System crash (overheating).

[beyond-tec]

How do you cool down your system?

my whole PC crashed several times yesterday because of overheating.

System Config:
Q6600
8 GB RAM
8800 GTX XXX
Several Harddisks
etc etc..

Bought myself a slot-fan to cool down the gfx-card but doesn't help that much.
http://media.conrad.de/xl/9000_9999/9900/9900/9903/990358_LB_00_FB.EPS.jpg

CPU starts with 36 C (96F) and reaches over 60 C (140F) during gamplay.
GFX card starts with 60 C (140F) and reaches over 80 C (176F) during gameplay until the PC crashes.

I'm gonna buy myself a bigger PC case with more case-fans.

any ideas which would help me getting the hardware cool?

[mikekim]

if you cant physically get more fans in your case you could use the following emergency measure... open the side cover and point a desk fan at the components

this will allow you to use your machine without overheating until you can get a case with better airflow

[beyond-tec]

Looks like I need to buy a new case with fans.

I'm currently checking the online stores...

http://www.snogard.de/IMAGES_SNO//0000050000/0000050690_BI_WE_1.jpg
Fans: 4 (3x 230mm, 1x 140mm)

http://www.snogard.de/IMAGES_SNO//0000050000/0000050032_NO_WE_1.jpg
4x 120mm

http://media.conrad.de/xl/9000_9999/9900/9900/9903/990358_LB_00_FB.EPS.jpg
1x Case-Fan for the gfx-card.

[turbonapkin]

Those temps you mentioned - are they the max you see? They seem reasonable under load. I am assuming that you have active (air or water) cooling on both the cpu and gpu, rather than passive cooling. Some ideas:

1. Dust is the first obvious culprit - make sure your heatsinks are all clear of dust bunnies!

2. Run under load with the sides off your case. If you are still getting artifacts or crashing issues, it may be a heatsink problem on the GPU or CPU.

3. Consider removing all unecessary hardware to see if the problem persists, re-attaching each device until the problem returns

4. Check your case fan setup. If you have more intake fans than exhaust fans (aka positive pressure setup), you may be having a problem with turbulence in the case, which causes nasty hotspots. This can be solved by reversing enough intake fans such that you have more exhaust fans than intake fans, a setup known as 'negative pressure'. I use this setup myself and can recommend it against the positive pressure setup.

HTH

[beyond-tec]

those temps are the max before the system freezes and restarts.

I got cpu and gpu fans, no water-cooling.

1. no dust, pc is very clean, usually clean it twice a month

2. Although the sides are currently off my case I got the same temperatures yesterday before the pc crashed.
I put a big desk fan next to the PC yesterday to cool it down so I can play.

3. there is no "unnecessary hardware". I only got RAM, Harddisk, Gfx-Card and a DVD-Drive plugged to the mainboard.
It's a pure gamer-system, that's why I keep it as clean and as fast as possible.

4. I currently only use exhaust fans.

;(

[turbonapkin]

4. I currently only use exhaust fans.

;(That's got to be it. Without an intake fan, your exhaust fans suck all the air out of the case meaning little or no cool air flowing across your heatsinks.

Good luck with the new case, I too have a Coolermaster :) (Cosmos case).

[Akeldema]

Looks like I need to buy a new case with fans.

I'm currently checking the online stores...

http://www.snogard.de/IMAGES_SNO//0000050000/0000050690_BI_WE_1.jpg

That case is Awsome, I have it, its so quiet but Keeps Quite alot of air moving through, Im at 45 degrees with 100% Use on my quadcore. and ITS HUGE, It must weight 20+kg empty

But dont bother with the 4 120mm fans, Nowhere for them to go in that case

[elsegundo]

who put together your current system? are the GPU and CPU fans already installed when you bought it? also, you need some direct air into your system as well as out of your system. make sure the airflow is consistent (front to back, top to bottom, etc). what kind of heat sinks do you have?

[beyond-tec]

it's done.

bought the computer case which I've linked above.

re-built the whole system...

...now I need to crush the ice from the harddisks *lol* :D :D



the system was built by a pc-store. they've done a very good job but I think the case was too small and there wasn't enough
space so that the air could circulate. Now I've got lots of space, some very very very big fans and suprisingly it's very silent.

hardware monitor:
CPU 20 degree (68F)
system 30 degree (86F)
core 0: 28 degree (82F)
core 1: 28 degree (82F)
core 2: 28 degree (82F)
core 3: 28 degree (82F)
gpu core: 50 degree (122F)
hdd: 22 degree (72F)

let's play some WoW and test the system.

