Athlon 1.2 Ghz instability

[QuietPlease]

Hi,

I have an Athlon T-Bird clocked at 1.2 Ghz. I have been using MBM 5 to keep track of my temp because when I start encoding a DVD or playing a 3D game, it will do OK for 15-20 minutes, and then will totally lock up (mouse pointer won't even move.) As it turns out, the temperature rise is pretty dramatic when doing those things. When the monitor gets up to about 50 C. the system goes under. Does this sound like a heat issue? Is there anything else it could be? I have been running my machine with the side panel off, and it still manages to lock up.

I already ordered a Zalman cooler for my PC, and it should be on the way (I want a quiet machine too!) but if that doesn't fix my problem, I don't know what to do.

-Benjamin

 

[relaksuah]

Zalman coolers look great! you ordered the fan shaped heatsink am I right? do inform how well it performs... and also whether you ordered the all-copper based, half alum half copper or all aluminium based heatsink. Thanks

 

[QuietPlease]

It is the 3100 model, which is all copper. It was only a few $ more than the hybrid Alum/Copper hybrid. I will post back once it is received to let everyone know what the performance is like. Hopefully it will be both cool and quiet.

-Benjamin

 

[edemiere]

I would not see this as a problem. I have a Thunderbird 1.1GHz overcocked to 1.212GHz and it runs at 54C full load and never has any issues.

You need to look elsewhere (i.e. other hardware in the system) for a potential problem.

Cheers!

 

[ceh4702]

Might be the chipset heating up also. Could add a Chipset Cooler.

Sound Cards can cause problems also when it comes to games. Hardware encoding may be an option to look at. If this system has been running for over 1 year, I would open it up and see if there is dust building up around the processor, or between the fan and the CPU Cooler. I have seen this after taking the Fan off of a CPU Cooler.

Speeze makes some nice oversized AMD Heatsinks called a Falcon Rock that use a 80mm Fan. They are pretty quiet.

For video encoding and playing games you may need better hardware. The motherboard, video card/Video Capture Card, and the Processor may need to be upgraded. If you had a video capture device with an encoding Chip that might take some stress off of the Processor.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[JasonYip]

That's not necessarily a heat issue. It could be, but may be not. I worked on a system that did something similar (lock-up times were random during 3D games). Turns out it was a faulty power supply. If you have an extra handy, swap out PS's.

Jason

 

[QuietPlease]

Alright... I will try some of the things above. I already have a new quiet Seasonic power supply on the way, so that is the obvious thing to try. I will also get the air can out and give it a cleaning.

I didn't think my system was hot enough to cause a lock -- however there did seem to be a corrolation between the high temperatures and lockups. I had read that because of innaccuracies/delays in the motherboard's thermal sensors, a CPU temp of 50C might actually be enough to make it unstable. I am a bit concerned because I had a CPU fan go a few months ago, and the only thing I could find on short notice was a cheaply built, expensive radio shack model. It had thermal tape on it, and I didn't know I needed to clean off the CPU before applying the new cooler so I just slapped it on -- and I have been having lockup problems ever since.

I just installed a Inno3D Tornado GeForceFX 5200 a few days ago and it has brought its own set up problems (frequent resyncing and garbage on the display), but they seem to have gone away with an updated bios, AGP bridge driver, and new Detonator release.