Help! Sudden overheating issue!

megakid

megakid

megakid

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6 Jun 2004
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London
I've just got back from university and found my PC absolutely sweating it's nuts off - i'm trying to type this quick to shut it down again before im risking more damage but here's how it went:

It's spec is this:

SN85G4V2
Sk754 A64 clawhammer 3400+
1Gb corsair RAM
1 * 74Gb raptor
1 * 250Gb maxtor drive

hmmm, dont think there's much else...
I left the PC running all night last night (not unusual), it's a shuttle machine but I have fitted an extra fan and have Cool'n'Quiet installed and working so it runs coolish (not half as cool as desktop machines).
I came home just a minute ago and found it absolutely boiling it's self - the I touched MSN messanger and got a Blue screen of death - I touched the heatsink attached to the CPU on the rear and nearly burnt my fingers. I instantly went into bios and saw a 94C reading from the CPU and the whole case was like a heater.
I turned it off, took of the case asap and took it outside for a cool off period. I've now plugged it back in, everythings working fine but it seems to be running extremely warm! CPU temp is now 83C and rising (0% CPU usage).

What can I do?! I've got a major major assignment in for uni tomorrow and I NEED my PC. It's been reliable for my 2 years here and NOW, on a night like tonight, it decides to go boobies up.

Is this a software problem? would a windows reinstall possibly work?
How can i narrow it down to hardware/software? I'm just about to sit in the bios and see what the temps do in there - that should be absolute 0% CPU right?

Thanks!!!
 
Im currently at uni but when I get chance I'm going to strip it down, give it a good clean out and re-seat everything.

Hopefully that should cure it and no damage has been done!

Fingers crossed!
 
Underclock the cpu as a temp solution? Might provide a low enough temp so that you can do your assignment.
 
The thing I dont understand is the machine had been running all night (whilst I was in bed) and then I got up and went to university when it was absolutely fine - came back 10 hrs later and it's killing itself.
There's no way the heatsink moved as my room was locked and nothing could have happened to it.

anyway, right- Ive just completely stripped the shuttle down cleaned everything I could and reapplied Arctic silver 5 to the CPU (followed instructions as always) but the high temperatures are persisting.

Ive just ensured cool n quiet is on but it's still at 65C at idle with fan on full (4300rpm) so thats with the cpu being auto underclocked to 36% of 2.4Ghz and down volted from 1.5 to 1.3. I can physically feel the heatsink much hotter than usual. I dread to think what would happen if I try and play a game on here with my 6800GT kicking out heat as well.

The machine is running as normal otherwise.

Is there any other possible causes?

Could the CPU be overvolted if a mosef on the motherboard failed?
 
Last edited:
Hi!

That's a little odd - have you visually checked the fan is turning? (Just in case! :) )

Perhaps the heatsink itself is clogged up with dust - this can have a disastrous effect on temps

As a final measure I'd turn off Cool & Quiet, manually underclock your CPU to something like 1.6GHz and reduce the voltage to 1.2V or so. The CPU should still be stable but it'll produce far less heat. Not an ideal measure but it should at least give you a PC to do your assignment on!
 
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