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General discussion

system freezes-high cpu temp

by bigali046 Feb 7, 2004 6:14PM PST

I have a self built system with a xp pro,1800 athlon processor,512 sdram and 128 mb graphics card.after a short while my system freezes.Ive run anti virus and adware programs without finding anything.I checked my cpu temp and it is running over 50 degrees c,is this normal or high.both case and cpu fans are working.this has just started happening over last 5-6 days.

please help al.

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2 Posts

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Re:system freezes-high cpu temp

by Yew Feb 7, 2004 7:43PM PST

That temp is on the high end of normal operating temps for an AthlonXP 1800+. It should be able to withstand temps up to about 80C, but I wouldn't recomend putting it to the test.

However, if you have a 128MB video card chances are it's a fairly high end card, which will also be generating a lot of heat (especially if it's a GeForce4 or FX). Many times the video card will suffer a problem due to heat and will lock up the display. Even though the system is still running perfectly fine, you just can't see it. Make sure there's plenty of ventilation by your video card. Some motherboard and case designs really cram the AGP slot next to things like the RAM and PCI slots and so heat from the video card has nowhere to go.

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Re:system freezes-high cpu temp

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Feb 7, 2004 9:18PM PST

Let's run down a short list:

1. The power supply is a whopper. Try 450 Watts to stay away from power issues and aging problems.

2. The machine has no pests or parasites found by the tools I note at http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6132-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=1313&start=0
CWSHREDDER moved to http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html

3. The motherboard capacitors show no bulging or leaking such as we see at http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

4. The CPU you note is commonly found to be about 50-60C without issue.

5. Settings to stabilize such machines appear to be moving the FSB from 133 to 100 or 266 to 200 MHz and the AGP RATE to 1X. After its stable, the settings can be tested one by one to see if it remains stable. I can't tell you where in the BIOS these settings are since there is no standard for this.

6. A failing video card can cause such a crash. Try this. remove the case cover, point a fan at it and see if it's better or same.

Bob