I need help! Crashing/heat problems SOLVED!

Hardware and technical stuff
21

Thanks to everyone here for the advice, and particularly to Shift6. The new case arrived, which helped the temperature by maybe 5 degrees, but it was still getting too hot and crashing. Out of other options - we did as Shift6 suggested and sanded down both the heatsink and cpu a little. OH MY GOD did it make a huge difference! The chip runs literally 20c+ cooler now and all crashing problems are gone. We’ve been through like $700 in replacement hardware trying to solve this problem, and all it took was a little sandpaper. Well, at least we almost have a whole other computer from all the extra components we bought…

Her system is idling now at about 37c, even cooler than mine at 40c, despite the faster cpu! I would do the same on my own system, but mine is super-stable and never goes over 46c so I don’t want to fix it if it ain’t broke.

Thanks again Shift6 :)

22

Happy to hear your kit is working now, but there’s no way lapping your HSF could possibly drop CPU temps by 20C. Not unless the surface was seriously concave to start off with, anyway. I’m talking noticeable to the naked eye, since tiny irregularities would be handled by the heatsink gunk.

23

I assure you, that was the only thing that we did different. I don’t know if the cpu or heatsink surface was just REALLY BAD or what, but it made that much of a difference, according to the mobo/cpu monitor proggie.

24

How about if the heatsink contact area had been contaminated by an insulator?

25

Like I said originally…

26

no, no plastic film

27

Glad you got it going again, duder. Now raise that temp again by cranking up the Doom 3! :)