Short lockups during games / overheating?

[desau]

Hello all,

I'm having a problem that started a few months ago.

The problem:
During certain hardware-stressing games (such as Far Cry, Doom3, Half Life 2), the game will be fine at first, then after 10 minutes or so, I start to see artifacts flashing on the screen. It gets worse and worse until it starts to freeze for a few seconds at a time. If it's Doom3, it will just freeze completely (hard reset required). I've done some research and I believed it to be overheating.

At first I thought that the graphics card was going bad (PNY GeForce 6800 GT), so I sent it in on warranty. While I was waiting for the warranty rebuild to be returned to me I purchased a BFG GeForce 6800 GT. Same problems with the BFG.

I thought it was the chipset so (after updating every driver I could think of, including video and chipset) I switched motherboards (I was using an MSI Neo PT-880 .. VIA 880 chipset) to an ABIT IC7-G .. Intel 875 Chipset.

Current hardware:
Intel 3.2Ghz Pentium 4
ABIT IC7-G Motherboard (using onboard sound/network)
1 gig DDR2 non-parity RAM (2x512m)
BFG GeForce 6800 GT AGP
2 IDE hard drives
2 IDE CD drives

Now .. for the temperatures:
I'm in the San Francisco bay area, normal daytime temperatures are around 85 degrees F. I don't have air conditioning, so room temperature is that.

Using speedfan I see:
Temp1: 33C
Temp2: 53C
Temp3: 36C
Local: 35C
Remote: 42C
HD1: 39C
Temp1: 58C

I don't know what the "temp's" refer to.
Using ABIT's temperature program, it says my CPU is currently sitting at 55C, system is 33C and PWM is 36C (no load on the CPU)

Using nVidia's control panel, it says my GPU is at 51C while ambient temperature is 35C.

Now .. I've done everything that I can think of to cool it off:

I've replaced the CPU fan with a Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu (it was previously seeing the exact same temperatures with the standard intel fan (boxed set CPU/fan).
When I replaced the fan, I cleaned off the CPU's old thermal greese and applied the new greese.

I've replaced the standard BFG 6800 GT fan with a Zalman VF700-Cu. (slight temperature change was noticed).

During gaming, I see the CPU getting to 65C and the GPU getting to 70C.

I've installed two case fans, one on the side which blows air directly in near the CPU, one in the back/top of the case next to the CPU which sucks air out.

Even after all this, it still seems to me that it's running way to hot (intel recommends 38C for the CPU), and it starts to glitch and lock up during gaming.

Any advice?

 

[Fern]

Hi desau and Welcome to the Forums!

Try taking the case sides off and setting up a box fan to blow at your PC. Should cool down everything.

Could have "cable management" issues which are hindering your case fans from cooling adequately.

Fern

 

[crimson117]

Big fan on open case is a good solution. You're going to be hard pressed to adequately cool a 6800GT and a P4 3.2ghz when your ambient temp is 85F / 30C.

If you had air conditioning, you would have an ambient temp of around 74F / 23.3C. That difference in starting temperature can make a big difference: You'd likely see "CPU getting to 60C and the GPU getting to 650C." which would be more reasonable. 🙁

Your best bet is to use a big fan and an open case, or, if it's feasible, a small in-window air conditioner just for your computer room.

 

[stevty2889]

Did you re-install windows after switching out the motherboard? Going from a VIA chipset(yuck) to an Intel chipset, you should re-install windows, or at least a repair install. And your description says you are using DDR2..you couldnt' be using ddr2, that motherboard uses regular DDR..


Is your P4 a prescott or a northwood? If it's a prescott that temp is about normal, if it's a northwood it's a bit high, and it might be throttling. The 38c intel recomends is for the case temp, not the cpu temp.

Also your GPU temp is pretty normal as well, mine gets up to around 75c-80c after gaming for a little while.
How much thermal grease did you use when you installed the new heatsink? It should be a very thin layer, no larger than a grain of rice in size that you use.

Another thing you haven't mentioned that could definatly be the culprit is your power supply..what are you using for a PSU? A weak power supply could definaly cause the the symptoms you are having.

 

[AutoGlitch]

This May be a little late but I've had the exact problem as you with the same BFG GeForce 6800 GT card.

For a couple months I recieved random artifacts while playing games which is sad because that machine is a primarily gaming machine. Eventualy it got to the point where the artifacts came up in windows and finally during the windows loading screen.

Solution: New power supply. I took a look at the connections and it looks like one of the ends that plugs into that card was burned out. Maybe not completely but enough to cause me major headaches.

2nd Solution: After the power supply was fixed a new problem arose a couple months later. That same locking pattern without the artifacts during high performance games. Most didn't require a hard reboot but this problem was actualy caused by the temperture of the card. Somewhere very close to 80C the BFG card starts having issues. The ambient temp should NEVER reach that high. A can of air didn't help it so I purchased a small deskfan and left my case open and now I have no problem running at 60C-70C.

My question is why in the world is the default threshold for the BFG card at 120C?!?!?!

Hope this helps.