Temperature

[James E Middleton]

I have a P4 3.2 HT Prescott on a Asus P4P800 Deluxe in an Owltec case:

http://www.owltech.co.jp/products/pc_case/603AT/603AT.html

I changed cases about three months ago because of heat issues; I had been
using a seven year old tower case with inadequate ventilation. Since then
the CPU has been running 37C idle and no higher than 51C under full load.
Sometimes after logging off for a few hours and logging on again, I noticed
the temperature would be at around 60C, but drop down to 37-41C in just a
few minutes. Also worth noting, the CPU fan speed is always around 2500-2600
RPM.

The other day, I noticed the fan was only running at 1800, and the temp was
at around 50 at idle.
I pulled the cover off, checked all the fans for obstructions, dust, etc.
All were clean and seemed to be running properly. Rebooted and things went
back to normal.

Yesterday, after starting to encode an AVI file to flash, I left the room. I
came back to find the temperature alarm going off and the CPU at 75C.

Today, after coming back from a two hour meeting, I logged on to find the
alarm had gone off again and the temp had reached 88C!

I shut down the computer for a while, and when rebooting changed the BIOS
settings to power down if the system overheats.(Should have done that
sooner!)

I'm at a loss - nothing has changed in the past three months - but all of a
sudden I am having heat issues. Otherwise, the system runs like a top.

Any ideas? The power supply is fairly new, about 18 months old - I was
wondering if improper voltage would cause heat issues...

 

[JS]

Have you observed the CPU fan visually for a period of time, don't trust the
fan speed monitors.

JS

 

[James E Middleton]

Well, Iv'e had problems with other computers - fans not spinning and
touching them gets them started - or if it's really spining slowly you can
tell if the fan is spinning really slowly - maybe under 1000 RPM, by sight
and sound. But I really wouldn't know how to tell the difference between 2,
3 or 4000 RPM

 

[JS]

Don't touch the fan, just use your fingers to feel the air flow and
temperature several times over a couple of days using your CPU temperature
as a guide. Also you may not be able to see any difference using your eyes
but you may be able to hear a difference in the fan speed especially if
there is a bearing going bad.

JS