gives temps, and which programs were used to heat the stress the cpu for your p4 506.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/cnps8000-scythe-mine_9.html