Help! my computer shuts off when its under heavy load

[Gilboman]

I have an AMD xp1600+ and msi ultra2 mb with 256mb DDR 266 ram running at stock speeds..sometimes when i'm playing games the computer will shut off....i see that the temperature is 60 celcius when i immediately turn it back on and see the temp in bios setup....i have a geforce2 gts 64mbddr video card as well..i think it might be the cpu?

i have an Antec 300w and only have a cdrom, hd, vidcard, 2 NIC's, and my vid card so i think the p/s should be ok

 

[mechBgon]

Which model of Antec 300W? There are three, and the latest one has about 50% more useable power.

Oldest - PP303X > PP303XP > SL300 -Newest

I would suspect either the PSU doesn't have quite enough actual power for the load, or else the motherboard is declaring an emergency and cutting off power to the CPU due to overheat. You can aim a house fan into the side of your case and see if the problem suddenly goes away, in which case it would probably be a cooling issue.

 

[Gilboman]

sorry...i have a SPI 300w power supply FSP300..i have no idea why i said antec

 

[mechBgon]

Hmmm, try that house-fan trick and see if the additional cooling keeps the system from conking out. The Sparkle Power units are good ones so that should be ok (more never hurts, of course). Also look at the rear of the PSU and make sure the little voltage-selector switch is in the right position (I assume you use 110-115V in Canada...?)

 

[Davegod]

heat: take of case door and if you have one, point a fan right in. if it becomes stable, consider a new HSF or case fans... depends what youve got now tbh. O and grab MBM5 and check temps while still on etc, 60C sounds ok though imo.

power: unplug unnecessary cdrw etc to minimise power needs, and see if runs stably. if it does then its your psu - either a prob with it or its simply not enough power on some rail.

 

[battousai2020]

rofl, 60c at stock speeds on a 1600... hahahahahahahaha that not normal, mine doesnt get that hot unless I take the fan off the heatsink, at 1.9ghz with a little antec led fan on it mine only hits about 48c TOPS

 

[Richardito]

Your temperatures are way too high. I have your exact setup and my CPU, overclocked to 1850MHz, only reaches about 7-9ºC above the case temperature at full load. You don't state what's the heatsink you are using, but I can bet that it is a crappy one by your temps. Try getting a better heatsink and also going into the BIOS. The BIOS could have a CPU temperature shut down enabled to 60-65ºC. Go into the BIOS and make sure that it is turned off.

 

[SharkyTM]

at that temperature, your computer should be frying you eggs, not playing games... giy chou'self a decent HSF unit, and if that doesnt help, a better PSU... at 60C, you are cutting the life of your cpu down to ~3 years from 15 years at 38C....
Best of luck,
SharkyTM

 

[Gilboman]

i have a Globalwin CAK-II 38 full copper heatsink with a 7,000rpm fan and i put a bit of artic silver thermal compound on the die of the cpu

normal usage its at about 52celcius

 

[mechBgon]

I see a lot of people remarking about temperatures without saying what motherboard they've got. Since the same CPU/heatsink combo can read 30C differently depending on the board, be wary of making blanket statements. 60C is in fact a perfectly realistic operating temperature inside the CPU core. Depending on the calibration of the board, you might see readings ranging from 40C to 70C when the CPU core is at 60C... that's just The Way Things Are.

Did you make sure your heatsink is on in the correct direction? It's possible to install it 180 degrees backwards, unfortunately.

 

[Gilboman]

o..i didnt know it makes a difference which way the heatsink is installed..i'll check it out...

 

[Dgremlin]

As long as you're checking your heatsink, you might want to take it off, clean the bottom of it and the top of the chip, and apply some fresh heatsink compound. I was running an MSI K7T266 MB and it was running a little warm until I redid the heatsink/thermal compound. I guess I wasn't getting good contact because after redoing it, the cpu temp dropped 10 degrees. And if you have the overheat protection enabled in your CMOS, I definetly wouldn't disable it. That could be the only thing that has saved your chip from frying. You might want to also check your cpu voltage settings while you're in the CMOS to make sure they're not set too high.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Gilboman
o..i didnt know it makes a difference which way the heatsink is installed..i'll check it out...

The base has a notch in one end that gives it clearance over the solid part of the CPU socket, and the clip is asymetrical as well so its pressure point is over the CPU core. I don't have a digital camera or I would have made an illustrated guide to this a long time ago. I may resort to modelling it in my 3D software...

 

[Gilboman]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: Gilboman
o..i didnt know it makes a difference which way the heatsink is installed..i'll check it out...

The base has a notch in one end that gives it clearance over the solid part of the CPU socket, and the clip is asymetrical as well so its pressure point is over the CPU core. I don't have a digital camera or I would have made an illustrated guide to this a long time ago. I may resort to modelling it in my 3D software...

thanks a lot..that was it... my HSF was on backwards...my temps are about 6-7 degrees celcius lower than b4.

 

[mechBgon]