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Overheating... With a twist!

R

ruffilb

Diamond Member
Ok, Here's the deal... My computer crashes frequently after serious use. I'm almost positive it's overheating; I've reformated, and taking the side off of my case fixed the problem tremendously.

I'm 99% sure that my video cards are overheating; my CPU fan is a Zalman 7700-CU = Insane cooling. Speedfan says my CPU is running in the low 30's, max, so I'm not worried. On the other hand, my video cards have temp reports all the way up to the 80/90's! There is a dead fan in my OCZ 600W PSU, but I doubt the PSU is overheating: It's out of my case completely with decent airflow.

I have no virus protection, but use spybot and have a good firewall; I just reformatted anyway.

Now... I would usually upgrade the fans on my cards, but that would void the lifetime BFG warranty. I would also put a small PCI slot fan in there, but they seem to be ineffective (Know of any REALLY good ones?) I can't just complain to BFG and say it's overheating, they'd at best just send me an identical one and that wouldn't solve any problems.

Suggestions?
 
Detailed specs on your system would help, can you fill in this template thingie with your info if possible. Also, do some fact-finding on your theory by opening up your case and aiming a house fan directly at the mobo & video cards, to provide a strong stream of cool air. Test like that and see if the problem is solved. If so, it's a circulation issue and you might need a side-panel intake blowhole or a card cooler.

Template, hit Quote and fill 'er in. 🙂
  • CORE HARDWARE
    • Power supply Antec TruePower 430
    • Motherboard Asus K8N-E Deluxe
      • Revision 1.03
      • BIOS 1005
    • CPU Athlon64 3000+
      • Core 130nm Clawhammer
    • Memory (2) 512MB Corsair XMS 3200C2 modules
      • Voltage Manually set to 2.7 volts
      • Timings AUTO, results in 2-3-2-6 @ 200MHz
  • CARDS
    • Primary video card ATI Radeon 9800Pro AGP 8x
    • Secondary video card (none)
    • PCI slot #1 (top) empty
    • PCI slot #2 empty
    • PCI slot #3 LeadTek Winfast TV/FM tuner card
    • PCI slot #4 Creative Audigy 2 ZS
    • PCI slot #5 LSI Logic Ultra160 SCSI
    • PCI slot #6 N/A (board only has five PCI slots)
  • DRIVES
    • Boot drive 160GB Seagate 7200.7
      • Interface Serial ATA
      • Controller hosting this drive nForce3 SATA controller
      • Jumper setting not applicable (SATA)
    • Additional hard drive 40GB Seagate 7200.7
      • Interface Parallel ATA
      • Controller hosting this drive nForce3 standard ATA controller, primary channel
      • Jumper setting Master
    • Additional hard drive 18GB Seagate Cheetah 15k.3
      • Interface SCSI
      • Controller hosting this drive LSI Logic U160 card
      • Jumper setting SCSI ID 01
    • Optical drive #1 NEC 3500A DVD burner
      • Interface Parallel ATA
      • Controller hosting this drive nForce3 standard ATA controller, secondary channel
      • Jumper setting Master
    • Optical drive #2 Lite-On combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW
      • Interface Parallel ATA
      • Controller hosting this drive nForce3 standard ATA controller, secondary channel
      • Jumper setting Slave
  • OS AND SECURITY
    • Operating System WindowsXP Professional
    • Service Pack SP2
    • Internet connection Cable
    • Hardware firewall Netgear RP614 router
    • Software firewall WindowsXP firewall
    • Antivirus Norton Antivirus 2004
 
  • CORE HARDWARE
    • Power supply OCZ 600W
    • Motherboard DFI nForce 4 SLI-DR
      • Revision ?
      • BIOS ?
    • CPU Athlon64 3500+
      • Core 90nm Winchester
    • Memory (2) 512MB OCZ Platinum 3200 modules
      • Voltage Dunno, whatever default is (2.6?)
      • Timings AUTO, I assume results in 2-3-2-5 @ 200MHz
  • CARDS
    • Primary video card BFG 6800GT OC, PCI-e x16
    • Secondary video card (Same as above)
    • PCI slot #1 (top) empty / na
    • PCI slot #2 empty / na
    • PCI slot #3 empty / na
    • PCI slot #4 empty / na
    • PCI slot #5 empty / na
    • PCI slot #6 empty / na
  • DRIVES
    • Boot drive 200GB Seagate 7200.7
      • Interface Serial ATA
      • Controller hosting this drive nForce4 SATA controller
      • Jumper setting not applicable (SATA)
    • Optical drive #1 NEC 3500A DVD burner
      • Interface Parallel ATA
      • Controller hosting this drive nForce standard ATA controller, secondary channel
      • Jumper settingMaster
[*]OS AND SECURITY
  • Operating System WindowsXP Professional
  • Service Pack SP2
  • Internet connection DSL
  • Hardware firewall Netgear WGT624 v2 router
  • Software firewall Nvidia Firewall
  • Antivirus None (I know I need some, but I'm afraid norton will eat my system resources!)
[/quote]

 
Ok, for starters here are a couple of things about the DFI:

1) it has four power fittings. One for 24-pin main power, one for ATX12V square 4-pin, one for a standard power cable like your CD-ROM drive takes, and one sneaky one for a floppy-disk-drive-type power plug. So make sure all four of those are hooked up 🙂

2) it has a reputation for liking more RAM voltage. I would just go right to 2.8 volts and be done with it.


Plus the cooling test with a fan blowing right at the cards/mobo. Any good?
 
If the computer runs better with the side panel off, you could try adding a 120mm fan for extra case ventilation
 
Thanks guys. In fact, I did not plug in the sneaky floppy-disk-drive-type plug... Where is it? I can't seem to find it... and I don't really know what they look like - I don't have to mess with them often 😉

Yea, I might add a side case fan... but my case (thermaltake tsunami) has a side fan. The only problem is that it is too high to cool the video cards. I wish I could find a really nice fan to put in my PCI slot to cool the cards, but I could probably retrofit a 120mm fan on the side of my vid cards if I had to.

I'll probably up the ram voltage... perhaps this has been limiting my OCing attempts? OCing was the plan; since my CPU runs so damn cool I might try again. (I'm new at OCing, so I was afraid to turn up the voltage any at all...)
 
Well, never mind. I put a huge desk fan next to the side and it never does this anymore. Problem solved =D
 
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