Pavilion a6314f cpu too hot [ Edited ]

[texaspete]

Hi,

I'm working on someone's computer (HP Pavilion a6314f) and it seems if I am just doing normal stuff like email, word processing, it works just fine.  If I play games after 20 minutes or so the computer will just shut off.  It sometimes says cpu fan failure.  I replaced the heatsink/fan (reapplied thermal paste) and am still having the same problem.  I had thought that maybe graphics intensive things were the cause so I put in a fanless video card (due to the 250w power supply), still same problem.  Any ideas?  I'm thinking next of putting in a case fan in the back to exhuast the air.  This seems crazy that a professionally designed PC would have this problem.

The inside is virtually dust free and the only fans are on the CPU and the power supply.  It has an Athlon X2 5000.  It's on BIOS 5.13 and there are no fan monitors or settings in there.

Thanks.

[QuarkCharm]

You could try running utilities called RealTemp -or- CoreTemp.  These provide readings of the CPU temp. You will be able to see what the CPU is doing thermally.  If it is CPU have you overclocked the CPU, if so I would return the settings to the defaults.  The fan could indeed have failed [by fail, there is usually a minimum RPM at which it is deemed to have failed - it may spin but at too low an RPM].

Things to try - in no particular order

1. checking CPU temps

2. Re-seat Cooler with only about a grain of rice worth of artic silver thermal paste

3. Replace fan

4. Run system with the cover off

5. Run system at defaults [no overclocking]

[texaspete]

Thanks, I will try these and report back.

The first thing I am doing is I ordered a case fan.  There is a spot for one in this case but none installed.  I figured that can't hurt for $12.  I am also going to re-apply the cpu but I'll use the thermal paste that came along with the sink/fan.  I don't think I need to use any fancy paste unless I'm overclocking (which I'm not).  I have already replaced the heatsink/fan and it appears to work fine, I can see it spinning faster as the cpu usage goes up.

[texaspete]

How do I know what case fan size to get?  I measured the size of the screw holes on the case at the back and it's around 88mm so I ordered an 80mm but that is too small.  Do I need a 90mm?  I notied at Newegg 80 and 92 have the biggest selection.  Since there was no case fan in this thing I have nothing to reference.

[texaspete]

So I put in a 92mm Vantec case fan and replaced the FoxConn CPU Cooler with a Thermaltake that also had a 92mm fan on top.  I ran coretemp and can see the cpu is 6 degrees C cooler.  It still is running warmer than I'd like.  I'm confused as to how this thing can be running so hot but I left Facebook's Petville running over night which keeps the computer at round 70% cpu usage and it didn't power off so that is good, it still hovered around 57c.  This is the application the user said would overheat the computer before.  I ran a burn in and after 20 minutes it was up to 70 degrees and I had powered it off then, I figure under normal usage it's not going to be left at 100% cpu for that long although it should be able to do that anyway.

[Big_Dave]

Be sure your power supply is fan is exhausting air.  There was one post out here where a user claimed that the power supply was mounted upside down.  A replacement power supply with a bigger fan might help.

[texaspete]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.  The power supply fan was working.  My next thought, if there still is a problem, is to replace the power supply, I was wondering if it could possibly be putting out improper voltage and that is why the processor is running hot?  I've worked on lots of computers and have never seen a name brand computer with a cpu that runs hot, it's normally overclocked homemade pc's.

The inside of the computer really wasn't hot oddly.  I connected the case fan cable to the case fan connector on the motherboard and it spins at a very minimum speed.

It would help if this computer had temps in the bios.

[Big_Dave]

Do you have a discrete video card?

[texaspete]

It does now.  At first the user said it is only overheating when playing online games, I was thinking the integrated graphics was making the cpu work harder so I put in a fanless Geforce 8400 GS.  The computer only has a 275w power supply so I had to get something lower powered.

[Big_Dave]

Make sure that the cpu heat sink is flush with the processor.  Sometimes the processors and the heat sink are not perfectly flat.  You can check the heat sink for flatness by using a single edge razor blade and slowing drag it across the surface of the heat sink.  You could probably do the same to the processor.  Some of the PC magazines such as Maximum PC and Computer Power User had articles on how to "polish" the heat sink and processor surface to acquire a perfectly flat surface. Just a small dab of thermal paste spread thinly should do it.

Inefficient power supplies will generate more heat.  After using the PC a while perhaps feeling the power supply might give you an indication if there is too much heat.  Look at the size of the power supply's fan and look at the power supplies at www.newegg.com at the fan sizes.  I am not saying that you need a new power supply but just giving you some options.

Too much heat inside PCs can cause capacitors to burst along with other components failures.