Question needs answering

[mvillescas]

Hello all,

I have recently done some upgrades to my computer and I still keep running into problems concerning the CPU I believe.

My computer:

Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000
Win 7 64bit Home Premium
i7 960 @3.20GHz (Bloomfield)
Default system BIOS A16 version from Dell
9216 MB RAM
DirectX 11
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
EVGA 600 B powers supply
x58 Motherboard/Chipset

I have this problem when playing SimCity 5 where I can play maybe for two hours then the computer will just restart or freeze. If it freezes I have to hold the power button to get it to shutoff. I believe my CPU may be overheating so I bought a new 120mm fan for the front to draw in air, a new rear 92mm fan to blow out air. Its a switch fan set to the highest setting. I then bought a new 80mm fan to sit on the heatsink for the CPU. I still have the problems with the computer shutting off.

While playing I noticed the my CPU temps hit Mid 70c to low 80c across all 4 cores.

When the computer is idle the CPU temps range from high 40c to mid 50c. Is my CPU getting too hot causing the shutdown? I mean Simcity isn't the most demanding game like BF4 or Titan Fall?

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[GorfTheFrog]

Hi -
When you say that you recently made some upgrades, can you be more specific? What in your hardware and/or configuration did you change?

After your upgrades, did you run any stress test utilities like Prime95 or Memtest?

The RAM number looks strange to me. 9216 MB looks like you have 8MB + 1MB installed. While this is possible, it may not be helping you.

Can you give us a bit more insight, and then we'll see if we can help from there.

###

 

[coolcole01]

Before it does it do you hear a fan ramp up could be your psu 80 is hot but not crazy

 

[mvillescas]

Hi -
When you say that you recently made some upgrades, can you be more specific? What in your hardware and/or configuration did you change?

After your upgrades, did you run any stress test utilities like Prime95 or Memtest?

The RAM number looks strange to me. 9216 MB looks like you have 8MB + 1MB installed. While this is possible, it may not be helping you.

Can you give us a bit more insight, and then we'll see if we can help from there.

###

Yes it's weird so 9216mb is actuality 9GB of RAM I just don't know why Dell displays it like that under DXDIAG. I haven't changed anything but the video card. I changed out the stock fans for some better self adjusting fans. I haven't ran a stress test but I downloaded Driver Booster to make sure all my drivers were up to date.

 

[mvillescas]

Before it does it do you hear a fan ramp up could be your psu 80 is hot but not crazy

Honestly I couldn't tell you. The rear fan is on high all the time. However when it froze all the fans sounded loud. In the room I was playing in the room was probably 10 degrees warmer then the rest of the house. I have the computer on a desk in the open.

 

[coastie65]

From what I could find, that thing came with an i7 920 ( 2.66 Ghz ) and it now has an i7 960 3.2 Ghz. That case does not have great ventilation from I've seen. Factor in a faster CPU and very limited air flow, you are most likely going to have somewhat higher temps. I have a Gateway FX 6800 - 01e that I went from a 920 to 960, but it does have better ventilation and airflow ( has a 120mm Fan in the rear, but no intake fan. Another thing you best keep an eye on and that is the Northbridge. I had to add a fan on the heatsink as that thing got way too warm. One other thing I noticed, but has nothing to do with this issue and that is you are running 9gb of ram. That memory on the X58 MOBO is Tri Channel If you are running 6 Gb bits in three slots and 3 Gb in the other three slots ( Matched sets ) then it should be fine, if not, than that could give you problems.

 

[mvillescas]

From what I could find, that thing came with an i7 920 ( 2.66 Ghz ) and it now has an i7 960 3.2 Ghz. That case does not have great ventilation from I've seen. Factor in a faster CPU and very limited air flow, you are most likely going to have somewhat higher temps. I have a Gateway FX 6800 - 01e that I went from a 920 to 960, but it does have better ventilation and airflow ( has a 120mm Fan in the rear, but no intake fan. Another thing you best keep an eye on and that is the Northbridge. I had to add a fan on the heatsink as that thing got way too warm. One other thing I noticed, but has nothing to do with this issue and that is you are running 9gb of ram. That memory on the X58 MOBO is Tri Channel If you are running 6 Gb bits in three slots and 3 Gb in the other three slots ( Matched sets ) then it should be fine, if not, than that could give you problems.

Yea I bought it from Dell with the i7 960 3.2ghz. The tower as open ventilation on the bottom side by the video card and front. I was thinking of upgrading the heatsink next with new thermal paste. What is the Northbridge and how do I tell the temp? What do you mean by matched sets?

