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Help me! PIII Overheating!

A

atari2600a

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May 26, 2006
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Schwarzeneggerville, CA
OK, before I start, let me tell you about my system. It's has a PIII CPU, 256MB of RAM, a fully tweakable BIOS (Voltage, Bus Speed, Multiplier, ect...), & minimal cooling (This will change next Friday); Just 2 fans on the CPU cartridge. The CPU speed is set to 3x135MHz=405MHz, as it was for 5+ years. My motherboard has a CPU Tempurature alarm, set to 194F. The CPU tempurature averaged around 178F before I did what I'm about to say below.

I felt my CPU's heatsink & fans needed a long-needed cleaning. I removed the cartridge from the case, removed the twisty sheet metal holding the cartridge together from the back, removed the plastic & heatsink from the CPU PCB, removed the fans from the heatsink, & then removed ounces of dust from the heatsink & fans.

After that, I reassembled everything, & now the CPU gets freaking hotter! WTF is going on!?

If it matters, I moved my 256MB RAM PCB from DIMM2 to DIMM1 (Closer to the CPU cartridge).
 
Between the heatsink and fan is usually a layer of coolant paste, it probably needs replacing since you've taken it all apart and broken the seal.
 
Ah, good point. There's no coolant on this one, but one of those metallic-sticker things. You know what? I think I know what the problem is. I think the CPU just has to adapt to the new position the sticker-thing's in, kinda like how you can't do some serious overclocking on a CPU for the first couple hours/days when you replace the coolant.

Everything seems fine now that I (Minimalized?) my Bus Speed (I forget what to). My CPU is running at somewhere around 375MHz now, & the alarm isn't going off. I think I'll leave my computer on for the night & then set my bus speed back to 135MHz tommorrow afternoon. (...& then set it higher next weekend, after I install a case fan, & maybe some new CPU Coolant (But then I'd have to wait another day for it to settle in...))

So, back to the question I asked in another thread: How hot is too hot? I need a good number to set my Tempurature alarm to.
 
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You can use the stickers just once!

Best would be to remove the heatsink, clean the cpu surface and heatsink surface with a soft (but not fluffy!) cloth and some alcohol.

Then put a drop (not more) of coolant paste on the CPU before replacing the heatsink.

Your describing that you only have the CPU cooled. Do you know how high the case temperature gets? That might also be a reason the cpu cooler has limited functionality.
 
Yes, those sticky pads are a use-once application. Do as Jorg suggests, and also put the settings back to standard.
 
Well 1: I don't know what the actual/official speed of the CPU is, & 2: It's not a sticky sticker, It's completely dry! The CPU left an imprint on it though...

Also, I plan to do some serious overclocking, so I'm planning to get some high-grade coolant paste.

My BIOS also tells me the tempurature of the case itself; I think it was around 100-110F the last time I checked.
(By the way, I'm using the same computer right now; the alarm hasn't gone off at all w/ the Bus Speed minimized)
 
It would be a waste of time to overclock a p3, coppermines never do more than 300 over on expensive cooling, and I doubt you have a tualitan.
 
Trust me, I use my PC to the limit. Even w/ my CPU speed minimized to 375MHz, I manage hang my computer (Everything; not just an app) Even when I boot up, you can already see the 30MHz difference. At 405MHz, the logon window would show for about .2 seconds, and at 375MHz, it stays for about 1.

How to I tell if it's a Coppermine or a Tualitan?
 
They usually have the speed written on them... But I would agree that you are wasting your time trying to overclock it, more harm than good IMHO.
 
So you're saying that it's pointless to get probobly 50-200MHz more out of my PC ,speed that I need for my emulators to not hang, when I have no money at all?


& on the IC's next to the CPU, it had "300 MHz" printed on them, & my motherboard doesn't go that low. I can't seem to find any documentation on telling whether I have a Coppermine or a Tualitan...
 
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www.cpuid.com
download cpuz.
Run it, it will tell you everything,
You might even have a katmai, the oldest pIII core.
Katmai was 450MHz-1.13GHz slot pentium 3 cpu's
Coppermine was 650MHz-1.1Ghz socketed or slotted pentium 3 cpu's
tualitan was 1GHz-1.4GHz socketed pentium 3 cpu's
I dont feel like searching the specifics, but that is a general synopsis.
Kaymai's have 512KB cache, Coppermines have 256KB cache, tualitans have 512KB.
The tualitan was high end workstation/servers
Coppermine was end user and high end machines.
Katmais are very slow for their clock speeds.
 
Sadly, it's a Katmai. I guess this is why my favorite P&C game, "The Longest Journey", always had framerate issues...

Is this CPU worth overclocking? & what speed do you guys think I should run it at w/ the current cooling I suggested? (My computer has run long enough for it to resettle into the sticker enough I think..)
 
Also, I just noticed, CPU-Z says my multiplier is set to 4 (as opposed to 3) & the bus speed is 123MHz! The CPU is running at 495MHz!!! The BIOS is set to 375MHz!!! WTF!?
 
atari2600a said:
So you're saying that it's pointless to get probobly 50-200MHz more out of my PC ,speed that I need for my emulators to not hang, when I have no money at all?
Click to expand...

Yup :) Since you will end up with a fairly unstable and overheating system and the end of the day, it might not even last too long.

Best to find out what speeds your mainboard can support - low-end Pentium processors go for next to nothing on eBay. You could probably sell your existing processor for more or less the same price as a slightly faster one.

Whatever you choose to do, you'll need to get some thermal paste for the processor, that sticker really is not going to do the job properly now you've reused it.
 
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Well can you at least tell me what tempurature to set my alarm to? I want to see how fast I can get it w/ the current cooling, & then after a case fan & some thermal paste, I'll set it higher.
 
Don't bother overclocking:

  • Running hot (whether overheating or not) shortens the live of the components
  • The actual speed bump is usually neglible, as most of the bottleneck in a modern machine is in waiting for memory, disk, network traffic, etc.
  • When your machine starts computing incorrect results, you may or may not notice the difference. That's acceptable for gaming, but really not cool if it trashes the filesystem on your disk.
 
Seriously, why would I worry about shortening the lifespan of my PIII!? This is the slowest modern CPU I have! It's over 5 years old! If it dies, I'll just put in another of my various MotherBoards & CPU's! (Heck, I have a Dual-PIII Proxy server in my room gathering dust!) & I have no worries for my data! All that's on my HD is Win2000, some emulators, OS Updates, & Mozilla FF! I don't need anymore warnings about how I'm not gonna gain anything or how it might damage my system! I just want to get some extra speed, even if it's 50MHz, out of my existing hardware!

(Damn, it's like speaking to a scratched up record!)
 
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