This Scared Me! Plz Help!

[Centropolis]

Whoa yea Cent, we need to know your cooling layout as it stands right now. Describe your case and how the fans inside are organized. As i- one front intake, two rear intake and whatever heatsink you currently have (and if you know what kinda compound you have on it that helps also).

With this info we can decide if you need a better heatsink/fan or more fans in the case or what. As Preet pointed out, a temporary solution is cleaning up cables and/or removing side panels from the case.

The cases ambient temperature (35C) isnt abnormal so to me its your heatsink/fan on your processor. Theres great solutions out there for under $50 USD. So once we get that info we can help you decide an action.

Thanks guys for helping out.

I've never opened up my computer up since I bought it. haha I really don't know what is in it. I will get back to you all on it.

However, from looking at my case, it seems the only place I can install a case fan is on the back panel under the power supply. There is no where else I can put a fan in the front.

Does it mean I will not be able to solve this problem with cheap case fans? If I do get a case fan to put under my power supply. should I draw air in or out?

 

[Shrapnill]

Well, without more info we cant help out too much. So til then its all speculative. We cant know what the best thing for you is yet, until we know what your case layout is. Honestly, if you have a digital camera, a picture or two would suffice.

If the only open slot is on the back, youll want that to go out. But if the case has nowhere to draw any air in from, you may need to buy a new case or mod the hell out of that one if you truly wish to solve the problem.

If I had more time ATM I would locate a diagram of ideal airflow in a PC, but unfortunately Im extremely busy.

Get back to us once youve opened her up and we'll try and get you some help.

 

[Centropolis]

Well, without more info we cant help out too much. So til then its all speculative. We cant know what the best thing for you is yet, until we know what your case layout is. Honestly, if you have a digital camera, a picture or two would suffice.

If the only open slot is on the back, youll want that to go out. But if the case has nowhere to draw any air in from, you may need to buy a new case or mod the hell out of that one if you truly wish to solve the problem.

If I had more time ATM I would locate a diagram of ideal airflow in a PC, but unfortunately Im extremely busy.

Get back to us once youve opened her up and we'll try and get you some help.

Ok. I've taken 5 pictures of my machine. One of the outside and 4 others inside. Please go to the link below and find the five JPEGs.

LINK TO PICTURES

Can you suggest anything? After I opened my case, I finally realized that there IS a place for a fan in the front. It is just that the plastic part of the outer casing blocks the hole. So what's the point of having a place for a fan when there is no place to get the air from? Weird!?

Anyways, I hope you can help. I haven't had the same problem since. I haven't changed anything. Maybe I played C&C for too long! haha However, my CPU temp is still at around 67 when not playing games and goes up to 73/74 when playing games. I would still like to bring that down without spending too much money.

HELP!

 

[Shrapnill]

That works great!

Well, the problems are obvious in this case. First off.... you have no fans. Go buy two 80mm fans (range about $4-10 a piece) and put one in the front pulling air in (theres arrows on the fans telling you which way is up, and which way the air flows) and one in he back pushing air out.

You have a stock AMD heatsink/fan, which is okay but man... you seriously need to clean that thing. Take a can of air and spray down the fan while the PC is off. It helps to hold on to a blade so the fan doesnt spin. Believe it or not, dust WILL hinder the performance of a PC.

Now... heres a few more things to be pointed out:

It doesnt take a genius to figure out that the front fan wont have much of an area to pull in air since the front bexel of your PC is solid, but thats okay.

If you want to get better airflow on the back fan, take a dremel to the thing. Remove all of that metal that hinders airflow. Most fans come with a finger guard, so you can slap that on the back and get MUCH better flow.

If you want to get really extreme without much cost, you can also dremel out a fan hole on the side of your PC either where the processor is, or where the vid card is.

So cost to you is minimal.... $15 in fans and a can of air will help you out quite a bit. So youre lookin at $20 right there.

I hope that wasnt too confusing. If so, Ill be happy to reiterate when its not 4:41 in the morning...

