Overheating problems

[anteos]

Hi

Has anyone had any overheating problems?

My pc has suffered from this in the past whilst playing a non civ game. But this generally occurs in the summer when the computer room is really hot.

I've monitored this with the application speedfan. I start the civ game and after about an hour it will crash. If I check speedfan you can see the cpu temperature constantly heading upwards.

After the game has crashed, the heat suddenly heads down again?

[OliverFA]

I have the same problem. I thougt it was something related to my computer. But maybe is some strange combination of graphic card and graphic code used in Civ.

It happened once or twice with GalCiv, but with Civ is a lot more common.

[Asmodeous]

Try cleaning out your fans, make sure they're not dusty and grungy. Also you might try replacing the case fans, or getting case fans if you don't already have them, get some of the fans that have a greater airflow.

This will of course increase noise...

I would just try cleaning all the grunge out of your fans. You'd be amazed how much will collect there even in the period of a year, especially if you have pets and/or smoke.

Me.

[anteos]

thanks for that asmodeus.

I just find it strange that bts generates a lot of heat within the pc comared to other games. it seems like the cpu is being put under a lot of strain and hence producing heat.

I've setup an alert which pops up when the cpu reaches 105c. when I log out you can watch the temperature drop by around 30 degrees

[MrWhereItsAt]

Well Civ is a lot more taxing on the CPU than the graphics card, unlike most other games. If some are experiencing late-game slowdown with bigger maps and more opponents, I'd say the game was becoming CPU-limited, meaning the poor old processor is working hard for you to have fun.

[Willem]

Do you have an exhaust fan on your case? I ran into a problem when I got my AMD 6000. In my old case, the CPU was overheating and crasking the computer after a short while. I switched to a new case with an exhaust and an overall better design, and now that same processor is running at almost half the temperature it was, and the CPU fan is running at about half the speed it used to.

There's really no reason for Civ to be causing an overheating problem, the game isn't that demanding, especially not with graphics. If you're having this problem, it has to be a hardware problem.

[snoopy369]

Actually, willem, as MWIA says, Civ is quite demanding on processor (and GPU, actually). The demand scales on the size of the map and the number of units on it (thus worse on large maps late game), of course. Each unit takes a certain amount of CPU/GPU power to display, especially with the animations turned on.

One solution is to turn the animations off or at a lower resolution; another is to play on smaller maps.

Or do what asmodeus suggested and blow out your fan

If your CPU is hitting 105ºC then you're not cooling your system right (and if it's idling at 75ºC you are definitely not cooling it right). CPU should idle at no more than 60ºC for any reason, and realistically should be close to 45ºC, only hitting 70 when under load. Are you overclocking??

Airdust the case, make sure your CPU fan is turning (they can get clogged), consider replacing your CPU fan if it's several years old (ball bearings can wear out).

Definitely get more fans in the case. At minimum there should be one below the power supply to exhaust the case (blowing hot air out); there generally should be two more, one in the front below the HDDs that brings air in from outside, and one on the side blowing down onto the motherboard (again, outside air).

[ahenobarb]

What processor do you have?

I have a first gen PentiumD that runs at 55C out of the box (yes, they rushed it to market). I have to keep the fans running high to keep it cool. Also, interior corner of the room and dark helps.

Also, was playing last night and Norton Antivirus kicked in. I watched the thermometer in the room go from 72F to 80F and climbing. Cracked a sweat and then shutdown Norton.

Make sure nothing else is running while playing Civ4.

[Lord Avalon]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=5015074#post5015074

[anteos]

thanks for the advice.

the cpu is an amd fx-53 and is idling now with speed fan at:

temp1 27
temp2 68
temp3 32

its not overclocked. I've also got loads of fans running and the case is off as well. I've got a fan on my gpu, a fan over the cpu a fan at the rear of the case and a fan underneath the power supply all wirring away. The case could do with a clean.

I think the problem could lie with the resin on the cpu. Maybe its got old and isn't conducting heat away effectively.

i'll turn the graphics down and see if that makes a difference.

[MrWhereItsAt]

I don't know whether turning the graphics down will help the CPU heat much. Reducing the size of the maps/number of opponents might.

[snoopy369]

AMD fx-53 ... for some reason I seem to remember that as a pretty "hot" chip. You may need a better CPU fan/heatsink.

1. Case off = BAD BAD BAD. This means your air circulation is incorrect. Case on with one side fan - or even without - is much better than case off generally.

2. If it's a few years old, and you used liquid gel instead of the sticky pads for the thermal paste in between your CPU and your heatsink, indeed that can wear down over time. (They both wear down, but the gel wears down faster.) That definitely can increase your heat.

Your power supply is the rear of the case, right? Are you referring to the in-PSU fan with the fan under the psu?

Either way heat is definitely the problem You might check that your exhaust fan is correctly pulling air out of the case as opposed to pushing it into the case -- any fan on the back of your computer should expel air, while any fan on the side or front should pull air in. If that's not the case then turn that fan around

[anteos]

an update

after experiencing the overheating problems I finally got off my backside and took of the fan and heatsink.

there was a fair amount of dust in the fins of the heatsink. so I cleaned it out and put it back together again. The cpu temperature dropped by a whopping 20 degrees

bts is now running fine.

so I confess guv, it was me pc and not bts

[Chicagophil]

Hmmm interesting topic.

I always have to reboot my system before I start playing Civ4 just because things slow down so badly if I dont.

[Crossfire]

I built a new PC a couple months ago. It has a Core2Duo 6700 and an NVidia 8800GTS video card with a 650 watt power supply. I have to turn a fan on in the room because this thing puts out so much heat! The CPU never runs higher than 55c, and obviously my case is doing a good job at getting the heat out into the room, but I just couldn't believe what a terrific room heater new computers are. It's great in the winter, but with the temp at 110 outside yesterday it was pretty much too hot to play even with the air conditioner on.