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Can pirate Windows discs cause your computer to overheat?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
As the title says really, a friend of mine recently bought one of those new dual core systems, spent a fair bit of money on it and it's constantly overheating even though he's got about 2 or 3 system fans inside it.

He reckons it's because he's using a pirate copy of Windows XP but I'm pretty sure there's a problem with the hardware. He's now gone on to say that it's happened to other people that have used pirate XP discs.. is this true or is he just indenial?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    His system doesn't sound very good.

    Core2duo processors are much much cooler than most other processors on the market. Either his motherboard is burning up or he hasn't seated his cpu fan on properly / doesnt have one.

    For what it's worth I'm running an e6300 at 2.8ghz (stock speed is 1.8) so that's over 50% overclock, and my processor is just 32*C. And my motherboard is 47*C. And I'm running a hacked version of XP :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    No, it cant.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thought so.

    I thought it could be his motherboard aswell but I had a look earlier and the hardware monitor says the motherboard is usually on 42-47c and his CPU is over 50c. Pretty weird, especially considering he got it just before xmas and it only started overheating a few days ago.

    I'll ring him now and see if I can get a full system spec.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    AMD XP 4600 Dual Core
    Geforce 8800 Gfx card
    Asus M2N-E Motherboard
    2gb of low latency ram

    He also has 3 fans running along with an integrated fan on the graphics card, so there's a lot of circulation. He also says he's put a lot of cooling gel on the processor.
  • Porky_StalkerPorky_Stalker Posts: 108 The Mix Convert
    Aspire wrote:
    He also says he's put a lot of cooling gel on the processor.

    You should only put a thin layer of good themal paste/compund between the cpu and heatsink.

    Too much compound can lead to heat issues.
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    :lol: !!!

    Post of the week.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You should only put a thin layer of good themal paste/compund between the cpu and heatsink.

    Too much compound can lead to heat issues.

    Really? Maybe that's the problem. He built it himself so I'll speak to him about it.

    Cheers for all the replies peeps :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Also he needs to make sure that his fans are not working against each other. Make sure there is a good directional flow of air through the case.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hmm, just thought actually.. if he put too much cooling gel on the CPU then the overheating issues would have been instant surely?

    It was working absolutely fine with no problems for 3 weeks.

    ETA: Mist - I think he's got all that sorted mate because he was talking to me about it before he bought the parts.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Check the cpu fan is seated firmly. Maybe it's become dislodged. I suffered with this problem when I first built mine. But I've got a scythe infinity heatsink, which is stupidly too big :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aspire wrote:
    Hmm, just thought actually.. if he put too much cooling gel on the CPU then the overheating issues would have been instant surely?

    It was working absolutely fine with no problems for 3 weeks.


    Maybe it's taken 3 weeks to harden
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aspire wrote:
    I thought it could be his motherboard aswell but I had a look earlier and the hardware monitor says the motherboard is usually on 42-47c and his CPU is over 50c. Pretty weird, especially considering he got it just before xmas and it only started overheating a few days ago.

    Case temperature is WAY too high. He may have too much silicon grease between the CPU and the heatsink, but it won't be the main cause of the problem.

    He needs better ventilation, fan positioning, or to move the case to a cooler part of the room.

    There should be just a smear between the CPU and heatsink - the grease is there to help conduct between imperfections, not insulate them from each other. Good rule of thumb is to but a dab in the middle of the CPU core, and allow it to spread out by wriggling the heatsink gently before clipping it down.

    Best compound to use IMO is copper grease - £2 or less from a local motor factors. You can get proper silicone grease from a plumbers merchants for £4 a pot - far cheaper than computer stores.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I use artic silver or something like that, £6 for a tube but it comes with a scraper too :p (basically a credit card size bit of plastic, you use it to spread the compound so it's completely flat on the processor).

    Either way, as click to see more says, it sounds more like a general heating issue. That graphics card is going to put out tonnes of heat, so you might want to look into that. Make sure you have a good fan at the back of the processor that is blowing air out the back of the case, one at the front near the bottom to pull cool air in, and any extras if you want them. I've got one on the top of my case, one at the rear, and one pulling cool air in from the front. Also I've got a 120mm fan attatched to my heatsink blowing air through it and out the back of the case, and my gpu fan blows air out the back too. Oh, and my psu fan :p. So that's 6 fans been set up and I've got no issues.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well I'd be worried that my pirate windows would set sail with a load of my swagger.
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