Lockup - Overheating Machine!

Park_Lane_Classics wrote on 10/6/2007, 4:18 AM

Hi All.

I have spent 2 weeks downloading, re-installing, defragging and spending hours on forums trying to stop my machine from locking up / freezing when using Vegas Movie... all in vain.

...until...

I took the case off my PC and stood a 12" desk fan blowing full blast onto my motherboard etc...

100% successful!

I can now render a full 4.7 Gig DVD from AVI to MPEG-2 (2 hours 45 minutes) with no problems... this compares to anything from 30 seconds to 45 minutes max before the fan.

Sooooo happy and suprised that I felt I just had to share it with everyone!

Cheers, Owen.

Comments

gpsmikey wrote on 10/6/2007, 8:38 AM

Sometimes it is the little victories that are so sweet !!

mikey

Kennymusicman wrote on 10/6/2007, 8:41 AM

lol.

For some reason I can just picture this as a case mod - a big fan cut into the side. :)

Now all you need to do is work out where the heat problem lies - CPU, northbridge on mobo etc..

4eyes wrote on 10/6/2007, 10:22 PM

Owen,
Make sure you have a big enough power supply for the Nvidia card.

Some don't notice this related to the cpu's heatsink but if you take a good look at the FINS on the heatsink directly under the fan for the heatsink it may be plugged solid with dust.
I've seen this quite frequently and have to disassemble everything, clean all the dust out and re-assemble. You do need high temperature heatsink compound to do this though.

Don't blow regular compressed air across the motherboard or electronic components. This causes static electricity to built up and can lead to MB failure. Use the approved air sprays in the cans designed for this, read the can's warnings, some are only approved for keyboards/mice only.

joecozz wrote on 10/8/2007, 11:10 AM

Owen:
I also had this problem. I ended up replacing my standard microcontroller heatsink with a upgraded version with heat pipes. It cost about $30 at compusa. I use that intel diagnostic tool to keep track of board temps and it indicates that I brought the controller temp down by ~40 degress C.

It seems to be working well after about 6 months.
Joe

MSmart wrote on 10/8/2007, 9:19 PM

I've also used the fan in front of case method to keep the CPU cool. I'd recommend getting SpeedFan to adjust CPU and Power Supply fan speeds as temps increase. I've used it for a few years and really like it.