Just a quick question about heat inside the case

[MobyMedic]

Is there any reason to turn off the warnings from the BIOS? I had a friend who took in her computer about 6 months ago to get it fixed at a small shop in town. He told her the power supply had died and as a result the mother board and all the components got too hot and died.

I was asked by her to look at her computer when it started to have a few too many BSOD. Turns out it was the RAM. I noticed it was a bit hot when I pulled it out an went to reseat it.

I don't know why but I took a look at the BIOS and noticed the CPU temp was about 127 F. Below that was the alarms and they were all turned off. The minute I turned them on it was a constant stream of high low beeps.

Unfortunately I don't have a temp probe to see if it is the actually the real temp. But out side of maybe a sensor that is not working right is there any reason to turn off the warnings?

The ram is bad I'm assuming from the heat. And hard drive diagnostic for the maxtor drive she has came back with warnings it has been overheated.

 

[NYJimbo]

If they are set high enough then they should not be turned off. However I install alot of desktop motherboards and many of the alarms/warnings are off by default.

 

[vdub12]

Is there a lot of dust in the case?

Are all the fans working?

Is the air flow proper for the case? (Meaning intake in the front exhaust in the back)

Make sure theres no dust or anything in the heat sink. Also verify the CPU fan RPM is correct.

You can try removing the CPU cooler and check that the thermal paste is applied and not over done. To much thermal paste can act as a blanket and keep heat in if applied improperly.

What kind of CPU is it?

Right now I am on a computer with an Athlon 2800+ and its running steady at 44c/112f. 127f is hot but that is only 52c and most processors don't melt down until over 90c or 194f. If its running steady at 127f/52c then it may just be due to a restrictive case and stock cooler. The system I am on is in a mid size aluminum case with lots of air flow and a Thermaltake Volcano 9 with a Ducting Mod adapter pictured below.

What I would do is upgrade the cooler and check that all the available case fan positions are in use and working.

 

[NYJimbo]

Another important thing to remember about heat is that its not just the CPU, but also venting the case. I mean the heat has to go somewhere. Every now and then we get one of our servers where the PSU fan died or slowed to a crawl and the extra case fan is clogged and the box itself is hot.

So the CPU fan has to extract heat as quickly as possible into the case "chamber" and then the case fan and/or PSU fan has to vent that heat.

I am betting that the PSU that died had either no venting ability at all or was too slow to reduce overall ambient temperature.

 

[MobyMedic]

I honestly don't know off the top of my head what the cpu is. I know its not top of the line. Its a 1.80 mhz single core intel I think. The case was kept clean. I've replaced a power supply where the dust was so thick every thing was grey. So I'm pretty sure it wasn't the dust.

I also found it peculiar that there was no case fan. There is an area on the side of the case for one. The cpu fan is working fine as well as the psu fan. I just figured with a low end processor and that all she does is some internet surfing nothing to intensive the temp shouldn't be too high.

I'm going to put a fan on the case and will try and put some new compound on the cpu and heat sink. Any tips on how to apply it? And what would you recommend brand wise?

Thanks for all your help. This has been the best resource I've found.

 

[vdub12]

I'm going to put a fan on the case and will try and put some new compound on the cpu and heat sink. Any tips on how to apply it? And what would you recommend brand wise?

I use Arctic Silver. If you are putting it on a processor with an exposed die then you should only use the equivalent of about half a grain of rice. If the die has a heat shield over it then use about the equivalent of a full grain of rice.

Basically you want enough compound to cover the mating surface of the processor and the heat sink without it squeezing out the side.

Here is an example of the right amount.

Here is an example of to much

 

[NYJimbo]

......and will try and put some new compound on the cpu and heat sink. Any tips on how to apply it? And what would you recommend brand wise?
.

You have never replaced or installed a CPU or heat sink before ?.

 

[MobyMedic]

You have never replaced or installed a CPU or heat sink before ?.

No I honestly haven't. I'm not a computer tech by trade. I'm actually a paramedic. I mostly have worked with software you know cleaning up malware and viruses. As well as doing installs and home networks. I can't say I've done too much with hardware.

She decided that a 7 year old computer wasn't worth dumping any more money into so she just gave it to me. So I figured I'd try my hand at doing some hardware repair. I figure you can't break whats already broke.

So any advice would be very much welcomed. Like I've said before I've learned quite a bit by just doing some reading on this site and asking questions. So thanks for all the help.

 

[Vicenarian]

You can also tweak fan speeds using the freeware program Speedfan.