dl77002

I made a post here a few weeks ago regarding upgrading my computer. I added 2 sticks of ram and a 700 gig hard drive; and the general concern was that my power supply wasn't enough to handle the upgrades. I decided to just go along with the upgrade and see what happens.

Ever since, the computer speaker makes a siren noise under the slightest bit of stress (something that told me to add thermal paste last year, which resolved it). Can this siren mean anything else other than overheating? Can it have anything to do with my power supply? What's the solution? Faster fans? I know nothing about cooling.

Thanks in advance.

blackduck30

Well you will need to list your temps for us to see if it is overheating or not.
You can download something like speed fan and post up the results.

Not knowing what power supply you have or the specs of your computer it is hard to really give an accurate assessment.

It could possibly be that the new drive and the Ram are making your already stressed power supply generate more heat which will raise case temps.

Get us some results from speed fan so we can make a more informed reply

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

jb_

Some motherboards have under/over voltage warning. It could be the new hardware is making the voltage dip a little too much.

dl77002

Specs I will post as soon as I get home from work. What do I do with Speedfan exactly, get the computer to give it's siren and then post some sort of log?

Thanks so much for your help so far.

dai

the siren sound is usually the cpu has been disturbed and the paste needs cleaning off and new paste applied
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

dl77002

I've done this.

dai

check that the heatsink is seated correctly

dl77002

It definitely is. Everything's in order physically - these upgrades are either sucking up too much power or creating too much heat. I just wish I knew which.

Tumbleweed36

Let's talk about your power supply. What brand name, how many watts?????

dl77002

Alienware, 480 watts

Tumbleweed36

That information does help a lot. However, I should have also asked for the video card, the motherboard make and model, and the cpu....that would help us even more. If you change anything with an Alienware computer, I think it voids your warranty if it still is in effect. Might want to take a look at that if the computer is fairly new.

dl77002

I'll definitely post full specs once I get home from work. I don't care about the warranty - it's not broken; I just made an incomplete upgrade. I upgraded the RAM and storage - now I need to finish it up with either power or cooling.

dl77002

Power Supply: Alienware 480 Watt Power Supply
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 Processor 550 w/ HT Technology 3.4GHz 1MB Cache
Motherboard: Alienware PCI Express Motherboard with Intel® 925XE Chipset 1066/800MHz FSB
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
Samsung 2GB (1GBx2) DDR2 at 533MHz
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express 128MB DDR3 w/Digital and S-Video Out
System Drive: High Performance - Serial ATA - 120GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Storage Drive: Additional Storage Drive - 80GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Storage Drive: Additional Storage Drive - 750GB Western Digital 7,200 RPM w/16MB Cache
Optical Drive One: Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM Drive
Optical Drive Two: Sony 16x DVD-RW Drive
Floppy Drive: 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
Sound Card: Intel High-Definition Audio (24-bit, 192Khz) with 7.1 surround sound
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Modem: US Robotics 56K V.92 Performance Pro

jb_

If you check the bios you should be able to see what alarms are enabled.

Tumbleweed36

I would say that your power supply does seem to be rather burdened by this rig. Please go ahead and follow the advice given to you by Blackduck30 to post your temps and your voltages from the link to speedfan that he gave you. Also, that CPU does normally run a little on the hot side so that should tell us how hot it is running and the voltages might (not always) tell us what is going on with the power supply.

dl77002

Here it is sitting idle:


Here it is with the siren going off:


And here's each piece and it's label:

Tumbleweed36

Well, you do have a problem with temps. The conversion (always list C temps if possible) shows that you are idle at about 55c and getting the siren at 78c give or take a few degrees. You idle should be in the mid 40'sc at most, and your under-stress readings should be no more than 60c, give or take a couple of degrees. That CPU runs normally a little hot, but you are way above normal.

To add to the bad news, your power supply is out of specs according to the voltages we see listed. That can even cause your rig to run hot.

One other question, before we get too far in, have you ever blown the dust out of that computer?????? That can be the cause of a lot of those problems, so start there first.

Just as a double check, download and try SensorviewPro to see what it says about your temps and voltages.

dl77002

Thanks so much.
I blow the dust out pretty regularly with compressed air. How can the power supply affect the heat, out of curiosity? I hope that's what the problem is, as it's less than a $150 fix and it seems like a fairly easy one.

400F?? That's a mistake, right?

jb_

Please try Everest. I've found it to be the most accurate, and both of those are giving rather weird readings. Speedfan shows 3v on the -5v rail, while Sensorview shows 5v, but Sensorview shows over 400 degrees F on the CPU, which Speedfan doesn't.

I know a lot of people here like Speedfan, but in my experience it sucks compared to Everest.

Tumbleweed36

Some programs don't read some things on some boards correctly. Therefore, that is why the outlandish reading that Sensorview gives you. My guess is that this board and SensorViewPro don't mesh very well. That happens and so do sporatic Sensors on the motherboard, so tough to tell for sure. It will not hurt to try Everest, but I suspect you will get about the same as Speedfan which is an excellent program.

Unfortunately, that power supply is so far out of specs with both programs you have tried, that it is very suspect at causing a great deal of the heating problem. There is no way to know for sure if that would solve it, but I would try another power supply to see if that takes care of some of the issues. Do you know someone who has one you could simply hook up and try? If not, then if you will go someplace (buy a brand name, not some cheap junk) like Bestbuy and purchase one and give it a try. If that is not the problem, you can return it for a small restocking fee. That is what I would suggest at this time.