OverHeating????

[Guest]

Hi All, It has been suggested that my recent lock ups might be due to overheating. Can anyone give me advice on how to find out if this is the problem. If so where is the best place to get a new fan from for the UK Cheers Daren Windows xp Anthlon 1800xp 512 Ram 40gb hdd Geoforce 2 TI VX Onboard sound

[barryward12345 0]

Pretty simple -- take the case or side cover off your machine -- get a big deskfan and have it blow into the machine while running FS2002 and see if you get lockups -- I had an overheating problem with my ASUS Geforce2 MX video card which was causing lockups -- it has a heatsink but no "on-card" fan -- but the heatsink faces down so any heat that it was dissipating was rising back onto the card .. Force fanning like I suggested soon revealed that I had a heat problem -- so I bought a small PCI exhaust fan to suck the hot air off the card and expel it , plus I also installed a case intake fan at the front of the case -- now , here in sticky Brisbane Australia, where the temp in my computer room can be around 34C , I have no problem.Barry

[Guest Eagle92395]

Barry hit it exactly. Just follow his directions and you'll definitely know if it's the heat affecting you.

[Guest SIX]

Barry has the answer for diagnosis, however IF you still have problems with your computer locking up, the very first thing I look at is the RAM!!!!!!Let me say that again. If a computer is locking up the very first thing I look at is RAM!!!! Did I say that clearly enough LOL ;)FS2k2 is the most RAM picky program on the planet. I have been a system builder for 12 years and barring anything else, FS is the most RAM picky.I have taken machines from customers who were having lock up problems and installed FS2k2 on the machine just to check it out and walla, during installation it will rear it's ugly head. You don't even have to fly a plane to check it!If your still having problems after you try the fan trick, let us know.-----------Wilson HinesHEAVY LHC EditorAOL IM: dal276whBush Flying Unlimited: SIXUVI014 "Heavy"http://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gif

[Guest KD Larsen]

I can only agreeMy PC is filled with hardware, so at the moment I have 4 fans in the case, with 2 pulling in air, and 2 blowing it out in the back. I'll be adding 4 additional, once I get around start overclocking (might go for watercooling of the CPU then).

[Guest emergency_pants]

Better check the RAM then! ;)Simon.

[Guest abent]

I concurr. Do exactly that. I also have the side off my box and a fan blowing inside. Works great - no more lockups. I spent a long time figuring that one out. :( Adam

[Sarge27 0]

A "Cheap Fix"....if your machine has been around for awhile, take the heatsink off of the CPU and blow the dust out of it. Then clean the heatsink surface and the CPU surface. Then apply some fresh thermal grease and reassemble.http://cs-people.bu.edu/pgeddes/flightsim/signature2.jpg

[rhumbaflappy 113]

If you updated your computer's hardware, did you remember to update the power supply?

[Guest SIX]

Good one Flappy, check that out! If your running an Athlon I never install one in anything less than 300watts. AMD says 250 is ok, but that is not for systems with extra preriphials like burners and a ton of PCI cards, usually like us ;)-----------Wilson HinesHEAVY LHC EditorAOL IM: dal276whBush Flying Unlimited: SIXUVI014 "Heavy"http://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gif

[Guest]

Guys Guys Guys!!!!Talk about support. Great!!!!!!!Right this is where i'm at!As you have already read i have a Geoforce 2 TI VX which of course has a built in fan unit. I have been to the PC store and picked up a fan for the case and installed that! Nice fresh breeze now accros the cards. i have also seperated the the Modem and usb card away from the video card to give it "Space to breath". I have run up the computer with the case off to see what the air movement is like. lets say it is better but nowwhere like a breeze! Any tips for sites which sell fans will be greatly recieved!Next - About the power source suggestion. Yep you guessed it. i have 250 Watts. Site suggestions for a 300 watt unit once again greatly recieved!well thats about it guys. Ohhh RAM!!!!!! Thanks for that tip!!! I have 512 installed. I have a friend who is gonna lend me some spare sticks to see if that makes any difference!This problem doesn't happen within moments of operation. Sometimes it takes hours to appear other times it only takes minutes! So trial and error is the answer!Can you give me feedback on this little lot please guysCheersDaren :-beerchug

[Guest]

Hi all !i understand Barry can get overheating in Australia :) But you can't overheat anything in the UK :))))regardsOleksiy.

[Vulcan 14]

>Hi all ! >>i understand Barry can get overheating in Australia :) But >you can't overheat anything in the UK :)))) >>>regards >>Oleksiy. Try taking the HSF off you CPU and say that :-lol j/k

[Vulcan 14]

Darren,As well as all the helpful suggestions here, if it sometimes takes hours and other times only minutes I suspect it is not heat related.However just to make sure you can down load Motherboard monitor (MBM) and check the temp of CPU and case, that will give you a good indication of temps and you can log them over a period of time.http://mbm.livewiredev.com/HTH

[Guest]

Read Tomshardware.com....there is an article on power supplies yesterday, that included a chart showing what current components draw. using his numbers for current, and customizing the quantity column for my machine, I calculated my nominal power budget to be 288watts. Finally confirmation of what my friends told me about power needs for my amd xp system.Use this yourself, and read the article. one thing made clear, if your powersupply was provided as part of a low cost system, preassembled, it is probably of low quality. This means that voltage stability is possibly in question, that under load the voltage may not rise to meet the specified levels, and that degradation over time of the starting stability is real.He also points out that if your powersupply is cheap, you can burn it or explode capacitors at worst case, even before you reach high load levels.One suprise to me was the extreme power needs of additional harddrives. In my box, I added 2 additional harddrives. This adds about 60watts to my power budget.Highly worth learning about for adding stability to a pc.Bob Bernstein