What is Reddit's opinion of
SpeedFan?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
HWInfo and MSI Afterburner are great for temperature monitoring. HWInfo will also show you plenty of voltages, as well as CPU and GPU fan speeds.
SpeedFan is also a favorite.
Check your CPU/GPU temps, especially when playing - problems that occur when gaming are often (but not always) heat related, as that's generally when your PC is under the highest strain.
If the temps seem fine, try testing your RAM as /u/CarbonRevenge suggested.
Just to be clear, you formated the hdd recently? After the maleware was found?
What exactely do you mean by "sudden shutdowns"? The PC just goes blank?, or does the OS shut down? What OS are you on?
Did you measure temperature and/or voltage inside the PC? For Windows you could use a tool like SpeedFan to do that - if yes what values do you get?
Does the problem happen in your active OS only?
Sounds like hard drive failure. Check S.M.A.R.T counters. I use speedfan, can also check so there isnt a heating issue.
If SMART coutners look fine, you should check your memory with a memtest.
speedfan: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Ultimate boot CD with loads of tools for testing stuff: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
You should also go to a more fitting place to get help with your computer problem. I can suggest http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/. Helpful forum for these kinds of issues.
Is it Catalyst?
To be save, head to ATI's driver site and enter in the info for your specific card once you've nailed down what it is.
Not sure what their driver situation is like in terms of beta drivers (I've got an nVidia) but see if there's a manual driver update available.
If the card is clean, drivers are updated, and you're still getting this issue, grab Speedfan and check your temps while playing. If you have to, up the speed on the video card fan and see if that helps.
If you're still having the issue at that point, I'd either look at replacing/reseating the stock heatsink on the card, or getting a new card altogether if you aren't comfortable with that.
I would not have a five year old clean my CPU, and I don't think the average user wants to go through such extreme measures.
EDIT: To elaborate, since the cpu does so much all the time, it gets really hot as it works. Special thermal components called heatsinks are designed to dissipate (get rid of by spreading it out) heat. If your CPU's heatsink doesn't do a good enough job, then the CPU will automatically slow down, to prevent overheating.
If you want to clean your heatsink: Turn your computer off. Do not detach the heatsink from the motherboard. If you detach it from the CPU, you will have to reapply your thermal paste (which is a tedious and potentially computer-part-breaking process involving clearing the old paste off of both the CPU and the sink, then carefully reapplying it). Take a q-tip and wipe out between the plates, removing as much dust as possible. Some people will say to use compressed air, but I have heard arguments against this, since you're really just pushing the dust somewhere where it will be harder to get out. The important thing, either way, is to remove the dust, since the dust is reducing airflow, preventing fresh cooler air from contacting the plates.
You only want to try that if you run something like SpeedFan and find that your cpu is running at a temperature higher than say 70F when your cpu is idle.
By idle, I mean when it's not doing a lot of stuff at once. You can check this by pressing ctrl-alt-delete on windows xp, or ctrl-shift-escape on 7/vista. When the task manager appears, look under performance. Watch the graph labeled CPU for at least 45 seconds, so that it stabilizes after it loads the task manager. If the cpu usage is below about 30%, it's idle (sort of, it's still doing stuff though, just not as much). If your temperature is high while the cpu usage is low, you have a cooling problem. If not, the problem lies somewhere else.
> 4.5.0 NVidia 365.10
Your driver is a bit old. The current version driver is 368.81. This won't make a massive difference, but is a good idea to keep current. I'd suggest installing GeForce Experience to help you keep current.
> D:30
Here is the main issue. At the default render distance of 0, the game keeps 441 chunks loaded around you. At your setting of 30, the game must keep 3,721 chunks around you loaded. This will create considerable strain on the GPU, CPU, and when you move the Hard Drive. If you reduce this setting (try 10 as a test), does your FPS increase significantly?
> GTX 970M
I see you have a laptop. Temperature of the GPU is critical to performance. Do you have a temperature monitoring tool to see if your performance correlates with temperature? If not, I'd suggest SpeedFan.
HW Monitor is a great application, it can monitor just about all temp sensors, fan rpm, etc. Another good option is speedfan, which requires some setup and is great for controlling fans based off temps.
My build has a AMD Phenom II 1090T OC'ed to 4GHz, with temps ranging from 20C to 35C max, in a 70F or so living room.
Had a similar problem. The cause was the cpu heat sink had become loose. I took it off, gave it a thorough clean and re applied with quality thermal paste and haven't had a problem since.
You can check the temps with speedfan.
Take a poll with Speedfan. If your drives are reporting >40°C idle temperatures, then their lifespans are going to be shortened. Personally, I would be worried about my data.
