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Can pirate Windows discs cause your computer to overheat?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
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?
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?
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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
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.
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.
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.
Post of the week.
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:
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.
Maybe it's taken 3 weeks to harden
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.
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 . So that's 6 fans been set up and I've got no issues.