PC can't handle heavy useage

Hi

Debut post on the site for me, so here goes...

System spec:

ASUS P4PE-X Intel P4 Motherboard
2.433 Ghz Pentium 4 processor, 512K
Zalman Ultra Quiet CPU fan for P4 478pin
512Mb DDR333 PC2700 Memory
120Gb 7200 rpm Hard Drive
M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 soundcard
64Mb AGP ATI Radeon Graphics Card
Windows XP professional Service Pack 2

The PC was built to order by Red Submarine (UK) and is about 3 years old. My problem is that my PC runs very smoothly when in moderate use, but freezes / crashes when I run an application that demands a bit more juice. I now use the PC for music production and run Cubase SX, Wavelab and Abbleton Live, however as soon as I get to a fairly early stage on any project the PC crashes - 4 audio tracks / 3 soft synths / 8-bar loop. I have also had corrupted files and much random, ear-piercing noise (not intentional).

Initial thoughts - having read up both here and elsewhere and done all the usual cleaning-up, etc. - is that (a) my CPU is running too hot and (b) I need more RAM.

My CPU - using both ASUS Probe and Everset - appears to be running at between 60 and 75C when idle up to medium use (internet surfing, iTunes, word processing, etc.). For some reason I can't monitor the fan speed with either application (?) so I'm not sure about speeds, but the fan runs at all times. I have recently carefully cleaned out the inside of my tower (using compressed air, etc.) and there has been some improvement, however it still runs at up to 90C when pushed. That said, latest 2 examples were while running a virus scan and when my screensaver kicked in - both 90C!

Any ideas why I may be burning up?

Re. RAM, I recently bought 2 1Gb cards of DDR PC3200 to replace my current 512Mb though I have since read that I need an 800Mhz pro to run this correctly. I think the PC will just run at a slower speed, but will installing this memory damage the MB in any way? I may upgrade the CPU in the future, but I'd like to sort this issue out first as I think the PC I have should be performing much better.

I'm technically quite hopeless 'noobie stylee' so please bare with me. Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

 

Hi, welcome to the forum.

What size is your PSU? (Just in case you are a bit under -powered)

And with the apps you are running yes stuff in as much RAM as you can afford.

 

You have some serious cooling issues. Has this been a problem since you got the machine, or something that started more recently?

 

Thanks for the response.

Do you mean Front Size Bus size? If so;

Bus width - 64 Bit
Real Clock - 133Mhz
Effective Clock - 533 Mhz
Bandwidth - 4267 MB/s

Apologies if not. As I said, bit of a noobie duffus...

 

Bluepickle,

Unfortunately I didn't really use the PC for the first year as I had serious structural issues with my flat and had to put all my stuff away. Consequently, I have only really started driving it hard in the last 6 months or so. The problems with the crashing / freezing only appeared then.

I only started monitoring the CPU about 2 months ago, which prompted me to do a clean-up, so I can't tell you how long it has ben overheating.

One thing - I used to occasionally get a 'Hardware Error' message when the PC was booting up. My girlfriend looked into it a bit and mumbled something about a fan, though she did post something on this website and was told not to worry about it.

This message hasn't appeared at all since I started to monitor the temperature, which is ironic.

 

Everest was telling me that my cpu was running at 93C no load, which is outrageously unrealistic, and I'm pretty sure my computer would have shut down by then anyways, so there may be a chance that you are running cooler than you think.

What does your BIOS show?

 

Thanks to all who replied.

Changed my fan and fired in 2 Gigs of RAM. CPU temperature now a more respectable 36C and PC working very smooth.

Cubase still doesn't work though. Oh well, over to the Steinberg forum...