What are the temps reported by your cpu/gpu? It may be time for a better fan, water cooling, or maybe just check the thermal paste.
As far as temps go, I use Speedfan to keep an eye on my temperatures.
There's a lot of good recommendations here, but also some really misinformed recommendations.
You probably shouldn't be tinkering with overclocking or unparking if you have concerns about overheating or needing to kill off processes in the background. All that will do is kill hardware that much faster, which ironically loops back to investing in hardware upgrades anyways.
Manually killing off processes is a terrible idea for anyone that isn't an IT professional. Nothing says "fun" like killing off a few system processes that you shouldn't have. Use reputable utilities that provide this as a maintenance feature instead. Also on that note, performing tasks like defragmenting can increase performance (just don't do it on a solid state drive, it will reduce hardware life and the firmware already takes care of this efficiently).
SpeedFan is a great utility that allows you to control your system fans. Some operating systems are not as good at doing this as others, so you can set certain thresholds of when to increase fan power. (i.e., ramp up from 50% speed to 75% speed over 3 minutes if the CPU hits 60 Celsius) It is much cheaper to replace a fan than to deal with hardware damage.
These days, any reputable anti-virus program will not conflict with each other and really stopped being an issue around Windows XP. The biggest concern is if you have both AVs actively scanning, which puts hefty constraints on disk I/O and CPU utilization. If they're sitting passively in the background, they'll take up minimal resources. Different vendors rely on a mixture of different technologies to do this, so it may be heuristic analysis or just hashing in use files to see if they have changed since the last scan, etc.
tl;dr: Be careful when tinkering with your system. Know your technology. Advice that was valid 15 years ago may no longer be applicable. Do your research. Weigh the pros and cons.
Download and run speedfan, make sure you don't have an overheating issue, especially with your graphics card.
If that's not a problem, try updating your graphics card drivers to the latest version.
If that doesn't fix it either, try deleting all the game files and redownloading them, it's possible they're somehow corrupted.
You need to find out which motherboard you have. Never ones usually have built-in fan control through software or in the BIOS, for older ones you can try your luck with SpeedFan, but it's not guaranteed to work.
Your fan should exhaust out the back according to this.
A good utility to monitor temperatures if your don't already have something, is Speedfan
That said, with most electronics the cooler you can run them, the better it is for them. Heat stresses and kills pretty much everything over time so as long as it's not blocking or working against your laptops airflow a cooling pad is a good idea even if it isn't overheating yet.
I use SpeedFan for monitoring temperatures on my computers. It can be configured to log temperatures to a file:
1.in the main window, click Configure
2.go to the Log tab and check the Enabled checkbox
3.go to the Temperatures tab, click on each temperature you want to log and check the Logged checkbox at the bottom
4.click OK
5.log files will be located in the directory you installed SpeedFan to
source - superuser.com http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Might be a heat issue causing it to hibernate, check out SpeedFan, it'll tell you your internal temps, match them up with the averages from google and go from there.
> I also ruled out the possibility of overheating. One time I booted up, from the computer being off for hours, and played a game. It shut down within minutes
That doesn't rule anything out. Parts get hot quickly, certainly within minutes. The LEDs don't mean much either. Use software like SpeedFan or HWMonitor to get actual temperature readings. And not just your GPU -- your CPU or motherboard could be overheating as well.
If it has warranty, I would send it back. If You mess with it, that may void any warranty. There is software You can download that will monitor temps and modify fan speeds: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Something is clearly wrong with your system. Would you post the complete specs of your system(CPU, RAM, HDD, PSU, etc) here? Also, what OS are you running? That way we can determine if it is a hard- or software issue.
Another thing could be temperature, if your system is hot it clocks itself back to preserve itself. Temperatures of your system can, unfortunately, only be gotten via an external tool like SpeedFan , CPU Temp or CPUID HWMonitor (my favorite).
This is how I personally go about overclocking, I highly recommend looking up a beginner tutorial that explains in depth what each thing you'll be tweaking does. i.e multiplier, voltages & FSB clock speed (One of the favourites to ensuring a quickly melted motherboard)
I usually tell people who are modding their PC in any way that isn't stock that they should be ready to eat the cost of breaking it. Modern CPUs are incredibly resilient and are hard to break, but the chances are still there.
The last thing anyone wants is to lose their entire computer eking out a few extra percent of performance without the ability to replace it.
Programs for monitoring
- HW Monitor Amazing break down of every freaking sensor on your computer.
- Speedfan Good to keep an eye on fan speeds, I've never trusted it's temperature readings though.
- CPU-Z Shows clock multipliers & and heap of other CPU related stuffs.
Prime95 is a great stress test, but it will make your CPU temperatures go ridiculously high, like never ever in a high load game would it get that ridiculous.
