I need some advice

[biggiegc]

Hello guys, im a new member here, and only ask for a little advice from some of you experts?

My system spec:

Lanparty 925x-t2 motherboard
Hiper PSU (580W)
Sapphire Raddeon X800 GTO (squared)
A-Top Xblade case, P4, 3.2 Gig, with Zalman 9500 CPU fan,
3 case fans, side, front and back.

I recently had a v basic case with one case fan at the back, and whilst playing games, the system would on most occassions just reset mid-game play, (playing LotR - Battle for Middle Earth). It turns out I think the airflow was quite rubbish in my last case, so I brought a new case, now my Smartguadian monitors PWM temp at 37-38 degrees celcius, CPU temp at around 27-30 degrees celcius, and system temperature around 27-30 degrees too?
I know when playing games these temps go up slightly but nt too much, but I want to know are these temperatures sufficient? Will my computer reset again after all my efforts?

And secondly what else could cause my system to randomly reset itself during gameplay? I went to EA Games, best advice was to update my drivers..which I am 100% sure is done. What else could be wrong?

Thx for any help you guys can provide!

 

[bruins004]

Hey and welcome,
I must say I have only been a member for about 6 months and I have learned a lot here.
So I hope you are able to share your knowledge as well eventually.
Anyways, I had the same problem with an old computer I used to have.
There are a slew of problems that could cause this to happen, but if it isnt resetting anymore than you found the problem.
Most companies, like Dell, HP, etc., have small cases that only have 1 fan that carries the air out of the case. There is no intake. So after a while dust builds up and there is virtually no air flow in the case. This was prob. the problem that was occuring with yours. Due to this the CPU would overheat. Once the CPU hits a certain temp. it will just shut down so it doesnt get ruined.
Other possible problems could be that you didnt have enough power in your power supply or the Hard drive is corrupt and just shuts down after a while, but in your case it doesnt seem like this is your problem.
So good job in getting a new case and good luck

 

[biggiegc]

Hey there, thanks for your post, it has helped me to be honest!

I have now received and installed my A Top X Blade case, a very nice modded case if you ask me, probably one of the nicest gaming cases I have seen around for a while! Took me a little while to set up a few of the front features, the USB's, firewire and audio jacks took a little effort! But the LED display temperature monitor is what stumped me, got there in the end though, the wonderful thing about the X Blade is you have temperature sensors that you can place near your CPU, VGA and HDD and CPU Fan to monitor all these, an excellent feature. I have 3 ultra silent fans running in the case, as well as that Zalman 9500, (bloomin big fan with an even bigger bloomin heatsink around it!!)

1. So I think temperature issues have definately been solved now, you wer right before in saying that the simple cases indeed only had one fan slot, and hopefully I am round that issue now. I have just one question with temperature issues, is there anything aside from not enough air cooling that could cause a rise in CPU temps??

2. You also mentioned something to do with a "slew of other problems" that could cause a reset, could you give me some examples?

3. You said another possible problem was not enough power from the PSU, again that was an possibility I had considered with my old standard 400 W PSU, it seemed to get very hot after a while, hence I thought it best to provide a better PSU (the Hiper R Series being my new candidate, which handles everything I throw at it like a champ!) and I think that issue has been solved now as well, this PSU actually has an intake from underneath, sucking all hot air from the CPU and system board as well, another fab feature IMO!

4. Last question I have, is regarding CPU Fan, thermal paste, the one I got with the Zalman 9500 series, I applied it as normal, but between moving motherboards to my new case I had to remove it, to avoid damaging the CPU fan and any components on the motherboard, with a bit of effort the unit came away from the board (the paste stuck quite well iniatally), but I wanted to know, as I put the fan back onto the plate I wondered that because I took the fan off a good couple of times (away from the motherboard and hence away from the paste), I wondered if this would affect the CPU temp in any way, and if the paste would remain effective?? Basically I wanna know that having removed the CPU fan, and then putting it back, would the paste still be as effective...and would this at all affect the CPU temperature in a negative way

So point 3 is generally okay, but point 1, 2 and 4 if anyone can help it would be a big help!

Thanks again!

 

[bruins004]

Lol I just wrote this huge thing and it didnt post.
Uggg so I am going to shorten it up a bit.

1. Air flow can diminish due to failed fans (including the dust), Case sux, or wire management is bad. With wire management, just put the unused PSU wires behind the motherboard on the side of the case without the window. Also, I generally put some wires that are used into unused Hard Drive bays.

2. Pretty much anything can cause the problem. Motherboard failure, fan failure, Hard drive corruption, bad RAM, etc., etc.

4. I have never needed to remove the fan, but everyone that does it says that they take off the paste from the fan and CPU and then reapply. If you dont have any its only $10.

Could you post you system spec.
Thanks

 

[Thermopylae_480]

My P4 3.0GHz idles at about 29-30~C. I would say that your temps are definetly going to be in an exceptable range underload as long as there is no other problems. Your cooling certainly seems adequate to the task. Significant temperature changes can occur with different configurations of even the same fans. For example, I have one fan on the side of my case. If I remove the side of my case airflow actually diminishes even if I keep the fan aimed into my case and all my system temps increase by 5 or more degrees. If you have any ventilation grids in your case it is best to the inside of your case at a lower pressure than the surrounding area. This causes cool air to flow into the case at any available point. You can accomplish this by always having more exhaust fans than intake fans. I currently only have one intake fan located over my CPU. This causes Cool air to be directly blown onto my CPU, while the rest of my fans are exhaust, taking advantage of a grid located directly over my PCI slots. This causes a significant amount of airflow to enter at this point and aid in the cooling of my video card.

 

[trog100]

random resets are a sign of general system instability.. mostly caused by tweaking or overclocking some component or other..

it seems u have general system instability without any tweaks.. which means something is faulty.. which means something isnt stable even at its out of the box settings..

it could be your memory..

it could be your cpu..

it could be your power supply..

it could be your motherboard..

it could be software.. if only one program causes it suspect the program..

finding out which component is the problem isnt easy..

swopping out components is one way..

slowing down individual components one at a time is another way..

u can slow down your memory to below stock speeds..

u can slow down your cpu to blelow stock speeds..

i dont think heat is your problem..

for example i (my own stupidity) fried my last amd barton 3200 chip.. it wouldnt make windows just crashed on the way after the overheat.. at first glance it was knackered.. but simply by slowing it down to 1800 from its default 2200 it worked perfectly.. the point being that if something isnt stable at one speed it will be (mostly) at a slower speed..

trog

 

[biggiegc]

Cool guys great thumbs up on the help, my last question is about number 4? Would paste have anything to do with temp changes on the CPU?

 

[trog100]

it could do.. the only way to make sure is to take it off and make sure there is at least a thin smear where there needs to be.. it probably has nothing to do with your problems but no one can say that for sure..

trog