Another Computer question--apparent overheating

[LMTC]

3-1/2 year old PC has taken to turning itself off. It does seem warm, so I am guessing it is overheating. I do clean my PCs, and this one was not bad when I opened the case. I cleaned it anyway, it continues, sometimes running several hours. In the case I have: a small fan mounted on the rear of the case, a smaller fan that appears to be over the motherboard/processor, and both of these seem to be spinning fine. Power supply is up top, rear, with one fan which SEEMS to be blowing out of the case, but also seems weak to me (i.e, I have a difficult time even telling it is blowing...but it is). I replaced the PS about 18 months ago as the last one started making bad noises.

My questions:
Based on the above info do any of you with PC building experience think it is NOT the power supply fan that is the problem?

If I need a new PS, is there any downside to going for a higher wattage? Should I get one with multiple fans? What's the deal with 20, 20+4, and 24 pin? (current PS is 380w, PC has an Athlon 2200+ processor, 2 hard drives, DVD bay, DVD/CD etc. writer, and 3.5" floppy....so not a lot of power requirements)

Thank you for any and all input.

 

[waynokakid]

I had a similar problem with my 3 year old computer. I burn up one hard drive. Finally found out that is was utilities or power company and or old house wiring. The power was dropping to below brown out voltage. . Anyway I solved the problem by getting a UPS (uninteruptibale power supply). If you don't have one suggest you get one.

 

[LMTC]

Using a UPS, have a voltage meter on the line inside the house, check it from time to time. No real problems here in terms of spikes or drops for many years...though there was when we bought the meter. Actually have two desktops and one laptop in the same area, along with two printers, monitor, etc., so all would suffer if it was main power supply from the wiring.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( one fan which SEEMS to be blowing out of the case, but also seems weak to me )</font>

I think most folks here know I'm a computer dummy, but a few months ago my old Dell had one of the fans start making some noise, and it didn't seem to be moving much air. I never had it get hot enough to shut down, but I normally leave the computer on all the time and when it started that, I shut it down and only turned it on for short periods of time for a few days until I found that I could quite easily replace that fan with a new one from CompUSA. I can't remember now what it cost, but it wasn't much.

 

[DUMBDOG]

Had the same problem and replaced the main fan and power supply, still had the same problem. Purchased a cpu fan and was going to replace that next, took off the old one and the cpu was full of dust and lint sucked up from the fan, cleaned this up, never did replace the cpu fan and it has been a year without a problem.

 

[texasjohn]

A clean inside is good.

Fans that work without too much noise is good.

A UPS is mandatory, many reasons, and don't forget to get one that isolates your phone/cable internet connection as well... this is where more electrical spikes come in than the power cord.

I had a recent experience with wife's computer. I set her up with a new one and it would suddenly go into hybernate mode and not respond to keyboard when rebooted. Several times a day. Long story while we sought to determine cause. Eventually I replaced the keyboard and this solved the problem.

 

[Bird]

When I opened my computer to check on that fan, I was surprised at how much dust and lint was in there. My air compressor worked wonders on it. So last week, I opened it again and used the air compressor on it before it could get so bad.

 

[5030tinkerer]

There are utilities out there, typically offered for free by motherboard manufacturers, that can tell you what temperatures your system is running at. I had a system run hot and fry the cpu once, all because someone had neglected to place enough heat transfer lube (I forget the exact name off hand) between the cpu and cpu heatsink. Pulling the cpu heatsink and placing that grease in there dropped the temps by about 30 degrees, but the damage had already been done. There is no drawback to upping the wattage capability of a power supply. All power supplies are not made equal. Antec makes a good product.

 

[RoyJackson]

"There are utilities out there, typically offered for free by motherboard manufacturers..."


Here's one I've used: Speed Fan

This shows the various temperatures on you Main Board/CPU.

As far as the original poster's comments about overheating and upgrading the power supply....

As others have mentioned, increasing the power supply's wattage during a replacement won't hurt a thing. But that may not solve your problem.
I'd remove the case cover for a week or so first...see if that helps. If the PC still shuts down, I'd renew the thermal paste between the CPU and Mainboard.
If there is a video card, especially a high powered card, pull that out for a few days...see if your machine still shuts down.

In my experience, if a power supply goes south, the PC won't boot past POST, if it starts at all. But I do think you have an over heating problem.

 

[JerryG]

About a year ago, I thought that my motherboard had gone south. It would keep trying to boot and never make it past the welcome screen. I took it to the computer shop that I have used for several years. They had always had a very good PC tech even thought it is an Apple store. He was very 60s and very eccentric, but was also very good. He had left and the new guy that had replaced him was Mister geek looking with at least 20 certificates on the wall. I thought well, Jay was gone but I would give this guy a try since I was already there. In a few days he calls and said that the motherboard, chip and other things were fried and it would be cheaper to just replace the computer. He had found that it was full of dust and over heated. I took it home. About a week later, I got to thinking about the way that it was acting and I didn't think that it was fried, just getting to warm. I brought it in and plugged it in. It worked just like new and has ever since. I am still looking for a new tech that knows what he is doing.