Suspected processor overheating

[Sashanan]

It's been steaming hot the last few weeks and I'm noticing a sharp increase in spontaneous reboots and fatal exceptions on my Windows 98 machine. Was like this last summer too.

Somebody suggested to me that my processor may be overheating and that I should check this, and add more cooling if it's the problem. He also said that there'd be software available for this but I'd need to find out my motherboard type first. Or processor. Or something. You know the kind of people who gets all the terms confused and I'm a layman when it comes to hardware, so...

So I could use some advice here. Is it likely that this is the cause of something overheating and what steps should I take/software should I download to work on this problem?


"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)

 

[paparazi]

The easiest and most effective way to diagnose for overheating is to remove one side of your case (left side panel) and position a desktop fan directly into the tower. This is not a fix but obviously, if the problems disappear you have indded got a problem.
The usual remedy would be a good dust out! , check all fans and heatsinks for heavey dust build and free spinning of fans.
If you havn't allready fitted them? fit extra case fans (usually 80mm type) nearly all cases have at least two proper points for case fan fitment.
Lastly, considering the very low cost of a replacement heatsink/fan unit , upgrading to a larger and more effective unit maybe very worthwhile.
Heatsink/fan units just a couple of years ago were half the size they are now, even a cheap generic unit is likely to be far more effective than the one you have now so for $5-$10 your problem could be solved.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[relaksuah]

[tt]Hi Sashanan, why not make sure your heatsink+fan are placed properly on the CPU and that you've used thermal grease/paste in between the heatsink and the CPU while you're at it.
Of course, try out what Martin had stated above before you do anything else. A little cleaning can do wonders to PCs in which the internals have not been tended to for a year or more ;-) Best tool I got myself for this was a can of pressurised air......

 

[Sashanan]

Thanks for the input, folks! A little cleaning won't hurt at all I suppose, the system's well over 3 years old now and beyond a little emergency dusting whenever I have the case open for one reason or another, I haven't done any real cleaning. Won't hurt to do so, and if fans are really that cheap, it shouldn't hurt to just add one. Anything to keep the fatal exceptions from ruining my evening.

"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)

 

[Sashanan]

Ouch, sounds painful. No symptoms like that fortunately, just the old familar blue screen errors, in greater quantities than usual. And, occasionally, a spontaneous reboot, always fun too. Especially on Windows 98, where after such a reboot occurs Windows scolds *me* for shutting down the computer incorrectly.


"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)