Computer Running Slow

[townsbg]

I don't know which of the temperatures given by SpeedFan is the one you're after, not that I really want to be stressing the CPU too much given that it's overheating as-is.

Please post a screenshot of speedfan. That will help.

 

[koberulz]

I tried updating the BIOS, and if anything it's made it worse. Firefox is just ridiculously slow right now, and I've lost count of the number of "Warning: Unresponsive Script" messages I've had to deal with, and I'm having to essentially type this blind as the text box is only updating every couple of seconds.

I booted into the BIOS menu to check the current version, then booted up and ran the update EXE. The red light was completely off for the duration of this process as far as I could tell, and stayed off once the process had completed. Rebooted into the BIOS menu to make sure all the settings were right, which they were, then booted into Windows again, and the red light was, and still is, back.

 

[wither 3]

I think updating to the latest BIOS was a good thing.

The thing that bothers me is that Fan 2, apparently for your CPU, is shown as not running. Can you verify that. On further review, I think I read SpeedFan incorrectly.

 

[koberulz]

I set up and started the encode that was running when my computer overheated. It's come down from about 40 hours to around 17, although that still seems a little high. Took a SpeedFan screenshot:

 

[wither 3]

From what I can find, Tcase for the 920 is 67.6 C. I don't have time to find out how to correlate that with core temperatures but it seems that core 4 is running hot and the cpu might start shutting down cores. As I mentioned before, there may be a thermal paste issue but I'm not a qualified technician.

 

[koberulz]

Well, it just overheated and shut down again. And took absolutely forever to boot up, including a good minute or two between me opening Firefox and Firefox actually opening.

 

[townsbg]

I would start by cleaning out the fans especially the fan on the heat sink. On my old desktop I had to physically remove the fan in order to clean the heat sink. The heat won't be dissipated if there is dust on the heat sink.

 

[koberulz]

How? Compressed air, wipe them, what's the best way?

I'm assuming the heat sink fan is the one that's on the actual processor, rather than the case?

 

[wither 3]

On my system, i can't see the heat sink beyond the cpu fan (it's the stock fan), so I would say compressed air. I've already given my opinion but could be totally out to lunch.

 

[townsbg]

Yes I am referring to the processor. Compressed air is good. You could also use a vacuum but it would have to be a static free one. Personally I took the fan off and removed the large chucks of dust with tweezers. I had to do that a couple of times a year.

If you take the fan off of the heat sink after doing so you will want to turn the computer on long enough to determine which way the air is blowing and put it on the same direction when you put the fan back. You might also draw an arrow on the fan. Either method would work as long as the fan goes back on in the correct direction.

 

[koberulz]

Had to remove a couple of sticks of RAM to get to the heatsink. Only managed to get the heatsink loose, rather than out, so I gave up on that and just got rid of whatever dust I could. Reinserted one stick of RAM no problems, couldn't get the right hand clip to fully close on the other. Tried booting up, and got three beeps, which is a memory error. Removed the improperly inserted stick of RAM, booted up, and got the "Low CPU Fan Speed, voltage issue" beep, followed by the memory beep, followed by my computer shutting down.

Removed the other stick of RAM I'd removed in the process of cleaning the computer, booted back up. Got the Low Fan Speed beep, and then the computer shut itself down.

So...yeah. Things are now significantly worse than they were.

 

[wither 3]

So, is the fan kaput or is it the thermal paste. Now that you've loosened the heat sink, I'm not sure what that did to heat transfer. What was hanging up removing the heat sink?

 

[koberulz]

I followed this to try and get it out, but only the top left corner came completely free of the motherboard. I did get it back in place as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure why it's now refusing to boot.

I did get as far as the intel screen when I tried a couple of hours later (the "press F2 for menu" bit). Prior to that I wasn't getting anything on the screen at all.

The POST code is something to do with fan speed and voltage, so I'm not seeing any reason to believe the thermal paste is at fault. It all looks like it's working okay, though.

And on a sidenote, I hate laptop keyboards.

 

[wither 3]

Is the motherboard they're working with the same as yours?

I wouldn't attempt to remove the heat sink unless I had thermal paste (compound) available. Perhaps it would be worth $25 to get a pro to do it.

If the fan has low voltage, it could be a power supply problem. I don't know if the BIOS has any adjustments for the fan voltage.

 

[koberulz]

It looks pretty much the same. It's an intel CPU and motherboard. I was just trying to follow the suggestion of removing it in order to clean it.

The power supply is pretty new. The one that originally came with the machine died a couple of years back. I thought I still had the box/paperwork relating to the new one, but apparently I don't. Either way, two dead power supplies in six years?

 

[wither 3]

Trouble is, if you remove the heat sink, you've broken the heat transfer layer and I don't think you can simply put it back on, given how thin the layer is.

I also wouldn't go with similarities in this regard. I would get the motherboard manual, if you don't have it. You might also need to find out what the exact heat sink that was used.

I've only been through one power supply in 7 years but I've been through two hard drives and the two graphics cards that were in SLI, in that time.

These things we're talking about are simply what us volunteers see as potential causes of the problems.

 

[townsbg]

I didn't mean for you to remove the entire heat sink. I was just pointing out that I had to remove the heat sink fan. I'm sorry if you misinterpreted me. Now that you've attempted that you will probably have to put more thermal compound on the cpu and the cpu might be loose so I agree with wither. At this point it is probably best to take your computer to a technician. All we can do here is advise you and if you don't know what you are doing trying to go any further could result in damage to your computer. With your heat sink loose be very careful when you move your computer.

 

[koberulz]

Pretty sure I got the heat sink firmly secured again. The two sticks of RAM are just sitting in the slots, though, because I couldn't clip one of them in and was getting RAM beep codes when I tried booting up with the other one properly inserted.

I was trying to remove just the fan, but couldn't see any removal things that would only remove the fan, as it seemed to be part of the same bit of plastic that was attached to the motherboard.

 

[townsbg]

The computer was probably beeping because of the loose ram sticks. They need to be all the way in. As for the fan I'm surprised if there aren't any screws. You don't have to remove the fan. Just try using a can of compressed air.

 

[koberulz]

I still can't get it to boot up at all, though. It gets to the "press F2 for menu" screen and shuts down. No beeping, though.