FSX Problem

[RobDob]

Thanks Ben, I'll have a go later and let you know! Cheers!

[RobDob]

Sitting here now with iTunes running and nothing else I'm getting a CPU temp of 56, motherboard temp of 36 and my fan is 2500rpm. Does that seem a little high on the temperature?

[TSR2]

A bit hi on the temp, but I'd be curious to see what it is with itunes off... I don't have it so no idea how heavy it is. You cpu fan rpm seem very low. :think:

[petermcleland]

Rob,

Have you reseated the cooling block with fresh heat transfer compound? I advise you not to run your machine again till you have done that. The block is at present not taking the heat away from the chip and it is obviously not seated properly. If your CPU were not doing its duty and shutting down the whole shebang, then you would have lost it by now and they are expensive to replace. Get a tube of heat transfer compound and do it mate There are some highly recommended compounds out there but I just use an ordinary one called "Electrolube HTC 10S".

[TSR2]

Peter / Rob... to my mind if the fan speed is only 2500 rpm, it won't cool the chip suitably regardless of compound, although I agree with Peter that its a good idea to replace it, but I'm thinking perhaps the whole fan / heatsink / compound would be best with those low rpm rates. If you buy a full assembly, it should come complete with heat transfer compound. If you buying from you local PC world, make sure you get a suitably rated fan / heatsink combination for the cpu. Most retail shops stock the coolermaster range which are very good.

[RobDob]

Thanks chaps, I'll check it's not all clogged up with dust & rubbish and if it looks ok I may get a new fan. Is the compound on its own available at places like PC World or is that a bit specialist for them?

[jonesey2k]

Arctic Silver 5 is a good thermal paste, been using it for years. You only need the tinyest amount spread over the cpu die/heatspreader as its job is to fill the microscopic gaps between the cpu and the heatsink face. Watch where you put it though as its conductive. Akasa TIM-Clean is quite good at removing the old stuff too.

I'm using a Coolermaster Hyper TX 2 at the moment. Only cost £8 and keeps my overclocked quad-core from breaking a sweat. Very low noise too

I'm still not sure its being caused by overheating though as Intel chips normally throttle back when they overheat. Does your performance drop drastically prior to said crash?

[RobDob]

It doesn't seem to, literally like someone pulls the plug. I just ran FSX briefly and the CPU tempertaure got up to 65 when a warning came up through PC probe. I may have the warning set a little low? The fan speed stayed at 2500 even with the temperature at 65. I'll try again after dinner, let the temp get higher and see what the fan does. I'm starting to wonder if it's a fan issue? Or a combination of factors?

[TSR2]

65 is ok... but the fan at 2500 when the cpu is getting hotter is very wrong... the fans are temperature controlled so shoulk be up at at least 4000 rpm.

[RobDob]

Right oh, I'll set the alarm to about 75 or 80 and see what the fan does as the temp climbs. I hope this is narrowing the problem down to something cheap and easy to fix! lol