Cooling failures

[Dirty Dan]

I have the worst luck with computers, as both my video card and my cpu have been completely fail at cooling. First my EVGA GTS 250's automatic fan control didnt do a good job keeping it cool, so I started using precision. The hot keys for that didn't work right so it would turn the fan to minimum during games, causing it to overheat. Now I still use it but have hot keys disabled, ok, fine, but, I'm still getting hiccups indicative of overheating.

I do an entire series of support tickets with EVGA, mem tests, ect, leading me to a CPU stress test. I had installed speedfan for my gpu overheating issues so I fired it up during the cpu stress test.....my CPU reached 94C!!!!!!

So what is going on here? Just what exactly controls CPU fan speed? It's a motherboard/BIOS function isnt it? Or should I blame it on the CPU fan not working properly? It's just a core i5, not overclocked at all; shouldnt it be able to play games without overheating?

I don't know if I should even be gaming right now, I cant afford to have to replace any of these components, and I'm worried that I didnt sign up for a warranty in time.

Here's my stuff:

MSI P55-GD80 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX MOBO
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W
Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12v/EPS12v
G.Skill 4GB 240 Pin DDR3 1600 Dual Channel Kit
EVGA GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256bit DD3 PCI E 2.0 x16

Help is appreciated

[Checkm8]

I have the i5 as well. The cpu cooling fan that comes with it is not sufficient enough. I bought the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler and it has helped a lot compared to the stock fat/heatsink.

I use speed fan to watch and automatically adjust my CPU and case fans. I just changed the settings for speedfan to make my fans software controlled as opposed to the smart guradian settings that my Bios had set.

I did that by opening speedfan, clicking configure, clicking the advanced tab, choosing my chip from the drop down list, and then changed all my PWM modes to software controlled. With this, speedfan controls 3 of my fans (2 case fans and my cpu fan). It has worked great and I have had no problems there!

As for GPU temps, I have to set my graphics card fan manually in some games such as Battlefield. The automatic settings for my video card are retarded or something because they don't really care that my card is overheating and it crashes my PC. So, I just manually increase the fan speed and voila.

[MrBlah]

You should get a liquid cooling system

[Clay Pigeon]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... eview.html

If this can fit in your case, you should look at it.

ps: make sure your case's exhaust fan mounts are in use.

pps: what case are you using?

[Dirty Dan]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

[quote="Checkm8";p="237879"]
I have the i5 as well. The cpu cooling fan that comes with it is not sufficient enough. I bought the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler and it has helped a lot compared to the stock fat/heatsink.

I use speed fan to watch and automatically adjust my CPU and case fans. I just changed the settings for speedfan to make my fans software controlled as opposed to the smart guradian settings that my Bios had set.

I did that by opening speedfan, clicking configure, clicking the advanced tab, choosing my chip from the drop down list, and then changed all my PWM modes to software controlled. With this, speedfan controls 3 of my fans (2 case fans and my cpu fan). It has worked great and I have had no problems there!

As for GPU temps, I have to set my graphics card fan manually in some games such as Battlefield. The automatic settings for my video card are retarded or something because they don't really care that my card is overheating and it crashes my PC. So, I just manually increase the fan speed and voila.
[/quote]

I don't seem to be able to control my CPU fan from speedfan, I can only control the two case fans unless I'm missing something.

[quote="Clay Pigeon";p="237900"]
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... eview.html

If this can fit in your case, you should look at it.

ps: make sure your case's exhaust fan mounts are in use.

pps: what case are you using?
[/quote]

Here's my case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811121020

How do I know it's not a software issue though? In my BIOS I can set target temps, which I set to 60C, but it just doesn't work. I'm a little concerned that I'll buy a new unit but the issue is software side.

[Clay Pigeon]

speedfan isn't always accurate.

Are you sure that your mobo didn't ship with a temp monitoring program?

Your case has a side fan. That might prevent mounting tower coolers.

[Dirty Dan]

[quote="Clay Pigeon";p="237916"]speedfan isn't always accurate.

Are you sure that your mobo didn't ship with a temp monitoring program?

Your case has a side fan. That might prevent mounting tower coolers.[/quote]

It just has a sleeve thats supposed to connect to the cpu fan, I already removed that though. I think I'm going to go with your cooler recommendation. Fry's has it for $30, even cheaper then Newegg. I'll pick it up on Tuesday and let you know how it goes, thx!

[Checkm8]

Well, it also depends on where you have you fans plugged into the mother board. My motherboard has 3 places I can plug fans into but I have to make sure which fans are plugged into which part of my motherboard. My motherboard is labeled cpufan, sysfan, sysfan2. I have to make sure that I have the fans plugged into the right position on my motherboard so they work correctly.

I would suggest searching youtube for tutorials on how to use speedfan or surf the web. That is how I learned to use it efficiently and it works just fine now with the aftermarket heatsink and fan!

[Clay Pigeon]

Keep in mind that you WILL have to remove your mobo from your case to install the 212+.

[tsmitho]

Mae sure your heatsyncs are free of dust and other things that prevent airflow. Do a bit of cable management by minimalizing cable clutter so you have better air circulation if you haven't already. Probably get a different CPU cooler. A 40 dollar heatsync is worth it if it means not ruining a couple hundred dollar processor. Liquid cooling is what I use but I've found it's kinda fail. You need air to cool everything else that's not a processor.

[Clay Pigeon]

Also, I'd recommend taping/papering over the side fan grill if you aren't going to use it. It probably is causing airflow problems (air goes straight from it to the exhaust fan, bypassing your components that need cooling).

[Dirty Dan]

This heatsink ROCKS! I'm running a 100% CPU torture test on my core i5 and I haven't exceeded 50C. Thanks for the advice Clay, I can now 2nd it.

It is huge but it ended up fitting okay.

[Araris]

I approve! (Mainly cause I see the Corsair PSU lol)

[blutig_ritter]

I had the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 for my old E8400 and it kept it nice and cool.
But when I upgraded to my i7, the old ones don't work on the LGA1366 mobos so I had to buy a new heatsink.
I went with the 212+ as you did, and it dropped my temps on my i7 quite a bit.
I also did have an extra fan laying around so i stuck it on the other side of the heatsink too so more airflow was going through.

So if anyone is looking for an aftermarket heatsink, I would recommend the AC Freezer 7 and the 212+

Also, for checking my cpu temps I use Coretemp.
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

[Clay Pigeon]

212+ fits on every socket. There is no need to use the antiquated freezer 7 anymore.