PC problem... help please?

Indie · 4 Sep 2006 at 16:14

Hi people!, ive got a slight problem with my PC, keeps randomly freezing up when i start up some applications or games etc (no error messages, just application/game stops, and unable to use mouse/keyboard, have to physically powerdown the PC)... and in some cases freezes when i try and update drivers :S

not entirely sure what the problem is, firstly i thought it may be cooling, but as ive had the covers off my PC for the past 2 days - it still has the same problem. CPU temperature is averaging out at around 64°c... not entirly sure if thats high or not (AMD Athlon XP 2700+ 2.2Ghz).

has anybody got any suggestions on things i could try?

any advice is much appreciated! Thanks!

Sam

SiriusB · 4 Sep 2006 at 16:19

Never owned an Athlon XP so I don't know their temperature tolerances, but 64C does sound a little warm!

The next time your computer crashes make a note of the exact time, then after a reboot go to your event viewer [type eventvwr in the Run dialog]. Click on System and see if there any Warning entries for the time your PC crashed.

SiriusB

Indie · 4 Sep 2006 at 16:23

i can make it crash quite easilly.. its if i can get it to work again

... ill give it a try, back soon... hopefully!

4T5 · 4 Sep 2006 at 16:44

64c @ desktop with the sidecover opened :eek:

Toasty.

Sort your cooling out. NOW.
Of course you will have people saying they are well within acceptable temps but then there system is not freezing.
I would say your CPU cooler is either pants or just not fitted properly.
Also your case cooling is pants so sort that out aswell.
Heat is your Enemy, not only will it cause problems in use but it will also shorten the life of your hardware if not kill it all together.

Run your system up, earth yourself and gently touch your heatsink to see how warm, cold or hot it is. This will let you know how good the heat transfer is between CPU and cooler.
As far as your case goes you need to set up good airflow by drawing air in the front of your case and exhausting it out the back.

BTW I ran an 3200xp Barton up till last week. It ran lovely @ 49c but when clocked during the summer the temps rose to 55c. Idle it was 41c-42c.
65c is Not an acceptable temp idle.

Noble-Kebab · 4 Sep 2006 at 16:57

wow that is very high you must be running 70+ at full load.

That cpu must be near death if its been running at those temps for a while.

Go get some thermal paste and clean all the dust out from your case .

Benny · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:41

Has the temp always been around this mark and the PC running ok? Geeze man that is high. If you happy to reseat your HS/Fan then I would do so and get some TIM clean (to clean the current paste off) and re-apply some thermal compound. How many case fans do you have? How many blowing cool air in and how many extracting? Are you overclocking in any way? I have had an ANMD Xp but it was never that high, then again it was only a AMD XP 2100 1.6ghz.. i think. You're current HS/Fan might be clogged to high heaven with dust and fluff mate. This I guess would act as a heat insulater. Anyway mate I hope a spring clean will help you out. Also clean the bvldes on your Fans.....dust etc on them reduces thier effectivenes.

B