So it's a good idea to stability test with games and what not, I usually just jump into a game if it doesn't BSOD on boot :D
I wish you many hertz and cool temperatures.
Edit: Many edits because I hit the shortcut to post accidentally. Gdi RES.
Proper fan control
With modern hardware, there is simply no reason that your average PC should be noisy when it's not doing anything demanding. My hardware is a couple of generations old now but my computer is still almost completely silent when idling or browsing the web... you can only really hear it in a very quiet room. It could be quieter too if I replaced one of the fans (that requires a fairly high initial voltage to start spinning).
Having had a couple of high end fan controllers, I've found that SpeedFan + a supported motherboard is the best way to go. Asus' Fan Xpert is also an option but it doesn't report temperatures properly, so I just can't trust it and SpeedFan is better anyway (and isn't restricted to Asus mobos).
Run a tool like SpeedFan in the background and configure it to log CPU and GPU temperatures to a file. After a crash, check if there is a correlation between the crash and excess temperatures. You need to perhaps look up the maximum allowed temperatures set by the manufacturer. If temperatures are at fault, try cleaning fans and coolers first, then adjust fan controls (if possible) and if that doesn't help, try using an opened case or adding additional fans.
Perhaps your power supply isn't powerful enough for your components. Do the math, just in case.
If it's not temperatures or your PSU, your RAM might be at fault. Check your RAM for defects by using MemTest86, which might take some time. I'd do it overnight.
Fan Xpert uses pretty nice software, better than most other manufacturer's, but SpeedFan can do even more, such as controlling case fans based on GPU temperature, and works on most boards.
its probably because the fans ramp down when the laptop is not in use. I have a laptop that's the same way. When I start using the laptop the temps actually go down.
If you don't like your cpu running that hot, I recommend installing a program called speedfan. It will allow you to adjust the fans to your liking, including setting a higher minimum fan speed, so that your CPU runs cooler on idle (at the expense of some noise).
That program isn't perfect, and some laptops are flat out incompatible. But I'd say give it a shot. Works great on my pc.
> I have no virus, malware or any spyware.
What steps have you taken to verify this, if I may ask?
Do you have any software to check cpu/gpu temps? If so, what are the temps on those?
In case you don't have any software: CPU
GPU, also works with CPU but people say coretemp is the best.
EDIT: Open your box up to make sure all the fans are working properly as well. Also, if you could recreate the problem, then open task manager and see the performance tab, you could probably diagnose the component that is malfunctioning, assuming it isn't a virus.
DoubleNinjaEdit: I checked your history on reddit to see if you had any other threads, and in response to http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1u6vxw/can_i_upgrade_my_drivers/ you would need to get your motherboards brand/name/id in order to tell if you could upgrade.
Go get speedfan or the like, watch your temps. Running hot is normal for heavy use, but if your computer's burning up just idling, it's probably time for a good clean.
Open that case up. Grab a can of compressed and blast all the dust out. Pay attention to the GPU, CPU fan, and the back of the PSU. If you want, you might consider pulling off the CPU heatsink and reseating it with brand new thermal paste - but only do this if you're comfortable with that sort of thing. Don't forget to touch the metal of the case frequently to ensure proper static discharge.
Grab CCleaner, clean all the crap off, and delete any unnecessary programs from the startup tab
If shit is still running slow, you might just have to cut your losses and reinstall. Windows tends to slow down a bit as it becomes bloated with all the crap that gets installed, I do a clean install every 6 months anyways just to keep stuff running fresh.
You might consider buying an SSD to make things REALLY snappy...
agreed use this to check you temps http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php if your temps are good and you recently upgraded your video card make sure you have a power supply with enough wattage for your video card
CCC doesn't have anything to do with your CPU fan, it only controls your graphics card. If you want, you can usually set speed parameters for your CPU fan in your BIOS or in some other software like SpeedFan.
Is that temp monitor just the case temp?
It's very possible that the processor core is overheating, which would turn off the machine, as a fail safe.
What you want to do is get SpeedFan (it's freeware), and check the internal temps.
If it is the processor, you'll probably need more case fans to push the warm air out, and/or a better heat sink on the processor.
coretemp (for checking spu temps), msi afterburner (overclocking and temps for gpu), and speedfan (for controlling speeds on system and case fans)
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
I would also suspect overheating, and/or or possibly an overloaded/defective power supply. Definitely try out Speedfan or similar to monitor the system board and ambient temperatures, fan speeds and perhaps voltage levels. Running some diagnostics on the hard drive also wouldn't hurt.
Don't mean to be insulting, but can you verify that the fans are spinning as they should be? Maybe one of them isn't working? You can see about a fan control program here. You might also make sure the heatsink compound isn't dried out on top of the cpu also. Heat transfer (or lack thereof) may be an issue for you as well.
