Heating issues -any one struck this?

G'day all, while trying to move my system into an older retro box I have encountered heat problems due to the lack of ventilation built in. After a couple of crashes I checked the cpu temp in bios to find it running at 90+ deg when idle. That's 40deg above optimum. With the case open it dropped back to around 65. That's where it's stayed while I shop for a new case. I experimented by closing some background programs to see if I could get things a bit cooler in the short term, with little effect until I turned off the distributed computing program 'Folding at home', that should be sitting there waiting for the machine to be idle overnight before getting busy. As soon as it was closed my cpu temp dropped 20deg! It's now running along in the low 40's. Anyone had a similar experience?

Cheers

 

Welcome to Major Geeks.
Am currently running FaH on 2 machines, 1 XP Home and 1 Vista Home Premium.
Both are left running 24/7, but never get to the temps you describe.
If I turn FaH off, temps MAY go down 10-12 degrees F.
When was the last time the thermal paste was refreshed on your CPU/heat sink?
What OS and box combo?

 

Oh ya, been there done that on my i7 though not for long.:eek However, I was overclocking and running F@H. Besides the compound, is it the stock HS/F and is the fan running nicely and up to proper speed? The only reason that I mention this is my fan was slowly dying and I had to underclock the Q6600 to be able to still run it. It was all full of hair and smoking crud!

 

HI there.
Most of us guys who run folding@home have run into this problem and good ventilation is the answer.
Also if the CPU got so hot it may have destroyed the properties of the thermal paste so it would be a good idea to clean off and replace.

I tried to build a power PC into a desk but it generated so much heat it was unbelievable and after putting as many as 6 X 120mm fans in the desk i had to give up.

You could make holes in the case and install fans but i suppose that would defeat the object of making it look retro.

 

G'day again, I'm running Win7 in an old ATX, fresh paste and near new fan on the original (Athlon 64 x2 4600, 2.44ghz) heat sink. I'm replacing the box which will solve my general heating issues, but F@H remains problematic. From your replies it seems this is not an isolated incident and as such I can not be comfortable to continue contributing to the project. I could not justify devoting so much of the cpu usage and stress to what is only meant to run in the background in idle periods. This must cause problems for other programs running.
Is this known to be unique to F@H or could I expect similar issues with other distributed computing programs?

 

One of my machines is a Gateway E-4100 (small form factor) that is cramped for space.
Runs F@H 24/7 and temps never get above 135F.
That is below the limit for the CPU.
Running on XP Home and 3GB RAM.

Never saw, but in your post #1, are those temps in F or C?

 

I haven't had any issues with F@H and other programs as it releases as much CPU as extra is needed, you'ld be surprised at how few cycles are really needed to surf or even watch a video. Your normal idle temp. of 65C is too high, my X2 3800 only went up to 70C @ %100 and 90C for AMD is in the danger zone. Since you live in Oz, and it's summer, how hot is your your room?

You can't fold with that machine or even play heavier games until you solve this issue first,

 

G'day and thanks for your input.
To hrlow2: Those are in Centigrade.

To augiedoggie, currently only about the mid 20's C, but soon will be mid 30's +.

Without F@H it's running at high 30's to mid 40's. I had no problems (that I was aware of) before in a mid tower box, and I'm confident a new modern box and heat sink (in the post) will chill things out. I'm just wary of letting F@H run now if it causes such heating.

I've posted in "Hardware" about monitoring the rig with my Wind netbook and hope that can help me watch what is going on.

Cheers

 

+1 on that issue

Folding will stress the whole system if you run at 100% utilization of idle cycles. I previously ran a P4 as one of my main rigs (at work) and during the summer months set the usage at 90% rather than 100%. This took the edge off the max usage and kept the stock fan from cycling up as much, indicating the heat generated was not near the max threshold.

 

BOINC is the same as folding as far as hardware is concerned. I'm currently running Rosetta on both my i7 and Q6600 for a fall harvest contest and the temps are exactly the same at the same settings of course. As to non-participation, that's just not an option.

The OP has a heat issue, plain and simple which has to be addressed first. Idle temps of mid 30's is fine, maybe check the BIOS for a 'quiet fan' fan option and turn that service off.