Thank God for Clock Throttling!

[GTaudiophile]

Intel Pentium4 2.0A on a ASUS P4B266 (not OCed)...

Was just playing Urban Terror 3.0B when all the sudden the screen froze, the speakers started making a horrible noise, and everything just locked up. Like I did a year ago when I experienced a similar problem, I simply hit the restart button, but instead of my machine turning back over, it turned off. I waited a minute before a second attempt. This time it booted into the BIOS, giving me a warning that my machine had hung because of an improper CPU speed. Before I could do anything else in the BIOS, my machine locked again. Again I waited, repeating the process yielded the same result.

So, I had a new problem on my hands, one I had never dealt with. I unplugged everything, opened the case, and what do I see? One of the plastic twisties I had used to secure loose wiring to the case had gotten caught in the CPU fan, prohibiting it from spinning. Of course, the CPU was over-heating! (That happens faster than I thought.) I fixed the twistie, plugged everything back in, hit the power button, booted into the BIOS, checked the BIOS settings, and got back into Windows. Everything seems to be working fine again, though I wonder if any permanent damage was done.

I just want to thank Intel for clock throttling. Had the CPU not been smart enough to shut itself down once it got too hot, then I would have had a burning PC on my hands, all because of a plastic twistie. I feel so stupid at the moment!

Time for bed...

 

[EeyoreX]

More likely than not, it was actually the motherboard. Great to hear the proc was not damaged though! (we hope). Also, AFAIK desktop Intels don't throttle speed? Could it just have been the heat affecting the settings?Maybe they do, I dunno... I'd still say it was probably the motherboard. My secondary AMD rig had a similar problem. I didn't plug in the heatsink fan all the way (I was dumb!) and the motherboard shut the PC down, saving my proc. Yay!

\Dan

 

[GTaudiophile]

Well, everything ran fine all night at cool temps. I even gamed with it briefly, so I think it's okay.

Time will tell.

 

[Shagga]

I might be mistaken also but I thought the early P4's did clock throttle when they got to hot to by as much as 50% of their clock speed!! But, I agree, it's likely to have been your ASUS mobo that saved ya....gotta love ASUS.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Considering the BIOS error I got, it probably was the motherboard.

 

[MDE]

P4s do have clock throttling. That's what saved your chip.

 

[Alkali]

You lucky lucky man.

You should get a case with a window, thats one of my main reasons for having one, any problems like that and I can see it immediately... CPU fans die after a couple years anyway normally, so its wise to keep a lookout.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Yeah, I was sure I fried my CPU...

It's running at a fairly cool 28C now.

 

[FishTankX]

If memory serves me correctly, P4's should be able to survive through breif periods with *no heatsink* without a crash. Ala the toms video. I'm suprised it crashed on you. No slow down, before hand?

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: FishTankX
If memory serves me correctly, P4's should be able to survive through breif periods with *no heatsink* without a crash. Ala the toms video. I'm suprised it crashed on you. No slow down, before hand?

Nope. I had been gaming for a good 30 minutes before the fan came to a stop, so it was already running hot I guess.

 

[Wingznut]

It was the P4's thermal diode that saved itself. The BIOS just detected that the cpu shut itself down, and then displayed the msg.

A motherboard cannot react nearly as fast as the cpu itself, in that situation.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: Wingznut
It was the P4's thermal diode that saved itself. The BIOS just detected that the cpu shut itself down, and then displayed the msg.

A motherboard cannot react nearly as fast as the cpu itself, in that situation.

The man speaks!

How long can a P4 2.0A last without a heatsink at all?

Is it possible or likely permanent damage was done?

Edit: Somone is about to become a LIFER

 

[dmw16]

Just about any modern computer will hang if it gets too hot.
-doug

 

[imgod2u]

Hehe, I had this same problem with my 3.4 P4. One of the wires that I thought I had tied down suddenly went into the CPU fan and prevented it from spinning right in the middle of a WC3 game. The thing is, even without the fan spinning I could still play (the game just became jerky). I managed to finish the game, shut down windows and look in my case to see what's wrong

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: imgod2u
Hehe, I had this same problem with my 3.4 P4. One of the wires that I thought I had tied down suddenly went into the CPU fan and prevented it from spinning right in the middle of a WC3 game. The thing is, even without the fan spinning I could still play (the game just became jerky). I managed to finish the game, shut down windows and look in my case to see what's wrong

I never had such a warning. The plastic twistie I used is one of the thick-plastic kind. It was also quite long, so once it got in there, it really gummed up the works.

 

[FishTankX]

Well, that's just the thing. The entire P4 series is suposed to be able to take thermal meltdown in stride, and throddle back to speeds where passive cooling is possible. *ESPICALLY* The lower clocked ones. Even the williamettes (Which run way hotter than your Northwood) had the ability to run without a fan for extended periods of time. There was a guy around here who disconnected the fan from a Williamette for one hour while running intensive programs and failed to hang the system. Thus, i'm shocked that your system hung. I'm willing to bet that the CPU's heat infleunced the graphics card, which crashed the system.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Possible.

I fixed the twistie and have had no problems for about 14 hours now. CPU is now at 32C.

 

[FishTankX]

Well, i'm just glad all is well with your CPU.

I'd like to see Tom try the same heatsink removal trick with the Prescott.