Sound like improper installation. did you apply thermal paste correctly (one thin layer is all that is needed)? did it come with a heatsink or did you use your older one?
Do you hear your CPU fan revving up? maybe look into use speedfan program to manually max out the CPU fan. Do the temperatures stay cool in that case?
I don't believe you can control the fan(s) of your laptop with Afterburner. It's built to control desktop graphics cards fans.
In your case you're looking for the system fan(s).
SpeedFan might be able to help, though I don't really know how to use that software to be honest. Nor if there are better alternatives.
Gday
If the laptop happens to run Win7/8/10 .
Then I recommend to check out SPEEDFAN ,
an freeware app to control the CPU and GPU fan speed - http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php . Im yet to find a program that offers the SAME functionally on Linux platform
One option might be flashing the bios and controlling the fan via BIOS
or since the battery is dead , backup data from the 5400RPM 2.5" drive and look into an desktop ITX/SFF/mATX PC
try SpeedFan it shows temperature of likely anything and you may control the fan speed as the name suggests :P - maybe setting the fan speed higher might help you instantly - if not we can look further into the problem
Fans are often ganged together, using the same motherboard connector. If you didn't put the fans in yourself, then the best way is to open the case and listen first. Then start turning fans off one by one.
If you want to try software first, try SpeedFan, which is the standard of the industry for fan control.
Sorry, forgot about that. Once you install Circuitous Two skin for the temps you have to install http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php so the skin can access the temp.
Then edit the .ini file for the CPU and GPU temp skin and under [mTemp] make sure it looks like this
[mTemp]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=SpeedFanPlugin
SpeedFanType=Temperature
SpeedFanNumber=
SpeedFanScale=C
For CPU Temp.ini SpeedFanNumber=8 and for GPU Temp.ini SpeedFanNumber=7
This is interesting. Your PC won't be stable with such low voltages. I don't think it is too common for motherboard sensors to fail, but it isn't outside the realm of possibilities.
Can you open the case when the computer is off and see if anything metal is shorting the motherboard or PSU cables?
If you can get into BIOS (usually by pressing delete during boot) there might be voltage monitoring there. See if it matches what AI Suite is telling you.
Maybe the PSU is dying. Can you get the friend you bought it from to swap out the PSU temporarily to see if that is the problem?
You can try another monitoring program like SpeedFan or HWMonitor too, but I bet they will say similar things.
Try installing Speedfan.
Run with single monitor and see if you get the same issue, if the PC is still running and only the graphics are blacked out can you Alt-Tab out of game?
Also run Windows event viewer to check for any hidden probs.
Hard to say, I bet it's decent. If you get the extra fan you are covered and if the rear one is sufficient you have a backup. Having all three the same isn't bad either, plus if you need another, you pay shipping on one instead of all three. Also, you can experiment with all 4 fans, perhaps at lower RPMs, yet still faster on the intake.
Something of interest to you might be SpeedFan controlling speeds in conjunction with observing the temperatures is your final step. Remember, it's all based on ambient temperature (your room temp).
To better help us out here, let's get some thermals. (This is gonna be boring and takes a while.)
Leave the laptop on, idle, doing nothing. Perhaps while you're eating or doing other things, with something such as NZXT cam or Speedfan running. Then take a screenshot after about an hour.
Then, perhaps while watching a movie, and having a couple of browser tabs open, take another reading.
Finally, when gaming, get a temperature reading when the laptop heats up.
This allows us to better understand the laptop's thermal situation.
I used to have issues like that on my old PC and I think (long time ago) I used speedfan to set it manually
Link - http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php.
Looks like it still has a manual control profile.
Edit: Here's a guide
You can use Speedfan to do this. It isn't plug and play and requires some setup to get things working. JayzTwoCents has a video about it which might help you set it up.
Basically you'll want to allow the application to control the fans and then setup a fan control for each fan with temperature watching the GPU. Shouldn't be too hard.
To answer half your question:
I monitor CPU and GPU usage with rainmeter (see r/rainmeter), and I also user the speedfan plugin (can be downloaded from here http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php).
You certainly want to read up on the documentation and it takes some work to configure, but now I've got a nice display on my desktop for my usage and temps.
> I could, but wouldn't the fan then be operating based on case temperature, not GPU temperature?
There are a few things you can do here. The first is to just run the fans at a static speed. In my experience, the NF-F12 is nearly silent at anything below 40%. Above that, it doesn't make that much noise either. Realistically, there is never much need to run this fan over 50-60%. You can just leave the fan speed low and manually ramp it up when you're about to play a game.
