Computer shutting down randomly

...due to high temps, or so it seems.

While playing Minecraft, I noticed temps going around 70-73C! Once I shut that or other games down, it idles around 20-30c. My wild guess is, it should not run this hot.

The BIOS settings are default, the heatsink is stock, and nothing is over-clocked or tweaked.

AMD FX 6100
MSI 870A-g554
American Megatrends v 17.17 BIOS last update Jasn 13, 2012
Radeon HD 5770

From looking inside my case, it does not appear anything is obstructing the fans, but it does seem like the components are somewhat crammed because of the massive size of the video card.

I went ahead, and cleaned the heatsinks, fans and other components with canned air, and it did get rid of some dust bunnies, but did little to cool things down. At those temps, it is doubtful a few dust bunnies it would get that hot, but then again, I have seen a few dead systems from the lack of cleaning.

Ideas would be nice.

Front fan blowing in, rear fan blowing out, now the side fan one has to experiment to find out whether blowing in or out runs cooler.

Also, you may want to redo the thermal compound using these instructions.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/amd_appl...n_method.html#

Yes, a air pocket in the thermal compound can cause that heat to act like that.

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Originally Posted by Shay

Front fan blowing in, rear fan blowing out, now the side fan one has to experiment to find out whether blowing in or out runs cooler.

Also, you may want to redo the thermal compound using these instructions.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/amd_appl...n_method.html#

Yes, a air pocket in the thermal compound can cause that heat to act like that.

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Oh, gosh I did not think about the thermal compound. I did remove the CPU before, and did not re-apply thermal. Yes, I know that is generally not a good idea.

I just updated the BIOS, and did little for the temp problem. AMD suggested that, but they said it is probably better to send the chip to them to have it checked. No, they did not suggest re-applying the compound, lol It would suck to have to wait that long to get it fixed, but if it is that, I will.

In the meantime, I will rule out the other stuff first.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Donkey Punch

Oh, gosh I did not think about the thermal compound. I did remove the CPU before, and did not re-apply thermal. Yes, I know that is generally not a good idea.
In the meantime, I will rule out the other stuff first.

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Yep, you have a air gap/pocket that is causing the overheating!

I use 90+% alcohol to clean off the old compound. The follow the instructions for applying the new. Should square you away.

Shall we say learned the hard way.
Because of the temps you have hit, I think I would follow AMDs recommendation too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shay

Yep, you have a air gap/pocket that is causing the overheating!

I use 90+% alcohol to clean off the old compound. The follow the instructions for applying the new. Should square you away.

Shall we say learned the hard way.
Because of the temps you have hit, I think I would follow AMDs recommendation too.

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I just ordered some thermal paste. I am tempted on getting one of those big ass heatsinks, but that may be overkill when I am not planning on overclocking.

May not be overkill either. Been that route more than once.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shay

May not be overkill either. Been that route more than once.

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Originally Posted by AaronMaxwell

Its only overkill if it cools down so much moisture from the air collects inside the case then the screen is covered in fog.

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Yesterday, I was watching some videos on the overheating problem. On the related videos, there was a computer in a fishtank with what looked like water. Complete with rocks, bubble makers, the works.

I must of been living under a rock, because it said mineral oil cooling is nothing new. It looks hella neat too. I might try that someday, but upgrading must be messy as hell, lol

http://cdn.overclock.net/a/a0/a039bd...5d9e77591.jpeg

Mineral oil has been around for years. Since it is none concutive, it was even used back in tube days for cooling.

Computer case mods
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...KOrciQK_nYDQBw

I went ahead and ordered this too:

http://www.antionline.com/images/ieimages/2012/07/1.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_os_product

Hopefully that will fix the issue, if not, then it is time to send the chip in to be checked. If it is not the chip, could the motherboard be the issue? That is later on when other stuff is ruled out.

Update: I installed the new thermal paste and heatsink. The new heatsink is the one pictured above.

I am running Minecraft, and so far, the temps have been around 30-35 c so far. I will run Saints Row the Third and see how well it performs then.

At any rate, when installing the new thermal paste, I found the source of the problem. The stock heatsink came loose and was dangling there. yeah, so that was pretty dumb to overlook such a "tiny" detail. Oh well, I might have shortened my CPU lifespan significantly, lol

Yep, that could have happened.
But I very seriously doubt it.

Hi,

Quote:

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Oh well, I might have shortened my CPU lifespan significantly, lol

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I doubt that with a higher end modern processor; they have thermal cutouts to prevent damage, as do decent quality MoBos. I haven't seen a modern MoBo where you could set the CPU temperature alarm below 60C.

The manufacturer's recommended maximum operating temperature for the FX4100 and FX6100 is 70C, which you don't seem to have exceeded by that much? That temperature is not where damage starts, it is where stability is likely to end.

The "normal" fan arrangement (based on proprietary OEM cases and systems) is front and side = IN, back and top = OUT. Your heatsink and fans are horizontally mounted, so the fans should be blowing towards the rear of the case. ;)

The AMD stock cooling solutions are perfectly adequate for normal computer usage, which includes playing games. Intel's, on the other hand don't seem nearly as good and I wonder why they even bother to include them with "K" series products.

I think that it is significant that the AMD warranty specifically includes the use of their cooling solution, whereas Intel's specifically excludes it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nihil

Hi,



I doubt that with a higher end modern processor; they have thermal cutouts to prevent damage, as do decent quality MoBos. I haven't seen a modern MoBo where you could set the CPU temperature alarm below 60C.

The manufacturer's recommended maximum operating temperature for the FX4100 and FX6100 is 70C, which you don't seem to have exceeded by that much? That temperature is not where damage starts, it is where stability is likely to end.

The "normal" fan arrangement (based on proprietary OEM cases and systems) is front and side = IN, back and top = OUT. Your heatsink and fans are horizontally mounted, so the fans should be blowing towards the rear of the case. ;)

The AMD stock cooling solutions are perfectly adequate for normal computer usage, which includes playing games. Intel's, on the other hand don't seem nearly as good and I wonder why they even bother to include them with "K" series products.

I think that it is significant that the AMD warranty specifically includes the use of their cooling solution, whereas Intel's specifically excludes it.

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Which is interesting, because I never had a serious issue with the AMDs for the 15 years I used them. Never had an overheating issue, etc. So here I was trying to figure why it was overheating all of a sudden.

*slap self in the face

The most obvious problem was the problem. Usually is. So yeah, I spent the money on all of this heatsink.

Not only did Saint's Row the Third work just fine, rendering in 3DSMax did not hit 50C with all the really fancy reflections, refractions and transparency. So yeah, I am good now. As for the Intels, I have not used one of those since 1998 when I had a slot 1. lol