 

[CopperFrog]

Since you just bough this computer 3 months ago you should still be under some kind of warantee. I would get the case fan like Sharpnill suggested and I would bring in my CPU fan and get them to replace it. Your CPU fan may have a defect and is not turning fast enough to cool your CPU.

 

[Centropolis]

That works great!

Well, the problems are obvious in this case. First off.... you have no fans. Go buy two 80mm fans (range about $4-10 a piece) and put one in the front pulling air in (theres arrows on the fans telling you which way is up, and which way the air flows) and one in he back pushing air out.

You have a stock AMD heatsink/fan, which is okay but man... you seriously need to clean that thing. Take a can of air and spray down the fan while the PC is off. It helps to hold on to a blade so the fan doesnt spin. Believe it or not, dust WILL hinder the performance of a PC.

Now... heres a few more things to be pointed out:

It doesnt take a genius to figure out that the front fan wont have much of an area to pull in air since the front bexel of your PC is solid, but thats okay.

If you want to get better airflow on the back fan, take a dremel to the thing. Remove all of that metal that hinders airflow. Most fans come with a finger guard, so you can slap that on the back and get MUCH better flow.

If you want to get really extreme without much cost, you can also dremel out a fan hole on the side of your PC either where the processor is, or where the vid card is.

So cost to you is minimal.... $15 in fans and a can of air will help you out quite a bit. So youre lookin at $20 right there.

I hope that wasnt too confusing. If so, Ill be happy to reiterate when its not 4:41 in the morning...

Will the two case fans lower my CPU temp? Also, I bought a case fan out of panic the other night and havent put it in yet. It is one of those that plugs into the motherboard. Should I get the ones that plugs into the powersupply instead? Which ones are better? Since I have to get another one anyways, maybe they'll let me switch with another one.

I don't want to do too much to it. I hope just installing two case fans will lower my CPU temp. Cuz I think that's mainly my concern. My M/B temp is pretty normal at 36C.

 

[Centropolis]

Since you just bough this computer 3 months ago you should still be under some kind of warantee. I would get the case fan like Sharpnill suggested and I would bring in my CPU fan and get them to replace it. Your CPU fan may have a defect and is not turning fast enough to cool your CPU.

I doubt that they'll replace my CPU fan if it's not defective. I am not sure if it's defective or not but it seems to be working fine itself. According to Probe program, it's spinning at 3352. Whateevr that number means......haha

How much trouble is it to replace a CPU fan/heatsink? Cost?

 

[CopperFrog]

Sometimes the CPU fans that come with the CPU are crap and will not completely cool down your chip. I know they should but that life sometimes. The fan shouldn't be to hard to replace but can be tricky. It's really a case of figuring out how it is attached as different make and model attach different ways. But with a precision, small screw driver or something similar you can pop off the mount. CPU Fan/heatsink are about $20 or less, and make sure they will cool your CPU and will mount on your socket. They usually have up to what CPU speed they can cool written on the box.

 

[Centropolis]

Sometimes the CPU fans that come with the CPU are crap and will not completely cool down your chip. I know they should but that life sometimes. The fan shouldn't be to hard to replace but can be tricky. It's really a case of figuring out how it is attached as different make and model attach different ways. But with a precision, small screw driver or something similar you can pop off the mount. CPU Fan/heatsink are about $20 or less, and make sure they will cool your CPU and will mount on your socket. They usually have up to what CPU speed they can cool written on the box.

Thanks for your info. I also wanted to know if two addidtional case fans will help to cool down the CPU temp a bit as well? I understand changing to a better CPU heatsink/fan is a more direct solution. But it's too much hassle for me to do something to the CPU. I am kind of afraid of touching it.

 

[Cappy]

i agree with microbell .The builders of this system iether dont no what there doing or they plainly took adavantage of there customers. 1 fan in the front pulling air in and 1 in the back sucking air out will definately help. Use compressed air to clean out the whole system including power supply.You should clean your system at least once every 2 months.
The power supply looks like a real cheap 1 as well , what did you pay for this system ?
Heres a crude test to see if heat is the culprit.Remove the side panel , place a 19-24 inch fan next to the system blowing air in
Load up the game and play as usual .See if it still crashes .