overheating on amd apu.

[herrmant]

I was playing dirt 3 on high settings, as usual with no problems until I started getting low frames and I began seeing graphics artifacts. I have provided an example that is very similar to what I have seen. The screen froze, I immediately exited the game and the system was way to SLOW and the screen flashed black and displayed a x32 error. I was able to access msi control center which was open and recording tempo and showed temps at 146*c without shutting down, the system completely froze, more artifacts on my desktop, the temp reduces to 93*c and the system entered them all shutdown. Any Ideas on what happened? I know I have a serious overheating problem on my had and I am in the process of replacing the apu and getting a real video card. http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/badgpu.jpg

 

[herrmant]

Forgot to post,
Specs are
Amd a6 3650 with radeon 6530d
Zalman cpnx5 cpu cooler
Msi a55 m p33
450 watt psu.

 

[Nerdboy]

Assuming your on a desktop have you checked the thermal paste? I have had to replace mine before and it can drop the temps. If the temps exceed a limit it will shut the pc down to cool it. If the mobo over heats it should beep after shut down.

 

[herrmant]

Opened the case, their was thermal paste bubble all over the heat sink and the dreaded smell of burning semiconductor near the cpu. It still boots and runs, the system temp was 98*f when it had the artifacts.

 

[herrmant]

Now my temp says 0*c in the bios and in control center.

 

[Nerdboy]

Burning smell can be very serous ... You may want to check into liquid coolant for a apu. If the paste its self is bubbling that's way to much heat for the apu... Are you adding any voltages or anything?

Try removing the heatsink and scraping the paste back under it and put it back on. Also make sure fan runs (keep case open best for air flow)

 

[herrmant]

No, everything is set to stock settings. Core #3 won't leave 800mhz now. Even if I bump clock speeds up 100mhz, it only goes to 805mhz.

 

[Nerdboy]

Seems as if the heat sink is having issues cooling off... How many fans are in the case? And what size are they ? (Small - meduim - large so I can try to visualize it) and were are the fans placed? Make sure the heatsink is also properly installed ... That may help a lot

 

[herrmant]

I have a 92mm fan in the back along with 2 80 mm lighted intake fans on the top. The heat sink is installed properly and was cooling just fine for months until today. I use to run 98* f playing that game before.

 

[herrmant]

The 80mns are controlled externally by a 12v DC power supply. Does not connect to the mobo.

 

[Nerdboy]

Have you tried to take it off and put the bubbling paste back under it?

 

[herrmant]

Will do that. I guess after the only way to find out would be th play the game.

 

[Nerdboy]

Or run a stress test, make sure case is open it may not be getting enough cool air and forced to run on same hot air.

 

[herrmant]

Repeated the heat sink and applied new thermal paste, I think what is smelled burning was some of the paste because there was a blackend spot, as it started to burn, ran the amd overdrive benchmark, got a score of 4992, that is actually higher than before, ran dirt 3 for a while, I got some pink /purple pixilated lines only when crashing into a tree at high speeds followed by a slight drop on fps. I am not sure if it is damaged because I only ran 102*f when playing.

 

[herrmant]

Thanks for your help!!

 

[Nerdboy]

No problem, also fans not plugged into the mother board can run slower then needed and wanted. I reccomend gpu and cpu fan plugged into board other then that use your psu

 

[herrmant]

The cpu fan is plugged into the board, I am going to replace that apu as well as add a dedicated gpu asap as I think the apu won't last for that long. It's actually 2.5 years old.

 

[Nerdboy]

Ahh yeah ... I hope I was able to help dude, if your new: welcome to the forums

 

[herrmant]

Thanks.