PCA Forums

They were bound to come, and now they have. After messing around for over a month, I finally installed the rest of my fans and new heat sink/CPU fan. However, after this got done, my computer has started to experience random rebooting. A friend has tried to run games such as BF1942 and DOD, but it either gives an error or everything shuts down. I have a few ideas of what the problem could be, but I am just not sure. Here are my some of the symptoms:

1) Blue screen of death, appeared after trying to load DOD i believe.
2) The rebooting (duh..)
3) Not being allowed to do a virus scan on my C drive (drive which contains Windows and all other system stuff)
4) Temps that seem to be higher than normal (not terrible, but higher than i think they should be)

My main problem is I think there can be multiple problems all happening at the same time. If anyone can give some advice on what they think my first step should be, it would be greatly appreciated. I was thinking to format the system drive and reinstall Win2K, but I'd like to avoid it if I could.

On a side note, does anyone know where I can find some documents on an Enermax Whisper fan? It what I have cooling my CPU and it has a heat sensor, but I an clueless as to what to do with it. Thanks in advance for the help.

can you be more specific that "higher temps than normal". Anything around 60 degrees Celcius I would proabably worry about. I think my CPU is running around 45 degrees, and anything above 50 I would consider to be getting a little too hot.

1)did you make sure rub thermal grease over the core???
2)is there any way to bump up the RPM's on your CPU fan?

Only thing that would make sense is that your CPU is overheating, thus, you're getting really f*cked up errors. You could go into the event log Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Log and see if maybe that gives you some sort of clue. MY guess would be that because you have an Enermax Whisper fan, it's quiet because it runs at a low RPM (just an educated guess), so if everything is good, with the grease and stuff, then I'd think about running a different fan.

The fan that came with my CPU ran my CPU way too hot, around 60 degrees, so I bought a new one, and even in my blazing hot room, it can stay cool at 45...but I have to give up the thought of a quiet fan because my CPU needs the extra RPM's of my fan. Forget what range I have to set my fan at (it's adjustable) to get a decent CPU temp, but I'll check later today.

Sorry for the long post, hope this helps, though. If you didn't put on any thermal grease, that could be a pretty bad problem.

Keep in mind that the temps reported by most mobos are utter nonsense - best used only for reference.

How much hotter is it running now than before?

Since you changed your HSF, my first suspicion would be that it's not properly seated. If you didn't pull the mobo out of the case when you swapped HSFs, it's pretty easy to put it on crooked.

You also mentioned you added some new fans - try unplugging them. Maybe you're drawing down the 12 volt bus on your PSU.

The REALLY spooky possibility is that you damaged the mobo or some surface mount parts near the CPU when you installed the HSF - easy to do with some mobo designs.

I'd pull the mobo out of the case, set it up on the bench to run outside the case. Check the HSF - make sure you have even coverage of the CPU with heat sink compound and that the HSF is mounted properly.

Make sure your ram is fully seated.

If you have another PSU, try swapping it out.

If you're overclocking, DON'T until you resolve the problem. It only complicates things.

Hope this helps...

Well, according to BIOS, it is a little above 60 C. Is there some other monitoring program I can use to figure out temps?? It seems that my system has become hotter after the new heat sink and fan were installed. To answer your questions Nathan: 1) Yes I did apply grease on the core. 2) Yes the fan is adjustable speed, but I having no f*cking clue how to change it. I saw somewhere once upon a time a website that told what to do, but I have long forgotten it...

FP: No OCing here, so thats okay. I actually did take EVERYTHING out when seating the heat sink, so I don't believe it would be crooked. It is probably running about 5C hotter, but I'd think with all the fans it should be cooling down. I'll unplug the fans and see if that helps some. Also, is there a way to monitor how much power is being drawn from the PSU without getting the equipment?

Thanks for the help guys. I'm thinking I will take this bad boy apart again and slowly build it back up. Thanks god for having just fixed my parents computer, so I'll be back on the board to update the situation.

Your best bet is to put it back the way it was when it was working, and then take it one step at a time.

There's really no reliable was to measure the CPU temp except with an industrial temp probe. Using a different monitor program makes no difference - you're still at the mercy of the placement of the temp sensor, and variations in electronic circuits.

As I said before, just use the temp monitor as a reference. If it's gone up 5 degrees from it's previous temp then you can be sure it actually has gone up 5 degrees - there's just no way to be sure what the ACTUAL temp really is. Mobo temp monitors can vary A LOT.

The extra fans may actually be hurting. I've often seen people mistakenly add a lot of extra fans only to find that it actually INCREASES temps. Too many fans, or fans placed incorrectly, can distrupt the normal air flow through the case. There really should only be one or two intake fans on the front, one or two exhaust fans on the PSU, and (maybe) an exhaust fan on the back of the case if there's a vent for it. You don't need anything else.