 

[coastie65]

From what I could find, that thing came with an i7 920 ( 2.66 Ghz ) and it now has an i7 960 3.2 Ghz. That case does not have great ventilation from I've seen. Factor in a faster CPU and very limited air flow, you are most likely going to have somewhat higher temps. I have a Gateway FX 6800 - 01e that I went from a 920 to 960, but it does have better ventilation and airflow ( has a 120mm Fan in the rear, but no intake fan. Another thing you best keep an eye on and that is the Northbridge. I had to add a fan on the heatsink as that thing got way too warm. One other thing I noticed, but has nothing to do with this issue and that is you are running 9gb of ram. That memory on the X58 MOBO is Tri Channel If you are running 6 Gb bits in three slots and 3 Gb in the other three slots ( Matched sets ) then it should be fine, if not, than that could give you problems.

Yea I bought it from Dell with the i7 960 3.2ghz. The tower as open ventilation on the bottom side by the video card and front. I was thinking of upgrading the heatsink next with new thermal paste. What is the Northbridge and how do I tell the temp? What do you mean by matched sets?

And new cooling solution ( heat sink and fan ) can't hurt. The Northbridge is on the motherboard below the DIMM ( memory ) slots and has a heat sink over it.

 

[mvillescas]

From what I could find, that thing came with an i7 920 ( 2.66 Ghz ) and it now has an i7 960 3.2 Ghz. That case does not have great ventilation from I've seen. Factor in a faster CPU and very limited air flow, you are most likely going to have somewhat higher temps. I have a Gateway FX 6800 - 01e that I went from a 920 to 960, but it does have better ventilation and airflow ( has a 120mm Fan in the rear, but no intake fan. Another thing you best keep an eye on and that is the Northbridge. I had to add a fan on the heatsink as that thing got way too warm. One other thing I noticed, but has nothing to do with this issue and that is you are running 9gb of ram. That memory on the X58 MOBO is Tri Channel If you are running 6 Gb bits in three slots and 3 Gb in the other three slots ( Matched sets ) then it should be fine, if not, than that could give you problems.

Yea I bought it from Dell with the i7 960 3.2ghz. The tower as open ventilation on the bottom side by the video card and front. I was thinking of upgrading the heatsink next with new thermal paste. What is the Northbridge and how do I tell the temp? What do you mean by matched sets?

And new cooling solution ( heat sink and fan ) can't hurt. The Northbridge is on the motherboard below the DIMM ( memory ) slots and has a heat sink over it.

So I'm a newb when it comes to understanding everything on my computer. I ran the prime95 stress test for about 10 minutes. During the test I monitored the CPU temp. I also received error messages:

[Thu Apr 10 17:33:45 2014]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
[Thu Apr 10 17:43:50 2014]
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!

The temps were around 100, 98, 98, 100 celcius. Then they changed to 100, 75, 98, 73. What does this mean? After the test the temps went down to mid 50's across the board.

 

[coastie65]

From what I could find, that thing came with an i7 920 ( 2.66 Ghz ) and it now has an i7 960 3.2 Ghz. That case does not have great ventilation from I've seen. Factor in a faster CPU and very limited air flow, you are most likely going to have somewhat higher temps. I have a Gateway FX 6800 - 01e that I went from a 920 to 960, but it does have better ventilation and airflow ( has a 120mm Fan in the rear, but no intake fan. Another thing you best keep an eye on and that is the Northbridge. I had to add a fan on the heatsink as that thing got way too warm. One other thing I noticed, but has nothing to do with this issue and that is you are running 9gb of ram. That memory on the X58 MOBO is Tri Channel If you are running 6 Gb bits in three slots and 3 Gb in the other three slots ( Matched sets ) then it should be fine, if not, than that could give you problems.

Yea I bought it from Dell with the i7 960 3.2ghz. The tower as open ventilation on the bottom side by the video card and front. I was thinking of upgrading the heatsink next with new thermal paste. What is the Northbridge and how do I tell the temp? What do you mean by matched sets?

And new cooling solution ( heat sink and fan ) can't hurt. The Northbridge is on the motherboard below the DIMM ( memory ) slots and has a heat sink over it.

So I'm a newb when it comes to understanding everything on my computer. I ran the prime95 stress test for about 10 minutes. During the test I monitored the CPU temp. I also received error messages:

[Thu Apr 10 17:33:45 2014]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
[Thu Apr 10 17:43:50 2014]
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!

The temps were around 100, 98, 98, 100 celcius. Then they changed to 100, 75, 98, 73. What does this mean? After the test the temps went down to mid 50's across the board.

90c to 100c is not good. At around 100c, your computer will shut down to protect the CPU as a rule.

