City of Heroes is overheating my PC

I've been playing CoH for two years, but only today did this problem start. I'll play for maybe ten minutes and the CPU cores (I have a Quad core system) start going up. They start around 72 C and fairly quickly raise to 80, then 95, and a few times got to 100 which sounded the alarm on the Real Temp 3.40 program I'm using. According to Real Temp, both of my video cards stay around 60 C, so I don't think that's the problem. (Or maybe it is and it just isn't recording a temp change? I have no clue.)

Here are the relevant stats for my PC:

* Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz Quad Core Processor
* Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard
* 8192 MB (8GB) DDR II 800MHz PC6400 Memory
* Dual nVidia GeForce 9800GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Video Cards in
SLI Configuration
* ANTEC TPQ1000 1000W P4 ATX POWER SUPPLY
* MS WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE 64BIT

Any help would be appreciated!!

The first and most obvious step would be to take your side panel off and examine the heatsink and fan over your processor.

1) Is the fan spinning? If not, and it hasn't come unplugged, you need to buy a new one ASAP.

**Turn the PC off before going any further**

2) Is anything slowing the fan down, like a build up of dust or hair wrapped in the blades or anything? Clean all the dust off your components as best you can, as by spraying it with compressed air. Do this outside, unless you've got a vaccuum cleaner to catch the loosened debris.

3) Can you wiggle the brackets that hold the CPU fan down against the processor? If so, you may need to reseat the heatsink, which will probably require that you clean and reapply the thermal paste.

4) Check the fans on the graphics cards, and make sure they have adequate space in between them to allow for heat dissipation. They might be running hot too, but have a higher temperature tolerance than your CPU.

5) How large is your case versus how much stuff do you have crammed in there? If you're using a fairly small case, heat will build up fast... especially with two SLI video cards, a quad core processor and a few hard drives.

Other factors may come into play as well, such as: how much ventilation you have in your case (number of case fans), the location of and free space around your tower (should have a few inches between the case and the wall behind, on the left and in front for proper ventilation).

The number of programs you run at one time could have an effect, and you should check your motherboard documentation or the manufacturer's website to see if there is a fan control application that will let you increase the speed of the fans.

Keep the area around your PC clean (and raised off of a carpeted floor if possible), and dust and vaccuum around it often.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Thanks for your quick and thorough reply! You've given me a lot to check out, and I really appreciate it.

As it stands now, it seems fine unless I'm playing CoH (or, probably, other CPU intensive games.) So I'm going to leave it be for tonight and tomorrow, when my head is clear, pop the side panel and check things out.

Just don't ignore it for too long, and shut down your PC when you go to bed.

Last summer, CoH started acting a little funny for me but I didn't really pay it any mind... Turned out that a stray tuft of dog fur got caught in the cooling fan on my video card, stopped the fan and caused the motor to burn out. By the time I realized what was happening, one of the capacitors on the video card had actually popped.

The stuff in your rig is more expensive than the video card I lost, and I'd hate to see you have to replace anything the way I did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Was the computer a self build or a store bought one?

The reason i ask is that you said your processor starts off at 72 C which is pretty darn high. Leads me to think it's missing the correct amount of thermal paste between processor and heat sink.

If it was due to the fan not working i'd expect the CPU to be almost instantly 100 C and auto shut down to stop damage to the chip, rather than a gradual increase.

CoX has always made my rigs run extremely hot. :< Its sad.

If it is a thermal paste issue, how do I fix that?

If it was the thermal paste, it's easy enough to fix. You just need some new thermal paste, a cold system and something like cotton buds to remove any old paste remaining.

Aha, ninja'd to a linky.

Am just about to power down, crack open the case, and try cleaning out the dust, so wish me luck!

Success! I opened up my PC, and apparently the fan was trying to grow a kitten, as it was covered in dust and fur. I hauled the case outside and spent about 30 minutes cleaning it with compressed air, and it's running beautifully now. I have CoH running while I'm writing this note, and the temp is a nice 60 C. Idle temp was 50 C!

Thanks so much to you guys, your advice helped a lot - especially the advice to take the PC outside. It was so much easier to see everything in natural light, and all the dust that I cleared out... well, it's much better off outside than it would be inside!

Also, I want to mention that if you're ever in the market for a new PC, check out Cybertron. (cybertronpc.com) My PC's warranty has expired, but customer service nevertheless promptly answered my frantic emails and were great about giving advice and help. They are top notch.

Glad to hear you've sorted it... The dust bunnies are ebil.

Awesome, glad to hear you're back up and running!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!