OK - here I am again needing advice from the hardware experts

[blutach]

A couple of days ago, while playing my fave game (Su-Doku - not that graphics intensive), the PC rebooted on me. Kept doing this. Even when not using major graphics apps (e.g. DVD Shrink rebooted during an quick analysis). First thing I did was uninstalled and reinstalled the graphics driver and the game. NFG. Ran the game in a window instead of full screen and this was OK for a bit but then crapped out again.

So, being a bright spark, I figure something's wrong (apart from the fact the PC is 4 yrs old = 9 million years in PC terms). First thing I suspect is cooking components.

I tentatively open the case and vacuum out the dust (it wasn't that bad Chewy, really). Take fan off and vacuum dust outa heat sink (wasn't bad but some fins were clogged just at the top). However, this does no good - temps still seem a bit high (Mainboard temp = 51C so SANDRA tells me) but CPU temp is OK (50C).

Now, by this time I'm blowing in lotsa air from a big 12" portable fan to cool things down and can get main board temp to mid 30s and CPU to mid 40s - even did a 6 hour encode successfully (CPU temp went high during the encode but only to low 60s). So, I start to play the game again, and it works well for about 5 minutes and then the b*tch rebooted, even at these low temps.

Any ideas what's up? And are these temps too high? Perhaps I have not cleaned the fins thoroughly enough (I didn't take the heat sink itself off) but the fact that it still reboots when the temps are low means something else is wrong, yes?

Time for a new MoBO/Memory/Graphics card I think.

Oh yeah - no viruses, spyware, trojans etc. Only recent progs installed were M$ Windows Defender and Trojan Hunter. Memtest shows A-OK and Passmark's disk checkup is OK on both disks (though it gave me heart failure when it couldn't find a boot disk a couple of times after the "vacuum phase"). Device manager shows all clear.

Regards

[anonymez]

sorry to hear that blu, but you've definitely done a lot of the diagnostic work already :^)

since the temps/memory don't seem to be causing this, and graphics card problem is unlikely (unless you see any corruption, lines, flickering, coloured spots) first thing that comes to mind is the PSU.

give full specs please :^)

[techreactor]

Yeah true, can you do a BIOS reset to the defaults, just to rule out tweaks causing this.

[blutach]

Specs attached - I don't think it's the PSU cos the voltages look OK.

Thanks for the help.

Regards

[Chewy]

Board Temperature : 51.0°C / 123.8°F
CPU Temperature : 50.0°C / 122.0°F

northbridge chipset is cooking(agp)

[drfsupercenter]

Wow! That is friggin hot! What is the normal temp supposed to be btw? I never measred mine, but I am thinking of it, just outta curiousity

[Chewy]

does this feel hot?




btw I think this one will work, time to upgrade


IMPORTANT EDIT!
dust bunny's can wedge under heat sinks

if this is the problem you can reseat that sink, but you have to get to the back of the mobo

[UncasMS]

temperatures can be the cause very often but in your case (6hrs of successful encoding) it is highly unlikely; moreover an xp ~2000 gets very hot

[you could check the thermal grease on your cpu, however, and put some new onto the die as grease tends to harden after years/months of usage]


concerning your reboots: re-install via's hyperion and see if it makes a difference

++++++++++

@ drf

there is no such thing as *normal temperatures*
my athlon 2000+ (palomino core) was getting just as hot and that was normal for this kind of cpu whereas an athlon64 works way cooler

same goes for the northbridge

one cannot say: 50°C is too hot

[anonymez]

athlon 17000 can go to 85-90c

[Chewy]

I only have one of those 266 northbridge chipsets left(a friend) the other 3 o4 have already cooked. It's at the shop I will check temps in bios later.

[blutach]

I wonder if the fan ain't spinning fast enough. I have taken the 12" fan away and within 90 seconds we are back from 34C to 50C. Fan goes back and again, MoBo temp dgoes down in a hurry.

At 51C, the yellow thing feels warm, but not all that hot. I think the CPU chip is OK.

Will reinstall the hyperions - is an update worthwhile?

Worthwhile taking the mother to a store and getting a pro to check the fan and dust? Strange thing is the reboot playing the game, even at low temps (with the 12"er running).

Regards

[Chewy]

the yellow thing is the passive cooler for the northbridge chipset, like I said we have burned up a few, video will completely die, some had little crappy fans. The game stresses the northbridge as all the agp is handled thru there,
the video encoding shouldn't stress the agp just the cpu?

Unless the cpu is running real cool, then I expect the system temp to be well below the cpu's

[blutach]

Unless the cpu is running real cool, then I expect the system temp to be well below the cpu's

That has been my experience with this PC, too Chewy.

And yes, the encoding did nothing wrt the video as I had "preview" off (was too scared to turn it on )

The game stresses the northbridge as all the agp is handled thru there

But why did it crap out when the 12"'er had the temp under control?

Regards

[UncasMS]

i'm running a 266 in one of my machines on an msi board (k7t266 pro2)

these days the chipset is ~37°C but i use an old duron 700 in this machine (it is running 24/7) and 4 additional fans + i'm far from summer temperatures here atm

so imagine an athlon xp 2000+ instead of the cooler duron 700 not 1 inch away and higher environmental temps and a vga, that produces additonal heat (mine is out of the question: an old pci card exchanged for the former agp card as i hardly need a vga in that machine - remote controlled)

+++++

i'd renew the chipset driver (via) + maybe directx + sound drivers

[Chewy]

the thermal paste under the yellow thing has broken down(or dust has lodged there) any pets? the chipset is already well on it's way to the grave?
Damage is done?

but Uncasms has a valid point, renew those drivers, Blu you haven't done a clean install in a long time?

run a directx test of video!

make sure you have all your backups in order, I'll call the chaplin and have him ready