 

[mvillescas]

From what I could find, that thing came with an i7 920 ( 2.66 Ghz ) and it now has an i7 960 3.2 Ghz. That case does not have great ventilation from I've seen. Factor in a faster CPU and very limited air flow, you are most likely going to have somewhat higher temps. I have a Gateway FX 6800 - 01e that I went from a 920 to 960, but it does have better ventilation and airflow ( has a 120mm Fan in the rear, but no intake fan. Another thing you best keep an eye on and that is the Northbridge. I had to add a fan on the heatsink as that thing got way too warm. One other thing I noticed, but has nothing to do with this issue and that is you are running 9gb of ram. That memory on the X58 MOBO is Tri Channel If you are running 6 Gb bits in three slots and 3 Gb in the other three slots ( Matched sets ) then it should be fine, if not, than that could give you problems.

Yea I bought it from Dell with the i7 960 3.2ghz. The tower as open ventilation on the bottom side by the video card and front. I was thinking of upgrading the heatsink next with new thermal paste. What is the Northbridge and how do I tell the temp? What do you mean by matched sets?

And new cooling solution ( heat sink and fan ) can't hurt. The Northbridge is on the motherboard below the DIMM ( memory ) slots and has a heat sink over it.

So I'm a newb when it comes to understanding everything on my computer. I ran the prime95 stress test for about 10 minutes. During the test I monitored the CPU temp. I also received error messages:

[Thu Apr 10 17:33:45 2014]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
[Thu Apr 10 17:43:50 2014]
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!

The temps were around 100, 98, 98, 100 celcius. Then they changed to 100, 75, 98, 73. What does this mean? After the test the temps went down to mid 50's across the board.

90c to 100c is not good. At around 100c, your computer will shut down to protect the CPU as a rule.

That's what I mean the heat is ridiculous.

 

[GorfTheFrog]

There may be other problems, but you definitely have an overheating problem.

I am a bit perplexed, though, that the only change you've made is the graphics card and now it's failing. Just to confirm, the system was stable before you changed the graphics card?

Hey - does anyone have an idea why just changing the graphics card would make this type of heat differential inside the box? I'm guessing something is pshregem with the overall airflow, and the new graphics card is causing a buildup of heat.

From an airflow perspective, do a quick check and make sure that you are getting inflow and outflow for *all* the fans in your system. I ran into a problem with my rig a while back that the outflow fan was overpowering and pulling air *backwards* through the PSU and the graphics card. Had to make adjustments for this.

 

[mvillescas]

There may be other problems, but you definitely have an overheating problem.

I am a bit perplexed, though, that the only change you've made is the graphics card and now it's failing. Just to confirm, the system was stable before you changed the graphics card?

Hey - does anyone have an idea why just changing the graphics card would make this type of heat differential inside the box? I'm guessing something is pshregem with the overall airflow, and the new graphics card is causing a buildup of heat.

From an airflow perspective, do a quick check and make sure that you are getting inflow and outflow for *all* the fans in your system. I ran into a problem with my rig a while back that the outflow fan was overpowering and pulling air *backwards* through the PSU and the graphics card. Had to make adjustments for this.

So before this graphics card I had an AMD HD5700 series. That card had issues overheating and would often cause BSD crashes. So I found a program to control the fan on the GPU and I was able to keep temps down on the video card. Then the computer would crash and restart or freeze like it's been doing.

Once I got this card and started experiencing the crashes again I started investigating and that's how I got here.

Now I ran the memtest and it completed the pass without any errors. So I ran the Prime test and took this picture:



You can see the temps are ridiculous. This test was only running for 3 mins. I checked the airflow and I can feel the front fan sucking and rear blowing. When I run the Prime test I can hear the CPU fan increase speed. I'm at a loss. I was thinking of going and buying a new heatsink and thermal paste tomorrow and see if that makes a difference.

 

[mvillescas]

Here is the temps and the CPU clock speed when I play the game. This was within the first 30 seconds of starting the game in window view not even full screen:



Here's the temps within 3 minutes of playing:



So the CPU looks to overclock to 3.3. Those temps are ridiculous right? Those shouldn't be that high?

 

[coastie65]

The normal core speed is 3.2 Ghz, so 3.3 isn't that much of an issue. First, Prime95 puts a lot more on your computer than you will ever likely to do. With the configuration of your computer, it is going to run hotter ........ period. If that stuff was in a different case with an intake fan, it would help. My Gateway case has a good side Vent ( right over the CPU cooler ) with a 120mm Exhaust fan. Having said that, I have a friend that had / has an XPS 9100 with a 930 and he has never mentioned anything about heat issues to me, at least that I can remember.