[Coltimar]

My quad was overheating and I put a friggin' huge fan on it. I was gonna post the specs but I'm not sure it's street legal :/ Last night I came downstairs to find a piece of paper suck-stuck to the side of my case. Down side is it's so loud people sneak up on me and scare the stool out of me before I know they are there.

[Akeldema]

it's done.

bought the computer case which I've linked above.

re-built the whole system...

...now I need to crush the ice from the harddisks *lol* :D :D



the system was built by a pc-store. they've done a very good job but I think the case was too small and there wasn't enough
space so that the air could circulate. Now I've got lots of space, some very very very big fans and suprisingly it's very silent.

hardware monitor:
CPU 20 degree (68F)
system 30 degree (86F)
core 0: 28 degree (82F)
core 1: 28 degree (82F)
core 2: 28 degree (82F)
core 3: 28 degree (82F)
gpu core: 50 degree (122F)
hdd: 22 degree (72F)

let's play some WoW and test the system.Good case aint it =D,

[elsegundo]

ok awesome. glad you got more room and more airflow! lets hope it doesnt overheat again, otherwise we're going to have to trouble shoot it more.

[beyond-tec]

hmmm

ok, the case is cold
the cpu seems to be cold
the cores are warm but not hot (~40 - 50 degree)

but the gpu of my 8800 GTX XXX is still hot as hell.

What are your gpu temperatures of your 8x00 series
when you got 5x wow running and clearing an instance?

my temperature went from 50 degree to 70 degree very quick
and I know that my pc usually crashed when my gpu reaches the 80 degree mark.


//Edit:
looks like gpu temperatures of 70-90 degrees are ok.
the fan-control of the gfx-card activates the next level at 85 degrees.

so I need to check the RAM and the power supply this evening :(

[Fizzler]

The GPU temps did not seem that bad it certainly could have been better. At least you got a better case out of it. A lot of folks just slam fans in a case without thinking of air flow I see you mentioned that you had exhaust fans only of course this is bad. I will plan my air flow out ahead of time I usually like to suck air in at the bottom and vent out the top, heat rises so why not use it to your advantage.

I would check your video drivers as well and start unplugging hardware after that.

good luck!

[Thulos]

Q6600 temps up to 71c are acceptable for long term use. 8800 temps over 80c are a bit worrisome. Most overclockers for the 8800 say to keep it under 80c. One thing you can try is downloading EVGA precision (It will work with your 8800 GTX) and force set the fan to 100% and see if that helps with the issue. IF it does then you can confidently say that your GPU was the problem. I would then go about playing with the fan speed using EVGA precision to find the sweet spot that keeps you cool enough. You really don't want to force the fan to run at 100% (Super Loud) when it only needs something like 60%. You can then either flash your video card bios to force keep the fan at that speed or just have EVGA precision apply those settings on startup (This is what I do).

EVGA Precision: http://www.evga.com/precision/

Another option is an aftermarket GPU Cooler to keep your 8800 GTX cool. I can personally vouch for the Thermaltake DUORB.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106112

If you have great case airflow now then you could also go with the Arctic AccelS1 which is fanless (You can attach a 120mm fan to it if you need to, most don't)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186016

[beyond-tec]

thx for all the input guys, it really helped me a lot.

for the temperature of the 8800 GTX XXX:
the gfx-card is overclocked by the manufacturer. so the temperature is higher than on the "basic" cards.

as mentioned in the following link
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/2006/test_nvidia_geforce_8800_gtx/30/
the idle temperature of the chip is ~60 degrees.
with full load it is 81 degrees.

several overclockers kicked the card over 100 degrees before they had gfx errors and the card crashed.

so my temperature seems to be ok and I've checked other things.


hopefully I've found the problem - the store which built the PC overclocked the RAM a little bit to get more performance.
due to the fact that I kick the system to its limit I think the ram has broken down and so the system crashed.

I've slowed down the ram a little bit and cleared one instance without any problems although my gpu temperature
reached 78 degrees sometimes.

I hope it works now.

I'll keep you updated.

meanwhile... a big thx to this community =)

[Akeldema]

I remember, The old 6600gt used to idle around 70-80 and would hit 100+ in game :P
But nvidia did say hose cards ran quite hot

[beyond-tec]

hehe..

played half of the weekend - no crashes *g*

GPU ~ 72-75
CPZ ~ 45
Cores ~ 52
Harddisks ~20

excellent case!


bought myself a 30 GB Solid State Disk (SSD) on Friday,
installed WoW on it and symlinked the data and interface folders.

yam yam..

