is overheating the problem?

[baba]

Hi everybody.

I have plenty of trouble with my office PC in a past month or so. Every once
in a while everything just freezes. You can't Ctrl-Alt-Del from it, cursor
is frozen and hardware reset is the only escape.The freeze occurs while
using office applications, or just plain old IE (just so you don't think
it's some sort of game-related issue).

I thought that the reason was software-related, so I installed OS from
scratch, but to no avail. The funny thing is that there were no rules to the
freeze up - sometimes it would freeze five times in a row right after
logging on, and after resetting a few times you could work on it for a few
hours without problem. Sometimes the freezes seem to be related to how many
applications are open or how demanding they are (downloading a movie from my
DigiCam through FireWire always causes a freeze eventually), but sometimes
it freezes while no applications are working, you log in and the cursor just
stops moving.

Just for testing purposes, I have chilled the room I'm working in, and left
the PC case without a lid. That was 2 days ago, and I haven't had a freeze
since (but it is still early to tell that this is a solution for sure, my
comp could work ok sometimes for five days and than suddenly it started a
freeze-o-rama fest leaving me a day of work behind).

So my question is - can all this be heat-related? Is it the processor,
graphics card (motherboard integrated), RAM or what? How can I diagnose it,
and what's the best solution (new cooler for the processor, case cooler
etc.)?

I appreciate any kind of help. Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

 

[Nico de Jong]

Hi everybody.

I have plenty of trouble with my office PC in a past month or so. Every once
in a while everything just freezes. You can't Ctrl-Alt-Del from it, cursor
is frozen and hardware reset is the only escape.The freeze occurs while
using office applications, or just plain old IE (just so you don't think
it's some sort of game-related issue).

I have had an identical problem at a customer site, where the PC started to
freeze up at undefinable moments, apart from the fact that there was heavy
screen activity.
The culprit showed to be the video card (a S3 Virge); it obviously had
degraded so that it couldnt keep up with the data supplied to it.

Nico

 

[baba]

I have had an identical problem at a customer site, where the PC started
to

freeze up at undefinable moments, apart from the fact that there was heavy
screen activity.
The culprit showed to be the video card (a S3 Virge); it obviously had
degraded so that it couldnt keep up with the data supplied to it.

My PC is a Compaq, and the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard.
I'm a little doubtful that the culprit is the graphics card, since the
freeze occured even when there was a little or none screen activity.

I am actually mostly interested in a way of diagnosing what is wrong, and an
affirmation that overheating is the problem. Btw, in the firm I work in
there are at least 10 other workers with the exact simmilar PC configuration
as mine, so how come only mine overheats??

 

[Rich]

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Just for testing purposes, I have chilled the room I'm working in,
and left the PC case without a lid. That was 2 days ago, and I
haven't had a freeze since (but it is still early to tell that this
is a solution for sure, my comp could work ok sometimes for five
days and than suddenly it started a freeze-o-rama fest leaving me a
day of work behind).

Heat can cause the problems you are talking about, but so could other
things. Make sure the cpu fan is big enough for the cpu type and
drop in a few case fans to make sure. Removing any unused hardware
can also help in dropping the temperature.

Check to see if your motherboard has any temperature monitors built
in. If so post the results and I'm sure someone else can confirm if
its too hot.

Rich

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[Bubba]

baba's log on stardate 23 ruj 2004

I have plenty of trouble with my office PC in a past month or so.
Every once in a while everything just freezes.
/snip

So my question is - can all this be heat-related?

Of course. You can check that by your motherboard's probe, or if you don't
have one on your MBO, do the following. While working, touch your heat
sink with fingers. If it is "boiling", than it figures, your fan is too
weak. If it has normal temperature, you could try to reapply thermal
compound and try again. However, if this problem shows to be non related
to overheating, you should consider changing RAM (borrow a module from a
friend, and test it than), or perhaps PSU problem, but I'd take PSU as a
last possible guilty component. If you are using any NT Windows OS, you
might check system logs too...

One more thing, try to clean your computer. Blow all the dust, clean
contacts (RAM, add on cards) with rubber. It happens to be that often a
piece of dust gets stuck in your memory slots, making a short circuit or
it just gets in a contact's way...

 

[kony]

Hi everybody.

I have plenty of trouble with my office PC in a past month or so. Every once
in a while everything just freezes. You can't Ctrl-Alt-Del from it, cursor
is frozen and hardware reset is the only escape.The freeze occurs while
using office applications, or just plain old IE (just so you don't think
it's some sort of game-related issue).

I thought that the reason was software-related, so I installed OS from
scratch, but to no avail. The funny thing is that there were no rules to the
freeze up - sometimes it would freeze five times in a row right after
logging on, and after resetting a few times you could work on it for a few
hours without problem. Sometimes the freezes seem to be related to how many
applications are open or how demanding they are (downloading a movie from my
DigiCam through FireWire always causes a freeze eventually), but sometimes
it freezes while no applications are working, you log in and the cursor just
stops moving.

Just for testing purposes, I have chilled the room I'm working in, and left
the PC case without a lid. That was 2 days ago, and I haven't had a freeze
since (but it is still early to tell that this is a solution for sure, my
comp could work ok sometimes for five days and than suddenly it started a
freeze-o-rama fest leaving me a day of work behind).

So my question is - can all this be heat-related? Is it the processor,
graphics card (motherboard integrated), RAM or what? How can I diagnose it,
and what's the best solution (new cooler for the processor, case cooler
etc.)?

I appreciate any kind of help. Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

Stability changes based around temp changes could be a few
things, including:

- Fan failure, obvoius enough

- overheating, not common if fans work, heatsink properly
mounted, moderate temp environment, etc.

- cracks in circuit board or chip

- components or cables making only partial contact due to
misaligned motherboard, bent contacts, damaged or defective
contacts, dirt/corrosion, etc

- cold solder joints


First open case and inspect interior, see if any cables are
loose, damaged, cards and motherboard are well-mounted and
aligned... look for any mechanical contact problem. You
might remove and reinsert (practially everything), cards,
connectors, other components and socketed chips (or at least
push them down towards fully-seated position... inspecting
the contact surfaces as much as possible. Also inspect the
contacts in the memory and PCI, AGP, etc, slots... while you
may not be able to see the surface of the contact, at least
the tip of the metal insert should be visable and an initial
inspection point.

While looking though system, assess dirt/residue buildup.
Areas with heavy smokers or other manufacturing contaminants
may need filtered or replaced at quite short intervals.

Some cracks or cold joints may be hard to see, if system is
under warranty let the OEM take care of it, but if not the
final recourse is either replacing components or paying
someone else to do it.