Overheating GPU and CPU while playing SPORE

[MeddleMan]

SPECS:

GPU= NVIDIA GeForce 7650 GS

CPU= Intel ® Core 2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz (sucks doesn't it, but it does a good job)

RAM= (Not sure if this even matters) 2x 515Mb RAM

Hey guys,

I've recently started playing Spore again (after my computer crashed due to an NTLDR error that was for some reason fixed by swapping around my two hard-drives [slave to Master and vice versa] but not after I formatted C:\) and every so often after perhaps 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours, the game will freeze and after that the computer will restart. Now apart from losing all progess I am up to (I have recently taken to saving every 30 seconds) this is pretty normal for me since that's what caused the previous NTLDR error.

I then take off the cover and feel the heatsinks for the GPU and CPU (including another much tinier one which I'm not sure what it is for) and they are incredibly hot. Not having a thermometer at all in the house, I can only guess temperatures around 50-70^oC.

From what I have read around the forums that is considered "Very Bad". I have ONE 95mm MEDION brand fan [measured from flat surface to opposite surface (not sure if it is measued diagonally like monitors)] and it is located infront of the CPU heatsink. I have space for one more at the back of the pc. and I am thinking of getting another. And it is running at what I believe is around 200rpm. Not sure how to find out exactly, is there a program out there or something?

To cool down the 'sinks I have been using the dried off cold sides of a beercan taken from the fridge. Isn't very effective....

My question is thus, is there anyway I can change the speed of the fan? Noise is not a problem...

Also, me currently living in Belgrade (Serbia) I have limited access to computer shops with coolant parts at good prices so generic well spread cooling fan brands please. Along with that and the thermal goo. (god, I miss Australia and it's computer swapmeets)

Thanks in advance for any help.

PS: Can somebody explain what the ??? is? (photo attached)

[Olemus]

You have no exhaust fan which is "potential spot" this wont be helping airflow much.

[MeddleMan]

SPECS:

GPU= NVIDIA GeForce 7650 GS

CPU= Intel ® Core 2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz (sucks doesn't it, but it does a good job)

RAM= (Not sure if this even matters) 2x 515Mb RAM

Hey guys,

I've recently started playing Spore again (after my computer crashed due to an NTLDR error that was for some reason fixed by swapping around my two hard-drives [slave to Master and vice versa] but not after I formatted C:\) and every so often after perhaps 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours, the game will freeze and after that the computer will restart. Now apart from losing all progess I am up to (I have recently taken to saving every 30 seconds) this is pretty normal for me since that's what caused the previous NTLDR error.

I then take off the cover and feel the heatsinks for the GPU and CPU (including another much tinier one which I'm not sure what it is for) and they are incredibly hot. Not having a thermometer at all in the house, I can only guess temperatures around 50-70^oC.

From what I have read around the forums that is considered "Very Bad". I have ONE 95mm MEDION brand fan [measured from flat surface to opposite surface (not sure if it is measued diagonally like monitors)] and it is located infront of the CPU heatsink. I have space for one more at the back of the pc. and I am thinking of getting another. And it is running at what I believe is around 200rpm. Not sure how to find out exactly, is there a program out there or something?

To cool down the 'sinks I have been using the dried off cold sides of a beercan taken from the fridge. Isn't very effective....

My question is thus, is there anyway I can change the speed of the fan? Noise is not a problem...

Also, me currently living in Belgrade (Serbia) I have limited access to computer shops with coolant parts at good prices so generic well spread cooling fan brands please. Along with that and the thermal goo. (god, I miss Australia and it's computer swapmeets)

Thanks in advance for any help.

PS: Can somebody explain what the ??? is? (photo attached)

sorry, can a moderator delete this one, I have accidently submitted it twice due to refresh button accidently being pressed. or can someone tell me where the 'delete topic' button is.

[Sethos]

You really need an exhaust fan with all that passive cooling, the air just gets trapped inside and heated up.

As for the "???" that's the northbridge.

[MeddleMan]

can a moderator delete this topic? I accidently submitted it twice due to accidental refresh button pressing.

Sorry can ppl use the other one?

VERY SORRY (:(

[Stephen Veteran]

can a moderator delete this topic? I accidently submitted it twice due to accidental refresh button pressing.

Sorry can ppl use the other one?

VERY SORRY (:(

Topics merged ;)

[MeddleMan]

Thanx Ste

Sorry to bump the thread guys...

I have a bit of new info that might help. For some reason now, whenever I play Portal, there is a red message in the top right hand corner saying "OS Paged Pool Memory Too Low". Now I've googled and googled but everyone on the TF2 forums are simply saying use this patch in your registy or something. The fact of the matter is, none of this has ever happened to me before. I never had problems with any of my games before. SO this has lead me to my new conclusion. Unless it actually IS the GPU overheating (due to a broken contact forcing a "lane" of data to be shunted into another making it overcrowded and thus making the thing work harder (Sorry, been playing a bit too much OpenTTD, that at least has never crashed), another reason behind all this might be low memory (Only using 1 GB here). Now I have been thinking of upgrading but living in Serbia does not give me many options to buy or rather find pc shops. I know there are some but I can't find them. Plus the inability to speak the local lingo adds to the whole mess.

I have tried killing programs and tried clearing my whole Temp folder and Recent Documents and Temporary Internet files, but nothing has worked. I may seem to be not doing much to fix this myself, and the truth is I've either been at school working my *ss off or sitting on it doing homework. I simply need a confirmed reason behind all this.

