We have these Dell workstations, the 420. They came as single cpu, but can be dualed. so we dualed many of them to do rendering recently because its cheap.
The problem is, it seems that the workstations with DUAL CPU have very high rate of video card dying. Also, some of the machine have random freezes. The single CPU ones has much lower rate of it going bad, by alot.
Also, some users said that the video in the screen would be messed up after a while. But if they shut it down and let it cool for a bit, it would be ok again.
I thought all these points to heat problem.
Dell's 420/410 cooling is set up this way. No fan on the CPU. They have a huge HS on their CPU (slot). Then they have a rear case fan with a wind tunnel from the fan to the cpu/HS. I put my hand on the fan, and it seem to be pretty weak.
I installed Sandra to look at the temperature. and its showing 67 degree Celcius!
I called Dell many times and complained about it. But they only would say "there have been no heat problems with these machines" and that the fans can cool the workstations fine, even after i told them the temperature and the symptoms. They just blame it on NT for the crashes. Then they blamed its Ghost images' fault.
I talked to my executive account manager and he set me up with a higher level support guy. He is much nicer than those level 1 people and dont just jump to conclusions right away. I told him the sympoms. He think its application/windows problem, because there is no error messages about heat in the event log.
He asked me to reboot to BIOS and leave it on after work and see if it would crash because of heat. He think if it crashes, it would be heat problem, not application/windows. I mentioned the 60s degree celcius problem, he said he is troubled by it, but want to do that test first.
I first thought it made sense, but the more i thought about it, i found it to be faulted. 1)when you just do bios, you are not doing much processing, which doesnt heat the cpu that much. that kinda made it pointless. 2) I've never heard of pc freeze/crash in bios mode. Is it even possible?
The user of the machine needed to do renderings for this whole week because of deadline, so he couldn't do this test yet. So during that time, i went online and ordered a CompuNurse to check the temperature. Since the HS is so big, i cant put the probe next to the core. so i just put it on the HS, and the temperature i got is 59 degree celcius. Thats with the case opened.
I then check the video card, but Dell's PSU is on the buttom which block me access to probe the graphic card's core. so i just put the probe on the top of the board, and it got 42 degree celcius.
What do you guys think about the temperature? Is that normal for a Dual? because for singles, normal temp should be 30-40s.
Also, do you think like me , that heat is the problem?
Lastly, do you think going into bios to see if it would freez/crash is a good test? like i said, is it even posssible to crash in bios because of heat?
thanks in advance.
oh yea, the spec of the 420.
they are P3 500 mhz to 1 ghz. duals. video card is usually tnt2 or firegl, few have GF 1. RAM are usually 256-512 mb rambus i belive.
The problem is, it seems that the workstations with DUAL CPU have very high rate of video card dying. Also, some of the machine have random freezes. The single CPU ones has much lower rate of it going bad, by alot.
Also, some users said that the video in the screen would be messed up after a while. But if they shut it down and let it cool for a bit, it would be ok again.
I thought all these points to heat problem.
Dell's 420/410 cooling is set up this way. No fan on the CPU. They have a huge HS on their CPU (slot). Then they have a rear case fan with a wind tunnel from the fan to the cpu/HS. I put my hand on the fan, and it seem to be pretty weak.
I installed Sandra to look at the temperature. and its showing 67 degree Celcius!
I called Dell many times and complained about it. But they only would say "there have been no heat problems with these machines" and that the fans can cool the workstations fine, even after i told them the temperature and the symptoms. They just blame it on NT for the crashes. Then they blamed its Ghost images' fault.
I talked to my executive account manager and he set me up with a higher level support guy. He is much nicer than those level 1 people and dont just jump to conclusions right away. I told him the sympoms. He think its application/windows problem, because there is no error messages about heat in the event log.
He asked me to reboot to BIOS and leave it on after work and see if it would crash because of heat. He think if it crashes, it would be heat problem, not application/windows. I mentioned the 60s degree celcius problem, he said he is troubled by it, but want to do that test first.
I first thought it made sense, but the more i thought about it, i found it to be faulted. 1)when you just do bios, you are not doing much processing, which doesnt heat the cpu that much. that kinda made it pointless. 2) I've never heard of pc freeze/crash in bios mode. Is it even possible?
The user of the machine needed to do renderings for this whole week because of deadline, so he couldn't do this test yet. So during that time, i went online and ordered a CompuNurse to check the temperature. Since the HS is so big, i cant put the probe next to the core. so i just put it on the HS, and the temperature i got is 59 degree celcius. Thats with the case opened.
I then check the video card, but Dell's PSU is on the buttom which block me access to probe the graphic card's core. so i just put the probe on the top of the board, and it got 42 degree celcius.
What do you guys think about the temperature? Is that normal for a Dual? because for singles, normal temp should be 30-40s.
Also, do you think like me , that heat is the problem?
Lastly, do you think going into bios to see if it would freez/crash is a good test? like i said, is it even posssible to crash in bios because of heat?
thanks in advance.
oh yea, the spec of the 420.
they are P3 500 mhz to 1 ghz. duals. video card is usually tnt2 or firegl, few have GF 1. RAM are usually 256-512 mb rambus i belive.