Spasticatedtoad Posted September 12, 2014 Author Posted September 12, 2014 (edited) Just a short update. ( well...as short as I could keep it ) It's always pays to get a second opinion. My CPU while in idle, was sitting on a temp around 46 degrees Celsius. Upon opening anything, I would see that temp immediately shoot up to around 53 degrees. When flying in DCS, I was seeing temps of 63 degrees. Which is around 3 degrees above the recommended threshold temperature ( with standard cooling ) for my CPU. My system is not overclocked ( tried to increase from 3.4Gig to 3.5Gig and got immediate reboots ) and it was winter here with very cold temperatures. I know that my system runs a lot hotter in summer than it does winter and was concerned it was not going to survive this spring/summer. After flying on DCS for around 30 minutes, I saw very high temps and stuttering. After shutting DCS down, my fans were going nuts for the next 10 minutes ( while sitting in desktop and all programs closed ). After 10 minutes, it would take another 5 minutes to ramp down my fan speed. All the while, it was only able to drop the CPU temp by 0.1 degrees per 10 seconds. I assumed my processor was on the way out because 4 sensors in my tower report ambient temps of around 21 Degrees and my GPU reports around 19 Degrees. With all other temps reporting so low, I could not think of another reason........until I decided to clean the system up and shut it down for good. For several years, I have had Paid-For software for looking after the maintenance of my PC and Sunday is Scan-Day. I always clean my system up, check for issues and delete junk files. During this process, Advance System Care ( 1 of the programs I use ) has always found a registery fragment ( over the last few months )and some left over files from a previously uninstalled program ( does not state which program ). I always followed instructions and it never resolved the issue. I looked up the issues online and they were deemed ' Not Malicious ' and to fix it required editing the registery. As it said they were Not Malicious, I left it alone as I was not confident editing the registery. But a few days ago it bugged me for the final time. After thinking about it for a while, I remembered a program called SuperAntiSpyware freeware edition. I downloaded it, installed it and ran a scan. Before it even ran the scan, it found 7 issues needing attention immediately. I clicked next, it ran its scan ( around 16 minutes ) and at the end, had another 36 issues to be resolved. Immediately after resolving those issue's and rebooting my PC...... Everything changed. My temps are still higher than I would like, but are now at least 5-7 degrees cooler while flying DCS. But more importantly, as soon as I shut down DCS, my CPU temp immediately drops by 15 degrees and starts ramping down the fans straight away. Within 2 minutes, it's back to normal running temps and fan speeds. The offending files, turned out to be from another program called iObit Malware Remover. iObit also make Advanced System Care and yet it could not clean up the left over files or resolve the issue. I have been putting my PC through its paces over the last few days and have found it is a LOT happier now. It's still not good enough for me to continue making DCS videos unfortunately. And I have missed my short window of opportunity to upgrade my PC this year, so may not be able to make any more videos for some time. As my knowledge of computers and flight systems is limited, making videos was the only way I felt I could contribute to the community here and enjoyed it very much. I never knew how much I enjoyed it, until I decided I can't make any more videos. It's like losing a friend. :( But, at least I am not left without a computer to work on and I can still fly on DCS. So all is not lost. :) Thank Goodness for free software. :D Edited September 12, 2014 by Spasticatedtoad ipad to ED Forum page scaling leaves a lot to be desired.
Gloom Demon Posted September 12, 2014 Posted September 12, 2014 It is a good habit to check the computer for dust every now and then. When the heat sink on the CPU gets filled with dust it's effectiveness is drastically lowered. I know what I am talking about - I have cats :-). I also try to blow out the extra dust from the power supply - it generates a lot of heat and dust prevents it from being blown out. Another thing is - the back of the computer with the ventilation holes and the case fan should not be closer than 15 cm. to anything like the wall or a curtain - otherwise hot air will stay in the case causing temperature related problems. The cooler the case, within common sense, the longer the computer will last. AMD Ryzen 3600, Biostar Racing B850GT3, AMD Rx 580 8Gb, 16384 DDR4 2900, Hitachi 7K3000 2Tb, Samsung SM961 256Gb SSD, Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS X, Samsung S24F350 24'
Spasticatedtoad Posted September 12, 2014 Author Posted September 12, 2014 Oh yeah. Dust bunnies can be fatal for a PC. It's one of the main reasons I bought my own air compressor. Just make sure to secure any fan blades before blowing the dust clear so as not to damage any Low Speed fans you may have. When I got my first PC, I bought a good desk for it, but found if you put the tower in the slot they provide, it gets no airflow at all. After that, it's just been habit to have it in the open.
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