The second solution is much more elegant, but takes more work on your part. Download and install Speed Fan:
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
When you first launch the program, it will not work. You need to configure it to your particular motherboard. This may take some guess and check work as well as some Googling.
Jay did a pretty decent video on how to get started with configuring SpeedFan. The bottom line is that you can connect your fans to your motherboard header and use SpeedFan to make a fan curve for the NF-F12 based on the GPU temp rather than CPU or motherboard temp. Video is linked below:
Speedfan should allow for software fan control, but I've personally never used it.
It's supposed to be very powerful/versatile but comes at the price of complexity.
Can't you alter the fan curves in the BIOS?
If you connected your 4pin fans to 4pin fan headers in your motherboard, then you can control them. I can't tell for sure how, but I think it's gonna be as easy as using a software like SpeedFan.
The temp on your CPU looks just fine.
PS: do you happen to have a PCPartPicker link of your rig? I am gonna assemble mine on Saturday with both a 6600k and a Sapphire R9 390, so I was wondering how similar our builds are..
Here's mine
You could try tweaking it with Speedfan too http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php.
There's no such thing as noiseless PC though. Though maybe some high end fans like Noiseblocker or Noctua ones would be more quiet.
SpeedFan can do it for most fans, although if you have any connected to an uncontrolled fan port or directly plugged into the PSU it won't be able to do anything, and on some mobos you need to fiddle with the PWM mode in the Advanced settings menu to find which mode gives SpeedFan control.
Potentially, One way to do it is to go into your bios, it's usually under thermal settings or fan settings.
Another way is a little bit of software called SpeedFan this will let you control your fan if your motherboard supports it.
The BIOS settings sometimes only control PWM fans, so regular fans still run at 100%.
Install Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php) and try to control each fan separately. Or get a fan controller and do it manually.
You don't have stuck pixels. Stuck pixels are a hardware defect on the screen itself, and completely independent of the video signal.
You have either a software or hardware issue with your video card.
Start by nuking the driver altogether using this handy utility, and the re-load the latest from NVIDIA.
Also install Speedfan or another utility that can monitor the GPU temps and see what temps you're getting on the card under load.
If temps look OK and the driver update didn't make a difference, you might just have a faulty card.
I would first try a hard disk drive checking tool, like http://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/downloads/seatools/ Use the dos/iso version (windows version if HDD not found), do a long test, if that passed do a ram test with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memtest86 If the computer crashes quickly and consistently with any of those tests, then you have a base to work from, to swap components. Try Ubuntu Linux, if you don't get the crashes with that, maybe its a windows driver problem. Check if the computer is over heating, check the CPU fan for dust, make sure the heat sink is secure and flush to the chip with thermal paste, test temperatures http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
That's a start.
Plug all the fans into the motherboard if they aren't already. Then install speedfan. Speedfan is not an easy to use program by any means, but once you get it configured, it's absolutely phenominal. You can set it to target a certain temperature, set a curve for one individual fan or all your fans, and also have fans change based on cpu AND gpu temperatures.
Watch a few tutorials on how to set it up properly. I would try this before buying expensive noctua fans. Don't get me wrong, Noctuas are great (I own three), but even Noctua fans will be loud if you don't have your fans configured properly.
To add to this, SpeedFan is a good tool which lets you create a log of temperatures from any of the sensors in your PC (CPU, GPU, motherboard, etc.). Very useful if you don't have a second monitor and want to see what temps you were hitting during a game (or to see what the last logged temperature was before a PC crash).
Did you download anything weird 5 days ago? Something that might've had a virus that is now hogging up your CPU or video card with a Bitcoin miner. Assuming you're on Windows, do a ctrl-alt-delete to bring up the task manager and see if anything is eating up the CPU or Memory. Also use a program like Malwarebytes to check for viruses.
If there's nothing suspicious there it could also be a hardware problem, like a RAM stick/video card/etc going bad or getting knocked loose. Grab a diagnostic program like AIDA64 or EVEREST and make sure your CPU and RAM numbers are showing up correctly. There are others out there but I can't remember them off the top of my head. You can also use one of those or SpeedFan to monitor your temps and see if your PC is getting overheated, which forces it to slow down before the head can cause damage.
First, to make sure the fan is faulty download Speedfan to check the fan speed. Then if you determine the fan is bad this is the fan you need.
This service guide should help you if you need to change the fan, lots of other info in there as well on what parts you need and how to change them.
Here you go: Temperatures skin (on Deviantart).
Requires external program Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php). As stated in the Rainmeter manual, the unit in the SpeedFan application itself must be set to Celsius to obtain the correct value.
