An overheating or border line overheating machine can result in lock ups, slow downs, and unexpected reboots. To find out if your CPU is too hot you'll need the "hardware monitor" that comes with your motherboard. There are also plenty of third party programs which you can run.
The next question is "how hot is too hot?". Intel CPUs display one of two numbers... an absolute temperature ~or~ a thermal margin. The first is self explanatory but the second can seem confusing. The Margin indicates how many degrees remain before the CPU is critically hot. So the bigger the margin the safer you are.
Remember that modern computers conserve energy when idling, so run you most intensive application for 30-60 minutes and keep and eye on your temperatures. Conventional wisdom indicates you want your mobo and CPU less than 60°C (140F). Any higher and damage to one or the other may result. Intel has specific details on each CPU including its thermal maximum on this page, click here. Most modern CPUs give you a thermal margin which removes the guess work.
Tip... if your hard drives are too hot to keep your hand on for any period of time then you have excessive heat build up. Ensure hard drives have one drive bay gap between it and anything above it. Or use a case with hard drive cooling fans (see below).
If your board and/or CPU are running too hot you should consider a well ventilated case. I am now using the Antec 900 (click here) which has four over sized fans plus the fan in your PSU making five total. The 120mm BIG BOY (their words not mine) is placed directly above the CPU keeping it super cool.Hopefully these tips will help those users experiencing weird hang ups and crashes.
Tip... if your temperature is good but file access is slow and you get lots of blue screens then there may be a chance your hard drive is about to fail. Make sure to run a check disc or similar application. And always make frequent backups!
5 comments:
Posted by Robert Barnett - 8:39am Sep 26, 08 PST 4:44 AM
This is why when I build systems I look for top quality cases that can handle a large number of fans. With a quad core processor, high end motherboard and two PCI-Express video cards and 8 hard drives you need good cooling. My current case has 12 fans not counting the two in the power supply. You also need to make sure you have a large enough power supply to more than handle what you run from it.
Too many people cheap out on cases. Or, I should say too many computer makers cheap out on cases. Also, make sure your fans use ballbearings and not plastic barrings. The higher quality metal ball berrings will make a loud noise before the fan goes out. The plastic ones more often than not won't. You need to know when a fan is going bad so you can replace it. Also, make sure and keep them clean and keep the power supply fans clean. Dust build up can cause a decrease in air flow and can build up on the components in the case and cause heat build up. I have a small air compressor and once a month the case is opened and I blow everything out.
Robert Barnett
One of my user's has a Dell Latitude notebook and it keeps overheating and locking up. I've blown out the fans with compressed air, run system diagnostics, and run Hot CPU Tester Pro and have not been able to pinpoint the problem. I have the user backing up all of his data to an external HD so I'm not terribly concerned. Though, he's our payroll manager--hence, if he doesn't have a functioning computer, we don't get paid! :)
I know this isn't a helpdesk, but I read your post and thought maybe you'd offer some help. Thanks in advance.
Micah
IT Manager
Simple, a new laptop. The cost of a laptop is cheap compared to lost human productivity.
BUT, you may find the fan or temperature sensor has failed causing over heating. There are also issues of silicon degradation leading to failure.
If its a desktop then you have some room to increase cooling. However its only worthwhile if the PC is on the margins of too hot. If its systemically too hot then cooling just covers up an existing problem. Intel has produced cooler chips of late. My new one is far cooler than my old one even when accounting for the new case.
Right, I have him on another system for now, but with a spending freeze at my small organization I'd like to try to repair rather than replace. Thanks for your input though.
I've found that 90% of the time overheating is caused by dust. The best way to remedy this is to clean out the computer case to prevent over heating.
Post a Comment