Athlon XP Overheating?

Wow... You're system is almost a complete match for the new one I just put together. MSI KT-3 Ultra 2, Athlon XP 2100, and the same video card. My case has two fans down front, two in back and one on top of the tower case. In addition, there's fans on the CPU and the video card and in the IDE drive drawers. The drives I use are a 120 GB and secondary drive I switch between the 80, 60, 40 GB drives that I use for different functions. I have a DVD drive (pulled from an 550 MHz computer nolonger in use) and a combo DVD,CR-RW drive that I purchased.

I am using a 400 watt power supply with two fans ... one drawing air into the PSU and the other draws air out the back of the case.

I'm not experiencing any problems.... but the systemboard is saying this is operating at 266 and approx 1.5 MHz... which I do not have a problem with either. I built this system the weekend before last.

Are you overclocking? And what wattage is your power supply? The MSI has a BIOS function where you can set alarms that tell you if the system is running too hot. It sounds as if you may be overheating, but you shouldn't be.

Is it doing this with stand-alone games or Online games? It may be the Internet that is freezing or intermittantly stopping action.

Your MSI board has a BIOS health monitor where you can check your CPU operating temp if your concerned about it. Your Thermaltake Volcano 9 ought to keep your CPU cool [but that fan is a screamer] [I use the Volcano 9 but change out the fan to a Mechatronics[see Coolerguys.com for a comparison]which runs @4500 rpm pushing 53cfm with a noise level of 39db. Far less noise than the 49db out of the Thermaltake @4500 and 53cfm is more than adequate airflow. My XP2100 runs at 104 degrees F under a gaming load and about 95 to 98 degrees F idle. ]

Further, MSI boards are just not overclocker boards. They are probably the most stable mainboard for the Athlon/XP processor / Windows platform, but become unstable quickly if one cranks up the FSB.[there are some people who say no problems but most tech writeups [even on MSI forums] say it's not really suited for the overclockers out there.

Also some questions. Are you playing online? what sound card and O/S? what nVidia drivers are you using? What grade of memory? Are you using the latest VIA chipset [4.43]? Also you might want to disable the T1 Command in the BIOS. Check on the MSI website forum for some answers as a lot of gamers go there. Lots of info on performance and hints on what might be causing problems [most hint at sound/video driver issues in game play].

I run a MSI KT3 Ultra 2-R with an Athlon XP2100, 1GB Kingston PC2100 two matched 80GB IBM hdd's Geforce 3 Ti 200 128MB, Lite On 48X24X48 CD-RW and a Sony 16XDVD, Audigy Gamer sound on a W2K Platform. Most stable system I've put together to date. [people say W2K isn't a gaming O/S but I have had no problems what so ever. I occasionally get screen freeze when playing online [server side issue] but none in single player mode.

Usually, overheating of the CPU will cause system shutdown, not just freezing of programs. With the number of fans you are running, I would tend to agree with DR that your power supply is the problem. If rated less than 400W, you are probably overloading it.

Another thought on fans and over-heating.

How many fans are blowing air into the case?

You want to set things up so that you slightly pressurize the case. This assures clean cool air for all internal fans.

You also want to setup the fans so that air flows throughout the case with no stagnant air near heat producing components.

However, I believe that your freeze is memory related. XP likes a lot of memory. 256MB is good for entry level 'office' applications. Since you are runningyour system hard, I would want at least 512MB if not 1GB of RAM. I would go ahead and install as much RAM as you can afford.
(I'm running 768MB on my XP box.)

Chas

I am currently running my system in an aluminum case. I have a 400w CompUSA PS. All the drivers for video and windows are up to date. I will try to update my soundcard drivers and flash the BIOS. The memory currently installed is Corsair XMS PC2700. I have tried overclocking this system before and was unsuccessful with getting any significant performance gains without stability loss. Although, I am not currently overclocking. The computer is running over 130 degrees F, but the heatsink is cool to the touch. The video card however, is putting out a lot of heat also, and is also not overclocked. I am using heat sink compound, so that should eliminate the possibility of bad heat tranfer. I hope I answered all your questions, thank you for your suggestions!

MSI-KT3 Ultra2 has a heatsink seating problem... if the heatsink is too big it will touch some of the capasitors on the mainboard, this isnt a problem until the heatsink heats up and expands.

Advice... Get a smaller Copperpipe heatsink, try for an AMD approved one to the correct wieght and size for the cpu :)

(I had the same prob, I went for an Alpha copper based heatsink plus some micronised silver conductive paste)

Hope this helps.

Oh... just remembered another thing. Make sure non of those ten fans are getting power from the motherboard.. thats way too much drainage on voltage that could be used keeping your system alive.

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