This can also be a heat related issue, to monitor CPU temp a program I have used is speedfan. This will show you if the temp steadily rises, which can cause the PC to turn itself off. A normal range depending on your CPU is 50-65 degrees Celsius. If it climbs above this then you may have some air circulation issues.
You could download speedfan, which is a fan control program that allows you to turn fans up and down, as well as set up automatic profiles for them.
I used it when I bought a 200mm Bitfenix prodigy case fan that insisted on running at 100% - It's stopped my PC from sounding like a hairdryer ever since.
I would be careful that the CPU doesn't get too hot if you do end up turning down the CPU cooler however.
CPUID HWMonitor
Open Hardware Monitor essentially the same as HW monitor but can plot your values
SpeedFan (also allows you to setup your own fan curves)
There are a couple ways you can do it. A lot of current bios have some fan controls built in, I can't remember under which menu off the top of my head but it should be easy to find if it is available to you. As for program Speedfan is free and does more than the bios options will.
Have you tried setting the fan to max speed, some fans does not have a high speed profile, and actually only runs at about 50-60%, because of durability I guess.
So try download speedfan and see if you can change the speed on the fan. Also try minimize graphic settings in GTA, also lower the resolution.
If none of this work, which graphic card are you using, would you "gain" anything by buying a new card?
Also check you airflow in your pc cabinet, could you add a case fan instead? - This can quite easily be checked by the temperature of your cpu (or harddrive (not SSD)), does this increase violent when only graphic card are being used, meaning the heat inside the cabinet cant get out. Or try add a table fan right next to the cabinet to see if this gains airflow and cooling your cabinet.
TL;DR
- Check GPU fan speed - can it be increased?
- Check cabinet air flow - can this be the cause?
- Lower GTA settings, also resolution
You still have a pretty decent rig.
As foop_plinger said, you should check your temperatures using speedfan. That's probably the main cause since the fan makes loud noises...
So please, for the love of pc gaming, fix the ventilation!
When it's running very loud it might either have a very high temperature or it might be faulty. Could you check the temperature with SpeedFan and make a screenshot of the window?
Speedfan allows you to control the speed of your fans. Suprisingly enough.
Basic setup lets you find your fans, then in the first tab you're able to control the RPM of each fan. occasionally the fan speed will be reversed, I.E 0% is max speed. If it doesn't bother you then great, if it does you can reverse the setting in the preferences
you see that file?
C:\Windows\Minidump\041815-19718-01.dmp C:\Users\TheMagnaCorp\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-25833-0.sysdata.xml
without more data I am gonna guess your computer is overheating.
try either
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
to monitor temps
Sure sounds like overheating, but you can install Speedfan to check: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
That'll give you temperature reports for your processor & video card.
One quick check you can do is to open your case & take a look at the fans - be sure they all move freely when you spin them. Then power it up with the case open and be sure all of them are actually spinning.
Those are just the most popular, but every mobo and most gpu manufacturers have their own software that you can try out and find your favourite.
I have the same problem, and have found out after about 3-4 months of tearing my hair out. It turned out to be my HDD!
If you want to check if your harddrive is fucked as well, download a program called SpeedFan, it looks pretty dated but does the job.
Go to the S.M.A.R.T tab and then run an extended test on the harddrive you have the game installed on.
This is my result, still yet to but another harddrive so you can still see at the bottom that the red circles are next to Current Pending Sector Count and Uncorrectable Sector Count. I heard that you don't want these to be over 5ish somewhere and as you can see mine is over 200.
So pretty much just test your Harddrive, that might be the problem.
A 3 pin fan in the CPU connector will always run full speed.
Plugging it into one of the SYSFAN will give you speed control, but it'll be controlled by ambient temperature unless you use something like SpeedFan to link it to CPU temperature.
Had this myself and it turned out the GPU had cooked itself. Try keeping an eye on the temperature using SpeedFan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php), for Nvidia anything over 90C is too hot (source: Nvidia CS).
Then the other thing you can do is try and replicate the crash. I tried many other games but nothing crashed the drivers like SWTOR, until I tried 3D Mark (http://www.3dmark.com/) and the UI of that alone crashed the driver...the final nail in the cooked GPU coffin.
I have had various mobile phone applications cause this when on start up.
Has there been any spyware\ virus infections recently?
Damaged or missing files in the OS will also trigger this error. I notice you have security essential installed, install Malware Bytes and do a scan. (SE is pretty useless)
If it finds something, clear it, reboot & scan again, do this until nothing else is found.
Install Speed fan and check the SMART logs on the hard drive, if it wasn't an infection that caused the damaged\ missing files a failing hard drive may have. (if its failing you will see red icons, if its all green you are likely good)
If you hard drive checks out, run the SFC command, see if this can repair the OS.
