Topic: Comp shutdown from overheating

[NJAntman]

Been about a year since last major problem, so it is about time for the latest nag. Computer has been shutting itself down at decreasing intervals over the last week, got to the point where I couldn't even load WinXP completely before it would power off itself.

No apparent software problems, wished it was as easy as a power saving scheme setting being responsible. Opened it up for a look see, blew  some dust, then spot that the Video Card fan is no longer moving, I take it that is the culprit.

The question:  Is the video card overheating and causing a system shutdown or is the video card heating up the CPU which is no more than a few inches above it and causing the CPU to shutdown?

After the look see and clean up the BIOS System Health section shows the starting System/CPU temps as 25C/38C, getting up to 34C/46C in 15 minutes but holding steady after that. The current alarm setting for the CPU temp is 60C. Th comps been on now for over 70 minutes as I write this, no appearant problem.

Does anyone know of a way to jump from P into the system BIOS and back so I keep checking the temperature. Or perhaps some program to access the Gigabyte board temperature monitoring from within XP?

System specs:
Socket AM2 AMD Athlon™64 X2 3600+ Dual-Core
1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory
GigaByte GA-M55SLI-S4 nForce4 SLI Chipset DDR2/800 SATA 16x PCI-Express MBoard
CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Tower; Apevia 680W BEAST POWER ATX Power Supply; AMD ATHLON64 CPU Fan & Heatsink + 3 case fans (top & front inhale, back exhale)
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 512MB PCI Express x16
250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
16X DVD-RW; 16X DVD ROM
12 in 1 Flash Media Reader/Writer
LeadTek WinFast 2000 XP Deluxe Capture Card
WinXP Home SP2
   Operating System: XP SP2

P.S.
Just found the NVidia software that installed with the card, has a temperature settings section. GPU is holding steady at 90C with a "Core Slowdown Threshhold" of 125C. Good/Bad?

[Midnight Tech]

You may want to try Speedfan - it supports Gigabyte mobo's but your model is not listed.

[Kreeargh]

Been about a year since last major problem, so it is about time for the latest nag. Computer has been shutting itself down at decreasing intervals over the last week, got to the point where I couldn't even load WinXP completely before it would power off itself.

No apparent software problems, wished it was as easy as a power saving scheme setting being responsible. Opened it up for a look see, blew  some dust, then spot that the Video Card fan is no longer moving, I take it that is the culprit.

The question:  Is the video card overheating and causing a system shutdown or is the video card heating up the CPU which is no more than a few inches above it and causing the CPU to shutdown?

After the look see and clean up the BIOS System Health section shows the starting System/CPU temps as 25C/38C, getting up to 34C/46C in 15 minutes but holding steady after that. The current alarm setting for the CPU temp is 60C. Th comps been on now for over 70 minutes as I write this, no appearant problem.





System specs:
Socket AM2 AMD Athlon™64 X2 3600+ Dual-Core
1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory
GigaByte GA-M55SLI-S4 nForce4 SLI Chipset DDR2/800 SATA 16x PCI-Express MBoard
CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Tower; Apevia 680W BEAST POWER ATX Power Supply; AMD ATHLON64 CPU Fan & Heatsink + 3 case fans (top & front inhale, back exhale)
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 512MB PCI Express x16
250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
16X DVD-RW; 16X DVD ROM
12 in 1 Flash Media Reader/Writer
LeadTek WinFast 2000 XP Deluxe Capture Card
WinXP Home SP2
   Operating System: XP SP2

P.S.
Just found the NVidia software that installed with the card, has a temperature settings section. GPU is holding steady at 90C with a "Core Slowdown Threshhold" of 125C. Good/Bad?


Does anyone know of a way to jump from P into the system BIOS and back so I keep checking the temperature. Or perhaps some program to access the Gigabyte board temperature monitoring from within XP?

I had that shutdown problem when i was using xp service pack 1 but service pack 2 i haven't had those issues lately. What version are you using?  My gpu runs average 45c and i got a quad core 2.2 gig so heat might be an issue but total shut down sounds like a software problem  check for Trojans that might be a possability there also. My first shut down problems were caused by Trojans

[FCM_SFHQ_XC]

90^oC for a 7600 is a bit too hot... I dunno if that is quite enough to cause a system overheat, but 90^o is not helping either.

Computer has been shutting itself down at decreasing intervals over the last week, got to the point where I couldn't even load WinXP completely before it would power off itself.

If you mean this as your immediatly turn the computer back on after it shuts down on you then it is possible it is a overheat, HOWEVER if you mean this as you are like waiting 60, 80, 100 mins after the first shutdown and it still shutdown again after a couple of seconds, and the card is cool again, then it isn't a overheat problem.
It can be as well, Virus's or hardware starting to fail.

[NJAntman]

Thanks for the replies. The interval between shutdowns and restarts was about 5 minutes at its worst. Running XP SP2 with all the regularly scheduled updates (automatic).

Its now morning, was going to check it all night but only made it to about 2am; its now 10:25am and its still up and going.

I hate it when computer problems aren't straight forward; the nature of the beast. The GPU temp is now showing 79C. Cooler after 10 hours, WTF! Although I do detect a faint ozone odor from the computer.

Going to powerdown and check the temp in BIOS.

[Wraith 413]

  Unfortunately, Computer shutdowns could be from any number of causes. If you have a fan/heatsink on your Northbridge, check to see it's it is turning. Regardless, you might want to check for dust build-up on you CPU heatsink/fan and the video card also. Same goes for your power supply. Blow/vacuum for any dust build-up. Just have your computer turned off and unplugged before you start poking around inside the case.

 Here's a link to Hardware Monitor. It will give you temps and fan speeds for your motherboard and video card. I use it myself and it works very well. http://downloads.guru3d.com/HWMonitor-1.07-download-1845.html

[NJAntman]

OK, powered down and temps were 32C/44C after less than a minute.

Thank you Wraith, that is the kind of program I needed. Appears to work with this mobo. Quick question: is it normal for the program to be accessing the HD about every six seconds?

[Dracho]

Install a blowhole fan.  Also, make sure the plastic CPU vent funnel is extended (most can telescope) almost to the processor so that it blows as much heat out as possible.

You can do a serious fan upgrade for less than $50.  Look for something on Newegg that moves at least 80 cfm.

You might also check your heat shutdown thresholds in your bios.  It could be that you're shutting down when your system gets "hot", but not "too hot".

I'm running an AMD quad-core with an ATI 3870 X2 graphics card (2 cards) and I have no heat issues what-so-ever.  I have an 120mm 80 CFM fan in the front of the case, one in the rear, and one on the blowhole.

Also, check the direction of the fans you have.  Lots of people install them incorrectly.  Only the fan in the front of the case should pull air into the case (through the filters).  The rear fan, CPU fan, and blowhole fan should expel air out of the case.  Make sure your fans are working together.

[Nemesis]

I gave a friend a computer a few years ago (Win 98SE) and he returned it after about a year and a half acting like this and saying it was over heating.  After checking for over heating (it wasn't he was reading ^oF as ^oC) and seeing the crashes I booted into safe mode and defraged it.  It was rock solid stable after that.  It did take 4 hours to defrag a 2gb C: drive in safe mode though which shows how badly it needed a defrag.  I periodically E-Mail him to see if he has done a defrag recently.  (Which reminds me I'm over due to remind him ).

I'm not saying that is the issue here but it is something that can be checked relatively easily and a through defrag never hurts.

Unclean power is also a likely culprit.  Are you on a good UPS (with brownout protection)?