My new computer has been stable since I put it together a week or so after Christmas. Since, I've started gaming with it a little it has been randomly shutting down/hanging. It was rock solid stable for about 3 weeks. cpu temps: idle - 30C ish full load - 45C Seemed a little high to me, but just figured it was due to the prescott core vid card temps: idle - mid 40's full load - 60 I turned it on and was about leave for school when it shut down. I restarted it and it told me the cpu had been improperly set. The cpu settings have always been at default. From BIOS: 3.0000ghz 15x multiplier bus speed was set at 200. quad pumped that puts it at what the fsb is supposed to be i guess. It will post and go into BIOS setting, but after about 30 seconds in BIOS it just shuts down. I am kind of leaning towards some sort of cpu heat issue, but I'm not getting any warning beeps before shut down. Your thoughts,comments, questions?
the cpu temp (if that is the true temp) is fine. These processors can reach into the 60's and operate without a problem (although 60 is cuttng it close). Hmmm, this is an interesting problem. make sure that your voltages are set right, double check your temps, and maybe run memtest86 to eliminate memory as a problem. If you can, run Prime95 to see if your processor returns any errors. That's all I can say for now because I have to run off to class. Try those things and holler back, and I'll respond.
I dont think its a heat issue mate, cos your temps are good. It could be a power issue though. What PSU are u using? and what amps are there on each rail?
still up at school so I can't really remember the amps on all the rails. It's a 450W psu that came with the Rosewill case. I'll check the ratings when I get home in an hour or so. This might be a piece of the puzzle. I had turned it on as I was leaving. It ran for maybe 5 minutes (was loading up eq2 to go into merchant mode). As the game started, it shutdown. From then on, I couldn't get it to run for more than maybe 30 seconds in about 5 reboot attempts. Thanks for the input. I'm probably going to go pick up some thermal compound in case I need to reseat the cpu or something.
yeah, it probably would b a good ide to reseat the CPU just to b on the safe side. Grab some Arctic Silver 5 if you can. That is probably te best cmpound.
Just got home and went over the whole tower with a fine tooth comb. I didn't have much time before class to do much more than look in the side window, but this time I found one of the little plastic retaining clips on the stock heatsink set up had broken. I found the little thing behind the motherboard of all places. I have no idea how it happened because I haven't even opened up the case in the last 3 weeks or so. I guess what happened was that starting from cold I had a couple of minutes before it got too hot and automatically shut down. Then when I was trying to restart it after that it was already that much hotter, so it took much less time to shut itself off. Which brings me to a new question....how much damage could it have done? The computer still will boot into BIOS, but I didn't have much more time beyond that to test if it will start windows (which I obviously can't do until I get a new heatsink now). I couldn't smell anything burning after it happened. It still had 3 fans working the air around in there, just not enough contact with the actual metal portion of the heatsink. Also, I have a few old Intel heatsink+fans laying around. Would they be interchangeable?
Do you mean the bracket that is attached to the MOBO or the retention clip on the HS? If you meant the HS clip, then I recommend not paying to replace the stock Intel HS...buy a Zalman or something, which will additionally lower your already-okay proc temps. A smaller SKT 478 heatsink's clips might work, but the Prescott cooler is a bit taller and they may come up short. Funny, I had this exact problem with my 2.8E!! The clip broke, up near the bend, so I used a drill, some dental floss, and JB Weld to repair the broken retainer clip... Hey, it is still holding together - I transferred it to the GF's 2.4C and it sure cools that well. But I now run a 7700-Cu on mine and all of that silliness is behind me. If the MOBO clip is what broke, then yes, any SKT 478 MOBO will have a perfectly functional replacement for it. They are all identical.
Just get a new better aftermarket heatsink and you should be fine. The processor has a thermal cut out if the temperature reaches the threshold so I would imagine thats what happened. Do you know how to properly apply Arctic Silver 5?
Ah, It is the clip that is attached to the mobo. I've got plenty of those laying around. Seems that the replacement will be a little more complicated though. I've applied Thermal grease to my old comp's heatsink a few times. Never dealt with Arctic Silver though, but i'll probably just end up buying a whole new heatsink+fan and a tube of that in a couple of weeks. Does the Arctic Silver have a different process for its application?
I am surprised that the intel's clip break off that easily. I have took out many of these andthey looked unbreakable. Anyway just get some heatsink to replace your current one. cheers!
I robbed the clip off my older 478 Mobo, and put it in the new one. Had to use some thermal grease from Radio Shack until the Arctic Silver comes in, but it appears to be running about the same temperature as before. Might be a little hotter but it will probably go down a little as the stuff sets or whatever it does (idle at about 36-37C). Anyways...it's working. Big thanks to everyone.