Serious cooling problem... need a clue.

[kross4031]

i have an amd 3000+400mhrz, ultra ball bearing fan and copper based heat sinc with the thermal grease that came with the fan, gigabyte 7n400 mobo, 1 gig pc3200 ddr 400mhrz,gforce fx5200 256mb 8x agp, sound blaster audigy2, a mid tower that is almost identical to this one http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&Sku=E456-2011 only difference is some cosmetic things. i imagine those are the important datails. now, this is not overclocked. i have that latest bios update and all the jumpers on the mobo are correct. running winxp pro sp2, this thing will run at 85 degrees celcius just sitting at idle. now throw a benchmark program at it and it'll peg 94 degrees and shut down. everytime all the time. all the so called tech support people i call are not helping. everything the tell me to do has no effect on it. hoping some of you out there might be able to lead me in a new direction. thanks in advance for your time with my issue.

[Darthtanion]

Re: Serious cooling problem... need a clue.

First off, I'll just point out that while the case looks good, coolin gpotential is limited due to lack of sufficient ventilation on the front bezel area. I've reviewed one almost identical to that and this was the case. You should, however, get better temperatures than what you are currently getting. Make sure if you have a front mounted fan it is set to be an intake allowing cool air into the case. The side panel fan should also be set to intake. The rear fan should be set to exhaust the hot air out the back of the enclosure. If this is all set up correctly, remove the heatsink and get some good interface material. I always use (and highly recommend) Arctic Silver. Make sure to apply it as described on their website to ensure a good interface between the heatsink and the processor core. See if this helps out your temperatures. It could be an airflow problem or it could also be a problem of a poor contact between the two metals of the sink and core.

[matm347]

Re: Serious cooling problem... need a clue.

I could not look at the case due to my work firewall, but have you tried pulling the panels off the case to check the actual temp of the air around/coming off the heat sink? Arctic silver 5 is what I use everywhere. Tests have proven around a 5 degree C drop when this is used over the stuff they give you.
But something is wrong somewhere...those temps are way high!

If the air around/off the sink HOT...then you need more air flow...if not...theres a connection issue.

[kross4031]

Re: Serious cooling problem... need a clue.

well... went to the local computer store and picked up some arctic silver 5 and a mad dog all copper heat sinc with 80mm fan and a 80mm case fan. bought three but i neglected to notice the wrong plugs. the tech guy said it was better that aluminum. so far it is running at 51 degrees celsius.

[kross4031]

Re: Serious cooling problem... need a clue.

looks like we have a winner!!! it holds 50-53 degrees celsius no matter what i throw at it now.

[matm347]

Re: Serious cooling problem... need a clue.

NICE!! Good to hear you fixed the problem....did you find the cause for the problem? Bad fan, etc?

[kross4031]

Re: Serious cooling problem... need a clue.

apparently it must have been the thermal grease. i changed the fan as well, but i dont think i really needed to. the other worked just fine. paranoid i guess.