Serious Overheating?

RichieP · 2 Jul 2006 at 16:54

Just acquired an Abit NI8 nForce4 Sli motherboard with a Pentium 4 940 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 3.2GHz processor on board.
The trouble is it seems to be seriously overheating -
I have the following readings -

CPU 68c
SYS 48c
PWM 90c

There is now a warning tone coming from the computer.
What can I do to make things cooler and what exactly is
PWM?

Sorry, new to all this!

Cheers,

Richard

Zefan · 2 Jul 2006 at 16:57

Can't remember what PWM stands for but it's the voltage regulators I think, they're on your motherboard around your cpu socket I THINK. Try placing a fan blowing air over them to see if it reduces it then you know what's overheating.

Lets just wait till tuesday, a whole 5 degrees hotter than today here :eek:

mc_bob · 2 Jul 2006 at 16:57

Take the side of the case off and put a deskfan next to that asap.

That heat today is getting to a lot of peoples computers.

MC_Bob

SiriusB · 2 Jul 2006 at 17:00

Correct. PWMs [Pulse Width Modulators] are circuits that regulate the voltages for your CPU. If these get too hot they may cause instability in your CPU.

However, the more worrying thing in your case is the 90C temp! I pretty sure theyre rated at about 100C so I think you're cutting it fine for frying them :eek:

RichieP · 2 Jul 2006 at 17:06

I've now opened the case and got a desktop fan running - temp is going down a little now.
Seems to happen for example when I'm say converting a movie file from avi to dvd.
Is there anything I can put on board to cool things - I've already got 2 extra fans?

SiriusB · 2 Jul 2006 at 17:10

I have mounted a fan on the side of my case for the sole purpose of cooling down my PWM IC. However, I already a fan mount to attach it to. You might consider a case modification if you haven't already got a mount

SiriusB

RichieP · 2 Jul 2006 at 17:13

Thanks I'll try that - just one thing - how do I locate the PWM?

Thanks,

Richard

Zefan · 2 Jul 2006 at 17:16

RichieP said:
Thanks I'll try that - just one thing - how do I locate the PWM?

Thanks,

Richard

Motherboard manual? If you haven't got it then it should be available from *** manufacturers site.

SiriusB · 2 Jul 2006 at 17:35

RichieP said:
Thanks I'll try that - just one thing - how do I locate the PWM?

Thanks,

Richard

Had a quick nosey around Google and in two places it said that the PWMs on your board are under a blue heatsink near the IO ports.

SiriusB

Eliot · 2 Jul 2006 at 18:47

what case do you have?

RichieP · 2 Jul 2006 at 19:23

The case is an Akasa Eclipse - big with plenty of room - the amount of overheating suprises me.

RichieP · 2 Jul 2006 at 19:25

SiriusB said:
Had a quick nosey around Google and in two places it said that the PWMs on your board are under a blue heatsink near the IO ports.

SiriusB

Thanks for that - looks like that may be difficult to cool.

SiriusB · 2 Jul 2006 at 19:59

Does the Akasa have a front intake fan? If not it might be worth putting one in [might require some creative modification] or if it does, perhaps get a better fan? If you have good airflow from front to rear then the PWM should receive some fresh air.

Alternatively, you can buy PCI cards that have fans mounted on them. If you have a spare slot above any other cards you could get some nice cooling there.

SiriusB