[Caael]

Recently, my computer has been overheating and shutting down without warning. For a week or two, it's been inconsistent, maybe once a day or one day it did it 3 times in the space of an hour. But on Saturday, it started doing it every 10 or so minutes, before shutting down and deleting/closing anything I was working on, such as work for school.

It's getting increasingly problematic, as it's got to the point where I can just about open a new word document before turning off.

I know the problem is overheating, because when I turn it back on, it comes up with a warning message in the start up saying 'CPU temperature critical' or something to that extent.

I've taken the side off, both fans are working, it's been moved away from any walls that could trap heat, and the problem persists.

Any suggestions on how to fix this problem?

[Kuchiyose]

You haven't overclocked it? What type of CPU is it? Maybe a faster fan maybe needed or a water cooling system?

[Caael]

Wouldn't overclock because I odnt want to take the risk of buggering it up even more.

The CPU is 1.7 single core or something around that in terms of ghz, so nothing that would create massive amounts of heat. It's had the same problem before, but I thought Asus had fixed that when I sent it in for repairs. This time I want to know why this is happening, how can I fix it and how I can prevent it again, instead of sending it off for a temporal fix like last time.

[Kuchiyose]

Hmmm only idea that comes to midn is to either buy a new cpu fan (something faster to keep it cooler) or take it apart and clean all fans, if problem continues then check the cpu status in the BIOS menus, that could give a better view on what the problem really is.

[Caael]

I'm not to savvy with software, what's the BIOS menu's, and how do I access them?

[Split Infinity]

Whenever you boot up a PC there's usually a message in the corner telling you to press a certain key to access the boot menu, probably F2 or something similar. From there you can mess around with the hardware settings, though I wouldn't recommend it if you're clueless on how to use it.

I'm guessing that either your fan is dying, or your machine is clogged with dust, in which case you can probably just get out a dust buster and clean around the fan. Just be careful not to pull anything off the motherboard.

[Caael]

I'll have a go at getting the dust away, because it's like a tomb in there.

If that doesn't work, i'll have to assume that it's the fans dying and change them.

[Toasty]

Dust, or a failing fan are your most likely problems. If dust is clogging a heatsink or an air vent, then the air either can't circulate (and thus can't cool anything down), or can't cool down the heatsink.

If it's a failing fan, you'll need to replace it. If it's an older system, especially if it's not custom, it could be hard finding a replacement that fits the fan port on your system.

Some older systems would occaisionally use their own designs for things like connectors, etc.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say you have a Dell from 2002-2005ish? Unless it's a custom system.


Anyway, clear away the dust, and then turn on your computer with the case open. Look at all the fans to see if they're spinning.

Also, download SpeedFan. It's a free utility that will tell you the temperatures in you system (CPU, Northbridge, ambient temperature inside the case), and it'll tell you the speed at which your fans are running. I'd also go to it's S.M.A.R.T. tab and have it check your hard drive for problems.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

[Split Infinity]

Hot dang, since when does SpeedFan work on my laptop?

[Caael]

Well I cleaned out the fan and it seemed to have worked; hasn't overheated in about 12 hours now.

I think it must be because my room is close to a road, and in the summer that road gets incredibly dusty, and a lot of it comes through my window I find.



And call me a noob, but I cant find a download link anywhere on the SpeedFan page.

[Toasty]

http://www.almico.com/speedfan434.exe

Noob. ;)

[Split Infinity]

Wtf, you didn't notice the big Download button at the top of the page?

[inthenameofDT]

Split Infinity, on Jul 8 2008, 04:38 AM, said:

Hot dang, since when does SpeedFan work on my laptop?

everything but the video card reader on speedfan is accurate for me.

EDIT: yeah seems like these guys got it covered for you. Speedfan will tell you the temperatures of various things, and dust or a bad fan connection are your most probable problems.

once a month or so i'll take a shop-vac to my laptop's vents, but since i use this thing now and not my laptop, i dont really worry about it.