Failing that, Id just reinstall it. 4 years is a good run for an OS IMO, and even if you fix it, its probably not going to be running at its best, judging by his desktop a reinstall might be best just to give everything a refresh.
Check with bluescreenview for BSOD reports.
Check with HWMonitor or Speedfan to monitor temperatures. Chances are that if you're overheating that your idle temperatures are going to be high as well. Run a game in windowed mode (or full screen and alt+tab out) and monitor the temperatures over time. Take note of them. If things start getting over 80 degrees Celsius then things are overheating.
Not to boot, but you can download SpeedFan to change your fan speeds that are connected to the motherboard headers (Or connected to a fan splitter that is also connected to motherboard fan headers).
- I'd say plug in the 3-pin to the mobo if you can, you can get readings and control it through software like speedfan. The molex is strictly power and will work, but there's no control it's just on/off. Either will work but you don't need both.
- Zip tie them or remove them to keep them out of the way. I've even heard of people cutting them off but I've never done that before.
No, it's not a PSU-related issue. 100% guarantee it is not.
The only way a CPU heat issue could possibly be related to your graphics card is that your graphics card may be heating up your case too much. The fact that you're still having issues with a box fan should rule out that possibility, but I think it might still be a good idea to get a case with better ventilation.
No, you don't need a liquid cooling system. You do probably need a better CPU cooler, but unless you want to spend well over $100, air works just as well as liquid. I recommend the following coolers (coolers and PSUs last much longer than other components, so you'll be able to recycle them into your next build, so when upgrading choose the one appropriate to your next planned computer):
- Budget to midrange builds ($500-1300), no/mild/moderate overclock: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
- Upper midrange to high-end builds ($1200+), moderate to high overclock: Noctua NH-D14
(You do need to make sure the cooler you choose fits in your case. It's possible you might need a low-profile cooler, in which case you're going to need to read some reviews and make your own choice.)
- It would also be a good idea to change the fan profile settings for your CPU. Typically, this is done through either the BIOS or software that comes with your motherboard, but you can also optionally use third-party software like SpeedFan.
The recon says it's able to handle 10 watts per fan channel. SP120s operate between 7 and 12 volts and draw .08 amps of current. A watt is a volt times an amp so at max load, each 120 should draw...
12V*.08A=.96W
I would want to include a pretty good factor of safety for a build this expensive, but at most I can see you running 6 fans per channel, which is only going to draw 5.76 of power. The factor of safety on that is a bit below 2 and I don't see your fans suddenly doubling their maximum load, so you'll probably be OK.
Obviously you want all the fans on the same radiator to be running at the same speed, so I'd run them off the same channel. I'd put each radiator on its own channel though, since I assume you've got a separate CPU and GPU loop which will be generating different amounts of heat. I would suggest looking up the specs for the motherboard you're using and seeing if the fan headers on it have the wattage to handle what you're doing. On-board fan headers vary a lot in wattage, but I assume you're using a pretty high-end board for a build like this. There will be a maximum load per port as well as a max total load for the board. If the motherboard can handle the fan load, there's really no need for an external controller unless you just want one. There are plenty of thermal monitoring programs out there with as many features as the Recon's software. Most motherboard manufacturers offer software that lets you read temperatures, graph temp vs clock speed, set temperature profiles, etc. Speedfan is a well known free software, plenty of features but it's kind of iffy on some builds. NZXT CAM just came out and looks very nice, lets you monitor your machine from your phone too. Take a look around at your options and decide what best suits you.
I feel as though you already know the solution, as you stated it right at the end of your post.
There shouldn't be any dust, get canned air and blow all of that dust out.
If the fans aren't working, then you need to fix that! Make sure they are hooked up to your power supply. If they are, and still are not working, you need to purchase some new case fans.
Without any more information than you have already provided, it would seem overheating is guaranteed to be the problem. You can try monitoring your temperatures using software. Try Speedfan and/or HWmonitor. That is assuming your PC stays on long enough to check.
Speedfan: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php HWmonitor: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
And if it doesn't stay on long enough, you can try loading up the BIOS and see if you can find your CPU temperatures there.
Yes, there is software out there for fans. Speedfan is one of them. http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
http://download.cnet.com/SpeedFan/3000-2094_4-10067444.html
Another way to keep a laptop cool. Is use a laptop cooler pad. http://www.amazon.com/b?node=2243862011
I use one myself. So it's not on my lap or sitting on my bed or couch and covering all the vents and keeping it from cooling itself.
Yep, you can get it here http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php.
I click "Exotics" and then "Show The Magic" and it gives you all the details you need to know. But if you find it is getting overheated, I'd suggest using the -t command and using 3 instead of 4 as mentioned above.
