Comp make dies and makes weird noises.

Hey guys, I was wondering if anybody can help me out since I'm about ready to toss my computer off the balcony. My computer randomly dies and starts making weird beeping noises. My computer will be on before the screen goes black and I hear a high pitch tone, a low pitch tone, then a high pitch tone, and then it finally just shuts off. Sometimes when I turn it on immediately afterwards the cycle repeats and it turns off again.

I thought my comp was overheating so I cleaned out all of the dust; it still crashed. I formatted my hard drives and reinstalled windows; it still crashed (now one of my hard drives is messed up for nothing. If you think you can help please see my other post http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/124527).

It seems to crash randomly; even when it is not doing anything but remaining on. If anybody has any idea what is causing this or has any suggestions please let me know. Here are my specs:

AMD 2600 2.9 GHZ, 1.0 GB RAM, Sony DRU-500A DVD Writer, Maxtor 6Y200P0 ( 250 GB Drive only recognized as 128 GB), Lite-on LTR 52327S CD Writer, ATI Radeon 9200.

 

sorry ddp, I misread the speed. It's running at 2.09 GHZ.

 

That high pitch / low pitch / high pitch sounds like when you have the bios warning enabled for when your processor reaches a certain temperature. The turning off part could be when it reaches the "turn off" temperature to protect the processor.

 

Unfortunately I don't have another video card to test. How do I check the hardware monitor to see the status of temps, voltages, and fans? Divinus I'm not sure, but I think you are right. I think it might have something to do with temperature. Any ideas on how to fix it? The shut off is sporadic and random; my computer has been on for about 3 hours with no problems.

 

I'd find and install SiSoft Sandra 2004. Run it and see what it says your CPU temperature is. If you can't get ahold of this program there are tons of programs out there that will tell you what your CPU temp is or will get pretty accurate.

In your BIOS, there should be a power settings or somethnig similar area. Head to it and you should be able to see the current CPU temp, etc... This area should also contain the warning temperature for your CPU and the shut off Temp. See what these two are in porportion to your CPU temp.

 

and if you can get into the bios.. reinstate optimized settings... it might be in the advanced settings, or one of the "F" keys... look to the bottom of the screen where the "F" keys are stated

 

I went into my bios and checked the temperatures like you guys said. Here's what I found:

Current system temp 30 degrees C
CPU Temp 68 degrees C

CPU Fan Fail Warning (Disabled)
System Fan Fil Warning (Disabled)

Are these numbers normal?

 

So what should the ideal temperature be for a CPU?

 

Yeah, ddp is right. 30s and 40s are accurate for AMD. If you're sitting there idling in the BIOS and your CPU has no load what so ever and running @ 68°C, that's bad. When you boot into windows and start putting loads on it I'm sure the thing is probably getting into the 70°Cs. I think 85 or 90 is the kill temp for Athlons.

Make sure you enable that CPU Fan failure warning as it's running fairly hot as it is.

The only things I can think of that cause it to get this hot are:

1. Crappy Crappy fan, I have a Volcano 5 on an Athlon 1800+ and it runs near the 70s at times.
2. Bad thermal grease application. Sometimes when it's your first time and you're really not sure how to put it on you tend to put either too much or not enough and the heatsync base doesn't sit right on the processor dye.
3. Your fan is going bad. Slowing down and not cooling the processor like it should.

I'd also like to take the time and ask you what the average temperature in the room where your computer is. This can have a huge impact on your cooling. Albeit, your case temperature seems ok so I don't think room ambience is the culprit.

 

30 to 40 degrees! Wow guys I'm in the danger zone then. Today the fan temp went all the way up to 96 degrees!I looked at the CPU fan and it had a lot of dust on it and appeared to spin slow. So I unscrewed the fan and cleande the dust with q-tips. I let my computer cool down before booting up to see what would happen. When I started it up again and let the comp sit in bios mode the temp rose from 60 degrees all the way to 80 degrees.

Divinus, you bring up another good point. My computer sits right in front of the air conditioning unit. It's winter time here in San Francisco and my heater is on. So I guess that might have something to do with it indefinitely. Tomorrow I will go to Fry's electronics and try to pick up a new fan. Any recomendations on fan types?

Also, what is a heat sync and how difficult is it to replace. I'll take whatever precautions to cool my comp down. Is the heat snyc that thing that is directly under the fan? Thanks again for your help everyone; your assistance is much appreciated.

 

Yeah, lol sorry about my grammatical mistakes. The heat sink is just the metal piece that actually connects with your prcoessor's dye. The metal is a good conductor of heat and draws the heat directly off of the processor dye. The fan then sits on top of the heat sink and pulls the heat off of it. Basically when searching for a heat sink it's good to get one that's made of copper or at least has a copper base as copper is very conductive.

I'd go with something that's Thermalright brand but that's just what I've used from experience. I hear Zalman and the higher end Volcano series from Thermaltake are quite good.

Also, where did your current fan/heat sink combo come from? Was it stock with the processor?

 

My heat sink/fan combo is stock I guess. It is the one that came with my computer. I will go to the electronic store tomorrow and purchase both parts. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes.

Oh, by the way I forgot to tell you how many fans I have in my system. I have to fans on the side cover of my computer, one on the CPU, and one by the power source.

 

Yeah, good idea. I'd go ahead and get one of the higher end Volcano series.

Just make sure that you're careful when mounting the heatsink on the board. Honestly, I would never even attempt to mount a big heatsink on a board without it being out of the case. You could potentially crush your processor dye and even smash the socket (seen it done before). A lot of the time it can be difficult to get the side prongs to latch onto the socket, especially with non-stock big heatsinks. Just be careful and you should be fine. I'd also grab some nice Arctic Silver thermal grease while you're at the electronics store. Good luck!

 

Thanks Divinus and DDP I'll give it a try. I've never replaced a heat sink or fan before; but it's not too difficult? What does Artic Thermal silver Grease do?