Hot hot hot

[plonq]

My computer has been running really hot lately.  It's running reliably enough, but I'm a bit concerned about how long it will keep working properly with the core running at 59C.  I took the side off the case this evening and blew some of the dust out of the fans.  With the side sitting off it's running at 51C now - which is still about 5-10 degrees warmer than I'd like to see it running at, but that's better than 59.

All the voltages are a little out too - which would cause it to run warm.  I'll have a look at the BIOS to see if I accidentally boosted one of them when I was thinking of over-clocking awhile back, but I'm concerned that the power supply might be going.  It's the (fairly) cheap one that came with the case, and right now it's almost hot enough to fry an egg on it.  What's it going to do when I drop in another hard drive this weekend?  =(

[Edit: I bumped the voltage down a couple of notches in the BIOS, and now it's registering exactly on spec. The temperature has dropped a couple of degrees as well to 48C. That's still a bit hotter than it used to run, but it's an improvement. We'll see how this holds up.]

Comments

[kamiten.livejournal.com]

I would definitely check to make sure the fan in your power supply is functioning properly before I even think of adding another hard drive to the case. I had my power supply fan die on me and I didn't realize it for a while. I knew the computer was running hotter than normal but couldn't figure out why, then one day I picked up one of the plushies that normally sat on top of my case at the time, and it was burning hot. THEN I finally checked the power supply fan and it didn't have any kind of movement left in it.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

Ya, I checked that all the fans are spinning properly and even blew the dust out of them - including the power supply fan, which is pumping out a lot of heat.

The fan died in atara's power supply awhile back, and you could smell it baking as soon as we came into the room. We RMA'd it, and replaced it with a heavier one with dual fans (I'll use the other one when we finally get the replacement shipped back).

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

You might also want to get hard drive coolers. I've had too many drives fail from what was probably thermal stress. You might even consider locating the drive outside the main case, if you have a firewire connector you can use.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

Not a bad plan. I had a couple of IBM Deathstar drives fail, most likely from heat stress. I may look into a new case fan as well while I'm there because it's a bit noisy when I have the case open like this.

[anthony-lion.livejournal.com]

How many watts is that PSU rated at?

Most are rather optimistically rated, particularly the cheap ones, and when they get close to max they tend to get unstable...

Others... are crap all the way through...
I still remember with dread the old Olivetti M380 machines we had at the office... (386DX/20MHz, and that was the good part)
After about two years of use the insulation on a coil melted off and it shorted out...
Happened to at least four, maybe five of the buggers before we did the sensible thing and scrapped them.

[nrasser.livejournal.com]

Don't put a tremendous amount of faith in the accuracy of on-board voltage monitoring features. I have seen 3.3v measurements off by as much as 0.5v on some motherboards, 10x the actual allowable voltage error. Some boards do hit the numbers, but unless you've verified yours with a real DMM you won't know.

Power supply regulator drift can cause unexplained heat problems. Check your power supply outputs with a known-good digital meter:

+12v Line - 11.75 to 12.25v
+5v Line - 4.9 to 5.1v
+3.3v Line - 3.22 to 3.38 (most spec 3.25 to 3.35, but that's a bit tight)

Processors have 3.3v IO and core voltage sections; increases in the 3.3v line can affect processor temps, though not as drastically as core voltage changes will. Most onboard core voltage regulators are pretty crappy, they often vary up to +/- 10% of setpoint and may drift over time (capacitor aging).

[gedrean.livejournal.com]

First suggestion I'd make, disassemble your CPU HSF and clean the heatsink, second check your fanspeeds, third check your airflow (rerouting cables can help a lot), fourth check to see your fan models and what airflwo they should be hitting. Fifth, check the ambient. Sixth clean the front and rear gratings of fan covers (believe me the front grating can get as much as 3 inch of dust on it without problems)