[Thulos]

Grats on getting the issue resolved. Case airflow is very important to keeping a system cool. :thumbsup:

[beyond-tec]

*meep* *meep*

;( ;( ;(

Went to Zul Aman yesterday - second boss, fast fight, lots of animations,
monitors (both) turned off (standby mode), Teamspeak was still working
(for about 3-5 seconds) then my whole PC rebooted. :cursing: :cursing: :cursing:

Any ideas?

RAM?
Power?
GFX Card?



PS:
I'll do a complete RAM check this evening after I've installed Windows 7.

[Basilikos]

Perhaps I missed it, but what's your North bridge cooling like? Also, what thermal grease has been applied to the major heat sources in your case? Is it high quality? Has it been determined what heat source is causing the trouble?

[-silencer-]

*meep* *meep*

;( ;( ;(

Went to Zul Aman yesterday - second boss, fast fight, lots of animations,
monitors (both) turned off (standby mode), Teamspeak was still working
(for about 3-5 seconds) then my whole PC rebooted. :cursing: :cursing: :cursing:

Any ideas?

RAM?
Power?
GFX Card?



PS:
I'll do a complete RAM check this evening after I've installed Windows 7.
I had issues like that happen to my older Athlon 64 / 6800GT system when my 500W CoolMax power supply was not doing its job. The 8800GTX should be fine around 80*C - that's hot as hell, but I've been running my stock-clocked eVGA at that temp at full load for two years. What power supply are you running? Brand is usually more important than pure wattage - I'd take a 620w Corsair/SeaSonic over an 800w Thermaltake any day. To cool the 8800GTX, a Thermalright HR-03 Plus with 120mm fan is an excellent solution.. be sure to install the ram heatsinks properly too.

[beyond-tec]

thanks for all the replys. I really appreciate it.

my power supply:
Thermaltake Toughpower 600W
600 Watt, ATX 2.03, ATX12V 2.0,

full details of my system:
http://beyond-tec.blogspot.com/2008/03/blue-queen.html
(Harddisk-Raid is gone)


I've checked my RAM yesterday with a Microsoft Tool.
Problem with that tool is that it can only handle and check 4 GB of RAM of my 8 GB.
If anyone knows a tool that can handle & check the full 8 GB please let me know.
Check was completed without any errors.

Temperature in my room ain't that high. We got winter here, very rainy and very cold
so the sytem shouldn't have any problems I think.

Cooling of the case:
CPU + GPU are cooled by the fans which the manufacturer installed on it (CPU was bought in a box)

the case got
- a big fan on the top
- a fan for the harddisks
- a fan on the bottom
- a fan on the left side of the case

Pictures of the case:
http://www.hardwarelabs.de/Cooler_Master_HAF_Tower_RC-932-KKN1-GP-Layout_Aussen_2944
http://www.hardwarelabs.de/Cooler_Master_HAF_Tower_RC-932-KKN1-GP-Layout_Innen_2945



my main question is:
my TFTs went black (standby lamp turned on) but the teamspeak was working for ~3-5 seconds
before the PC restarted. So what could caused that? Usually I'd say it's the GFX Card but can the
PC continue working for some seconds when the RAM crashes? Turn the TFTs off when the RAM
crashes?

Wouldn't be a problem to switch the GPU Fans or to install new RAMs / install a fan on the RAMs
but I'd like to be sure that it fixes the problem before I pay $$$ for new hardware.

[-silencer-]

See if you can borrow a power supply.. random reboot issues, if not heat related, always lead me to think of faulty power. Perhaps your videocards were trying to draw more power than available, and they shut down just before the rest of the machine?

[elsegundo]

another shot in the dark...

i'd double check the contacts between my fan and the gpu. get the 90% alcohol, gauze, razor blade and the artic silver compound ready.

[beyond-tec]

yay!

my system keeps on crashing but it looks like we can stop shooting in the dark.

I've deactivated the Windows reboot option to force the PC to crash instead of rebooting.
And finally I've had the mighty BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).


Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.

*** STOP: 0x00000116 (0x86E7C510, 0x8E501E80, 0x00000000, 0x00000002)

*** nvlddmkm.sys - Address 8E501E80 base at 8E4F6000, DateStamp 48ebd52f my GFX Card:


XFX GF8800GTX XXX
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX, 768 MB,
384 Bit, PCIe x16

I've updated my gfx-drivers - let's see if that fixes the problem.
if not, I'll try to get a new power supply and if that doesn't work I'll change the gfx card.