The problem is with a Dell optiplex SX270. When the pc is switched on after being off for a night, it restarts a couple of times untill it gets hot (very hot) you can barely touch the top of it. The strange thing is when it is hot it works fine, but when it is cold it will restart a few times. Even stranger is you can turn it off during the day untill completely cold, turn it on and it will be fine, only when off for the whole night does it do this.
Heat issue with pc
- Thread starter Sinjin
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KingCody
Posts: 964 +8
That isn't a solution at all.kodrutz said:
You may just have too much dust in there, open it up and vacuum it out, especially the fans (CPU, and PSU). Dells are very quiet computers, but that comes at the price of very poor air circulation and cooling
And by the way, there's nothing wrong with leaving your PC on all the time.
thanks, I have cleaned it but when I opened it I noticed that the heat is coming specifically from a heat sink on the motherboard over the north bridge, it is extremely hot. The fans are actually blowing the heat out the top of the pc that is why the top is so hot. I'm thinking that there might be a crack or something on the motherboard that when heated up expands and makes proper contact??? still doesn't explain why it is soo hot though? am I off base here?
KingCody
Posts: 964 +8
If your board was cracked, or for some other reason only made an electrical contact when heated and expanded, then when it is cold it would not start at all... period.Sinjin said:
You say your northbridge is where the heat is coming from, that's very odd considering it's a stock system (an overheating northbridge usually happens when a system's FSB is raised too high, which doesn't apply to your machine), is your CPU running hot?
you could try adding a small fan to the heat sink, or run it with the case door open. but if the heat is indeed coming from your heat sink, then it sounds like you have a bad motherboard
I am experiencing the same problems...
Hello,
We have about 70 of these machines at our workplace. Must be said that we have had a lot of problems with these machines.
Performance wise, they are very good. Ours are 2.8GHz Pentium 4's with 512KB L2 cache and an 800MHz FSB. It does the job very well, especially in our Customer Service department where space is a real constraint.
One of the problems we have had is where the capacitors keep blowing. One of the Dell engineers told me that this was a problem where Dell bought a dodgy batch of capacitors and put them on the motherboards. They explode all the time! We replaced about 10 systems motherboards last year because of this problem. Just a phone call to Dell Support is all it takes (0870 908 0800).
Apart from that - damn do these machines get HOT! I decided to take the side off my machine to see what was making it get so hot... The fans on the bottom blow the cool air up through a channel created by a plastic cover over the CPU HSF, which seems ideal. Right above this is the NB HS, which is black in colour, at least on my motherboard (Dell told me that they occasionally change the design of their motherboards because of things like heat dissipation, or just bad design).
The black heatsink on the northbridge is too hot to touch for more than a few seconds!
It would be interesting to know if there is a way to increase the voltage running to the fans on the bottom of the computer. I understand that they get faster and louder as the processor gets more load. It does indeed get very noisy, but surely if it was like that all the time it would stay cool?
If they could possibly be upped by 50% it would improve things a lot.
I'll try to attach a photo of the system from the side when I get home from work.
Hello,
We have about 70 of these machines at our workplace. Must be said that we have had a lot of problems with these machines.
Performance wise, they are very good. Ours are 2.8GHz Pentium 4's with 512KB L2 cache and an 800MHz FSB. It does the job very well, especially in our Customer Service department where space is a real constraint.
One of the problems we have had is where the capacitors keep blowing. One of the Dell engineers told me that this was a problem where Dell bought a dodgy batch of capacitors and put them on the motherboards. They explode all the time! We replaced about 10 systems motherboards last year because of this problem. Just a phone call to Dell Support is all it takes (0870 908 0800).
Apart from that - damn do these machines get HOT! I decided to take the side off my machine to see what was making it get so hot... The fans on the bottom blow the cool air up through a channel created by a plastic cover over the CPU HSF, which seems ideal. Right above this is the NB HS, which is black in colour, at least on my motherboard (Dell told me that they occasionally change the design of their motherboards because of things like heat dissipation, or just bad design).
The black heatsink on the northbridge is too hot to touch for more than a few seconds!
It would be interesting to know if there is a way to increase the voltage running to the fans on the bottom of the computer. I understand that they get faster and louder as the processor gets more load. It does indeed get very noisy, but surely if it was like that all the time it would stay cool?
If they could possibly be upped by 50% it would improve things a lot.
I'll try to attach a photo of the system from the side when I get home from work.
KingCody
Posts: 964 +8
hi and welcome to TechSpot 
FYI, it is best to start a new thread instead of adding to a 3 month old thread.
to answer your question... if you want the fans to run full speed just hook them up directly to the PSU (not the mobo).
if you're not comfortable splicing wires then you can buy a 4 pin molex to 3 pin fan adapter (although it would probably be cheaper to just get new fans, they usually come with an adapter included)
FYI, it is best to start a new thread instead of adding to a 3 month old thread.
to answer your question... if you want the fans to run full speed just hook them up directly to the PSU (not the mobo).
if you're not comfortable splicing wires then you can buy a 4 pin molex to 3 pin fan adapter (although it would probably be cheaper to just get new fans, they usually come with an adapter included)
bushwhacker
Posts: 788 +2
wow, poor bast...
The problem is that the heatsink went over the CPU, northbridge and psu is made to be passive. there is nothing you can do except leave the case open with the small fan blowing directly to it. that should help [despite the dust -_- ]
Have fun modding
The problem is that the heatsink went over the CPU, northbridge and psu is made to be passive. there is nothing you can do except leave the case open with the small fan blowing directly to it. that should help [despite the dust -_- ]
Have fun modding
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