 

[GorfTheFrog]

You may need a new case. I had a problem with high temps at one point (nothing like yours, though,) but my case had a side-vent and mounting for a fan. I added the side-vent fan and everything went back to OK. A new heat sink may help, but if you're not overclocking then the standard Intel heat sink, as crummy as it is, should be ok at 3.4GHz, I think. Based on the totality of the evidence here, it feels to me like your problem is total ariflow through the case.

Have you tried opening up the case entirely, maybe pointing a simply room- or floor-fan at the guts, and then runing prime95 to see if you get a difference? If temps go down in this scenario, then you'll know that it's a case-heat-buildup problem.

###

 

[coastie65]

You may need a new case. I had a problem with high temps at one point (nothing like yours, though,) but my case had a side-vent and mounting for a fan. I added the side-vent fan and everything went back to OK. A new heat sink may help, but if you're not overclocking then the standard Intel heat sink, as crummy as it is, should be ok at 3.4GHz, I think. Based on the totality of the evidence here, it feels to me like your problem is total ariflow through the case.

Have you tried opening up the case entirely, maybe pointing a simply room- or floor-fan at the guts, and then runing prime95 to see if you get a difference? If temps go down in this scenario, then you'll know that it's a case-heat-buildup problem.

###

That was my thought after I looked at the case. From what I saw, it looked to pretty closed up. The Gateway FX6800-01e I have sitting on the floor with the i7 960, has a bit more ventilation, with a larger Exhaust fan. Had though about removing the two HDD hot swap bays in the front and installing an intake fan. That is a good idea about removing the cover and using an outside fan to see if that helps.If it does, it is a definate air flow issue.

 

[mvillescas]

You may need a new case. I had a problem with high temps at one point (nothing like yours, though,) but my case had a side-vent and mounting for a fan. I added the side-vent fan and everything went back to OK. A new heat sink may help, but if you're not overclocking then the standard Intel heat sink, as crummy as it is, should be ok at 3.4GHz, I think. Based on the totality of the evidence here, it feels to me like your problem is total ariflow through the case.

Have you tried opening up the case entirely, maybe pointing a simply room- or floor-fan at the guts, and then runing prime95 to see if you get a difference? If temps go down in this scenario, then you'll know that it's a case-heat-buildup problem.

###

That was my thought after I looked at the case. From what I saw, it looked to pretty closed up. The Gateway FX6800-01e I have sitting on the floor with the i7 960, has a bit more ventilation, with a larger Exhaust fan. Had though about removing the two HDD hot swap bays in the front and installing an intake fan. That is a good idea about removing the cover and using an outside fan to see if that helps.If it does, it is a definate air flow issue.

So I took your advice on the case and airflow issues. I bought the Cool Masters Hyper Evo 212. I added a fan to the back of the heatsink for a push pull system. The system now gets plenty of airflow without issues. The temp change is good too.

My mobo doesn't go over 45c while gaming
The CPU stays in low 40's while gaming
The CPU at IDLE is upper 20's lower 30's.
even when I ran Prime95 the temps only touched low 60's.
The computer is definitely running better and staying cool. I really appreciate everyone's help and insight.

 

[GorfTheFrog]

You may need a new case. I had a problem with high temps at one point (nothing like yours, though,) but my case had a side-vent and mounting for a fan. I added the side-vent fan and everything went back to OK. A new heat sink may help, but if you're not overclocking then the standard Intel heat sink, as crummy as it is, should be ok at 3.4GHz, I think. Based on the totality of the evidence here, it feels to me like your problem is total ariflow through the case.

Have you tried opening up the case entirely, maybe pointing a simply room- or floor-fan at the guts, and then runing prime95 to see if you get a difference? If temps go down in this scenario, then you'll know that it's a case-heat-buildup problem.

###

That was my thought after I looked at the case. From what I saw, it looked to pretty closed up. The Gateway FX6800-01e I have sitting on the floor with the i7 960, has a bit more ventilation, with a larger Exhaust fan. Had though about removing the two HDD hot swap bays in the front and installing an intake fan. That is a good idea about removing the cover and using an outside fan to see if that helps.If it does, it is a definate air flow issue.

So I took your advice on the case and airflow issues. I bought the Cool Masters Hyper Evo 212. I added a fan to the back of the heatsink for a push pull system. The system now gets plenty of airflow without issues. The temp change is good too.

My mobo doesn't go over 45c while gaming
The CPU stays in low 40's while gaming
The CPU at IDLE is upper 20's lower 30's.
even when I ran Prime95 the temps only touched low 60's.
The computer is definitely running better and staying cool. I really appreciate everyone's help and insight.

Awesome! glad we could help!

###