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Symptoms of CPU or chipset overheating?

G

GnatGoSplat

Golden Member
My machine is up 24/7 running Windows 2003. I never had problems with it, until yesterday. I decided to try Nero Recode & burn a video DVD and it just won't finish.

My hardware is:
Asus M2N nVidia MCP61 chipset motherboard
AMD X2 3800+ CPU
Geforce 7100 video
Maxtor/Seagate 320GB SATA
NEC ND-3540A DVD burner

During the recode/burning process, both cores are pretty much pegged at 100%. When it crashes, it's weird. All disk I/O stops. I have graphical CPU activity gauges, and they spool down to near 0 and freeze. The mouse still works. Clicking on windows still works. If I try to close a window, it will say "(Not Responding)". Num lock, caps lock, all those keys till work. CTRL-ALT-DEL or CTRL-SHIFT-ESC don't do anything. The clock doesn't advance. The drives are never accessed.

I suspected a temperature problem because running ASUS Probe II, the CPU temp kept climbing up to 65C and MB Temperature is 45C. I thought maybe my CPU was overheating, because I was theorizing that maybe the motherboard stops CPU processing until the temperature goes back down. However, I let it sit 15-minutes and it never recovered. I ended up with a coaster since it finished the burn halfway.

I discovered in BIOS that I had Q-Fan turned on, and it doesn't go to full speed until 70C. that seemed too hot, so I tried turning it off. Now CPU temps max out at 60C, but it still locks up. The second time, luckily it hadn't begun burning yet so I didn't lose a DVD that time. I've read some sites that this CPU should still work up to 70C.

Now I wonder if maybe it wasn't the CPU after all, maybe the chipset is crashing. All that continuous I/O, maybe it was overheating? It does run scalding hot to the touch and only has a tiny passive cooler about 1/4" tall.

Any ideas which is the cause of the problem?
 
First try to burn to hdd (create iso), then burn something else, use another media. If still crashes try different soft/upgrade firmware. Cannot see why you are blaming hardware at this stage.
 
IMHO anything 60 or higher is too hot and you don't have proper cooling, etc. Try taking your case side off to see what happens, blow a fan on the inside, etc.

What are you using to burn the disc?
 
I suspected hardware because it has locked up during the recode process even before it has started burning to DVD.
I am using Nero Recode.
I will see if I can get the CPU to run any cooler. What is the absolute max the CPU temperature should ever get to and still function normally?
 
Maybe, but I've never had than happen before prior to CPU/mobo upgrade and I've Recoded hundreds of DVDs. Also, it locked up at different places both times. First time during actual burning, CPU @ 65C, and second time during recode process CPU somewhere between 55 and 60C.

It's weird though, I've overclocked CPUs in the past (not this one) and when they locked up, they usually locked up hard with the mouse pointer frozen and Num/Caps lock buttons not working, or sometimes a BSOD. This time is different which is why I started to wonder whether the continuous I/O over the SATA bus might be overheating the chipset.
 
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