On the motherboard, there are a number of fan plugs (2-3 pin) and usually a single 4 pin plug. The 4-pin plug will regulate the attached fan's speed according to the cpu temps. The 2-3 pin fan plugs will run the fan at a set speed.
You can purchase an external fan controller, like this NZXT Touchscreen Controller, to have direct access to the fans.
There are some fan controller softwares as well, like Speedfan, although I'm not familiar with them.
You'd have to ask HP that one I'm afraid. But try SpeedFan or any other program of that type (I see RealTemp mentioned). I'm gonna guess that you'll get a different set of temps when using a different app. These will probably also be wrong :)
The DVI cable is plausible given that re-plugging in the cable makes the issue go away, at least for a while.
To determine if overheating could be a factor, download a program like speedfan and use it to access your GPU/video card's temperature. Above 80 degrees Celcius is a danger zone, given that CPUs can shut themselves down around 90-93 degrees.
First, your TMPIN1 temp concerns me. It could be a faulty reading so I'd double check in your bios. 121 C is very hot. I believe it's associated with mobo northbridge. You could have a bad heatsink on your northbridge. You can replace the heatsinks to be certain if you find that your northbridge is indeed the culprit. Otherwise... Be sure to update all drivers. What game(s) are you trying to run?
EDIT: oh, farcry 3. Very resource heavy game, but you're right, you should get more frames than that on ultra-low. Do you get max frames with other games?
You might also try running a different temp monitoring device to compare. Speedfan for instance.
Update bios... ?
EDIT: sorry edits all over, it's late; speedfan If you're getting a similar reading I'd bet my bottom dollar you have NB heatsink issues. Triple check your bios to be certain, it should say in temps.
EDIT: after doing some more research on your board it appears TMPIN1 indicates cpu temp, but if that was reading correctly you would be shut-down. It's probably faulty.
Speedfan. I'm sure there are other programs out there for temperature regulation, but this one is free and does pretty well at keeping my laptop relatively cool when I'm gaming on it, since for some reason my ASUS laptop sucks at temp regulation.
the disk is already bad we just need to find out how bad it is. In all new hard drives there are censors which can be read to find out the performance and fitness of the drive to read these censors all you got to do is run a S.M.A.R.T. Test and it will show how bad the drive actually is.
My favorite app that has S.M.A.R.T. in it is called Speed Fan
The i7-2670QM is a laptop model iirc. So the first question is how are the temps? Try a program like Speedfan or ~~Core Temp~~ and have a look under gaming load. If its getting too hot then it may be downclocking to protect itself, or at the very least not upclocking itself as far as it can.
Other than that the i7 has hyperthreading, so around 20% means that it probably loading up two threads, which is about right. I have an i5 2500K running @ 4.2 ghz and get around 40% usage, which matches up given that the i5 doesn't have hyperthreading. It seems that PS2 is only programmed to use two threads, so if you're cpu bound, then its down to clock speed.
Edit: It seems that Core Temp is now bundled with some extraneous crap, just go with speedfan.
temps = tempretures.
As a computer works it generates heat, excess heat is bad and can cause the overheating part to work slowly or wear down and eventually break. typically the computer has ways of keeping itself cool (usually fans) but if they fail or become clogged (say with dust) it can cause poor performance and/or damage.
The easiest way to test them is to use speed fan to access the built in thermostat. using it is simple enough, just start the program up and the temps are on the first screen after it loads. Generally anything 60-75 degrees centigrade is normal "flat out" while 90-100+ is almost certainly a problem with the cooling and should be fixed ASAP.
Sounds like textures failing to load. Could be: overheating, bad driver, failing graphics card/other hardware, or just software errors of some kind. Do you know what temperature your card is running at? Speedfan is a good program to check with. Any other 3d games acting similarly? /r/techsupport can help too.
Install a temperature monitoring app like SpeedFan and or GPU-Z.
Google "HP G70 overheating" to see if there are some model-specific issues. Generally, a thorough cleaning and reapplying thermal grease/pads can be enough to mitigate overheating, but some models are just poorly designed and need external cooling pads or placed on spacers to prevent overheating.
Sounds like overheating. Use a utility like speedfan to check the temperatures and report back.
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Things that cause this are dusty or improperly mounted heat sinks or inoperable fans.
A SMART test might shed some light on the issue. Download speedfan, and then go to the SMART tab and select your hard drive. Should give you information on the health of the drive.
It might be overheating, or you might have another hardware problem--the beeping leads me to suspect motherboard failure.
I suggest cleaning it thoroughly and using a tool like Speedfan to keep an eye on the temperatures. If you continue to experience the crashes with the system running cool, it's probably the motherboard. It could be the memory, but mobo failure is more likely.