CPU overheating problem Crix 166+

[PilotinCommand]

Hi there,

I think I'm having an overheating problem on an old Cyrix 166 CPU.
This is what happens: when I start up a CPU intensive task (I tested it with Seti, so that's 100% usage of the CPU) the PC runs fine for a couple of hours (2-3) and than it reboots itself.

Might this be an overheating problem? I checked the CPU fan, it's running fine. I don't know if it's the original fan or that it was replaced by the previous owner of the PC, but the fan is quite small in comparison with the heatsink. I left the sidepanels of, still no effect.

The specs of this PC are:
-Cyrix 166 (not overclocked [I think])
-Asus P/I-P55T2P4
-64MB EDO RAM
-2Gig HDD
-Running Win 98SE

Ow and btw, when I'm running non CPU intnesive tasks like Word or something this problem doesn't appear.

Could somebody give me advice on how to solve this problem. I wanna sell this old brick to a friend of mine who can use it. He will probably use it only for apps like Word and Exel. Still I'd like to solve this problem.

Thanks,

PiC

[minsonngo]

It sounds like either a processor overheating or bad power supply issue to me. Here is a list of things that can cause a computer to freeze, reboot, and/or crash.

+ A virus problem - Run a virus scan and see if you find anything.

+ Processor or system overheating - Check the CMOS setup or use a third party utility such as SiSoft Sandra to check the processor temperatures. Acceptable temperatures of the processor are between 30 to 45 degrees Celsius.

+ Bad power supply - The only thing you can do is replace it and see if that resolves your problem.

+ Improperly installed hardware or faulty hardware (especially memory) - Basically check and make sure everything is seated, installed, or jumpered correctly. If you suspect faulty memory try replacing the memory and see if that resolves the freezing problem. If you have multiple sticks of memory installed you can just leave one stick at a time installed and see if the freezing goes away. If the freezing goes away with a certain stick then you will know that stick of memory is good. Once you get to a stick of memory that causes the computer to freeze then that stick is probably bad.

+ Hardware or software conflicts - You need to go to the Device Manager under System Properties and make sure there are no conflicts there. Usually if there is a conflict there will be a yellow exclamation mark besides the device with the problem. The AGP slot and PCI slot 1 share the same IRQ so usually PCI slot 1 is not occupied if there is a AGP video card installed. PCI slot 4 and 5 also share the same IRQ so usually both slots are not occupied at the same time.

+ Buggy or outdated drivers - Just make sure you have the most recent drivers installed of the video card and motherboard.

+ Buggy applications, software, or utilities - If the freezing began to occur after you installed a particular program maybe the freezing will stop once the program is removed. No program is perfect (except maybe Microsoft products ) so one that has bugs in it may cause system instability.

[Cricket]

Cyrix processors were notorious for running really hot. Since that system is so old, my guess is the heatsink compound has probably melted away or has become hard. Try removing the heatsink, clean it and the CPU really well and apply new thermal compound. Might help.

Cricket

[HAL9000]

Get the largest Socket7 heatsink you can get cuz ya.. they do weird things when hot.

[minsonngo]

I wonder how hot those old processors really get? I had an old Socket 7 Intel Pentium Packard Bell computer a while back with only a paper thin heatsink held on to the processor only by a layer of thermal compound. I remember the thing used to freeze after ten to fifteen minutes of usage running Windows 3.1 .

[PilotinCommand]

I'll try to use a layer of thermal compound. If I have to select one of the issues of minsonngo it would for 95% sure be an overheating problem.

It's a clean install so bugs and virusses are almost completely ruled out.

No PSU problem I think because the problem doesn't occur when running non-intensive apps.

RAM was replaced a couple of months back. The problem continued to occur after that modification.

Everywhere I heard those Cyrix processors can run really hot. So it must be an overheatig problem I think.

Thanks for the replies,

PiC

[mike breck]

I would agree. The Cyrix CPUs always had a reputation for running extremely hot and good cooling was essential.

Cleaning the old compound off and applying new stuff would be the first logical step to take. Just make sure you use a thin lair of paste.

Too much paste reduces heat transfer.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by minsonngo I wonder how hot those old processors really get? I had an old Socket 7 Intel Pentium Packard Bell computer a while back with only a paper thin heatsink held on to the processor only by a layer of thermal compound.

The Intel and AMD processors ran at much lower temps than the Cyrix CPU's. I'm not sure what made them run so hot, but using a barely adequate heatsink (I think most socket 5 and 7 heatsinks could barely handle the Cyrix) only made things worse.

Cricket

[minsonngo]

[HAL9000]

I had a Cyrix166 way back and when the fan quit.... I was crashing, rebooting, getting memory failure reports on POST. Booting to a DOS prompt and taking a directory listing showed missing directories, misspelled directory names and garbage charachters.... replacing the fan and all was well.