Again quickly, any way I can "overclock" the freakin fan, without needing an extensive knowledge of electricity and butchering the wiring?

[jnelsoninjax]

Again quickly, any way I can "overclock" the freakin fan, without needing an extensive knowledge of electricity and butchering the wiring?

Grab Nvidia's System Tools once you install this it adds this:

As you can see you can adjust the fan speed on the fly, and when you are done, it will ask you if you want to load this profile at windows start-up, say yes.

[MeddleMan]

unfortunately, my card doesnt have a built in fan. So that little highlighted part is grayed out. Unless I have to make a new profile or something?

And I don't believe it. There isnt a tempreture monitor for the GPU? I would've thought there would be something. No to belittle your efforts or anything, this program looks great, but the problem is that it has everything I don't need and nothing I DO need.

[jnelsoninjax]

I use Everest utilities for temp monitoring, you can get a free copy of Everest by visiting this site and following the steps outlined. You also might want to grab GPU-Z this can tell you all sorts of information regarding your GPU.

Again quickly, any way I can "overclock" the freakin fan, without needing an extensive knowledge of electricity and butchering the wiring?

I am not understanding what you are saying, you want to adjust the fan speed, but you do not have a fan on the card, so which fan(s) are you referring to? Another program for fan adjustment is called SpeedFan

[MeddleMan]

Well, I finally have come to the conclusion that my graphics card doesnt have a thermostat in it (very silly of GeForce I might admit) or else it would be shown.

None of the programs allow me to change the current speed of my fan to anything higher than it currently is, the I am referring to is the one on the very left of the picture, in the red box. Second of all, my GPU doesnt have a fan either so that cannot be tweaked either and the one I am primarily referring to, is apparently running at 100%. Now SpeedFan allows me to change voltages but I do not want to stuff around with that despite the help and read_me files avaliable. Well, maybe....

currently both CPU cores are reading 63 C and 64 C respectively. :(:(:(

[Reacon]

Well, I finally have come to the conclusion that my graphics card doesnt have a thermostat in it (very silly of GeForce I might admit) or else it would be shown.

None of the programs allow me to change the current speed of my fan to anything higher than it currently is, the I am referring to is the one on the very left of the picture, in the red box. Second of all, my GPU doesnt have a fan either so that cannot be tweaked either and the one I am primarily referring to, is apparently running at 100%. Now SpeedFan allows me to change voltages but I do not want to stuff around with that despite the help and read_me files avaliable. Well, maybe....

currently both CPU cores are reading 63 C and 64 C respectively. :( :( :(

You sir, need a new CPU heatsink. And actually, perhaps a new computer.

If you are seeing that high idle temps, I couldn't imagine what they would be while playing Spore.

[Guest]

Before writing off your computer, I'd first add an intake fan and an outtake fan.

Then, buy some decent quality thermal compound, clean off all the old stuff, reapply and see how it goes!

If nothing else, you should see something like a 20c drop in temps, perhaps more if all your old compound dried up from your previously poor airflow.

also, imo, the best temp monitoring app is hwmonitor. It obviously won't help if you don't have thermal sensors but even my old 7600gt has them, it'd be surprising if your card doesn't have them...

[jnelsoninjax]

currently both CPU cores are reading 63 C and 64 C respectively. :( :( :(

You really need a fan on the CPU, a heatsink alone is not sufficient enough, and you should grab a 120mm fan and place on the 'Potential Spot', you should notice a rather significant drop in temps, also grab some Artic Silver thermal compound, and apply a rice sized drop to the surface of the CPU and that also will help with the temp issues! I would also suggest getting some thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier for cleaning the old stuff off I would recommend as the other have that you look for a GPU cooler, look here for a wide selection of GPU coolers!

[MeddleMan]

Well, I have bought an Artic F8 Pro PWM fan for the outtake, has a 3 pin (only one is used) plug to monitor fan speed, and has a 4 pin power supply and allows the original fan to piggy back on it's plug. Quite ingenious if I say so myself. And a good thing too because for some reason I cannot locate another 4 pin power point on the board.

Which brings me to my second thing, the Northbridge. It was measuring temperatures around 60^o C Now there is a northbridge cooler that I have my eye on:

Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II Northbridge Chipset Cooler - ~link~

Seems pretty good and will help with general airflow inside, but after hunting around for the type of power supply it uses (4 pin, 3 pin, 2 pin....) I find that it uses a 3 pin connector.

Well....I do have a 3 pin connection but it is currently used by the Artic F8 Pro fan to monitor fan speed. My question is, is it possible to have it the Northbridge cooler powered by that 3 pin port, AND piggy back on that to monitor fan speed for the Arctic F8 Pro? Or will it monitor both/seperately (distinguish between the two)? Or should I just abandon monitoring the fan speed of the Arctic F8 Pro at all and just let the Northbridge cooler hog it all for itself.

By the way, I am deciding on this VGA cooler because it has external fan control, does not dominator the whole card, is inexpensive and uses the mains power, an outlet I DO have. My 7650 GS, as good/crap as it is, does not have a 3 pin connection on it, only 2, which will not allow me to get this cooler, as much as I want to. But unless somebody has a way around this, I'll take the first one I mentioned.

EDIT: Hey could I piggy back on my original 3 pin and have both VGA and Chipset cooler running off the same port? :D

[MeddleMan]

Here's the pic with labels

Edited October 25, 2009 by MeddleMan