Hey peepz!
I recently noticed that ma new computer overheats often, which is starting to worry me slightly :eek: . I was told that it could be the power supply unit which is 250V. I have the following specs...

3400+ 64 AMD Processor
MicroStar MSI MS-6741 uATX Motherboard
1024MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Graphics card with 256MB DDR RAM
Serial ATA Hard Disk 7200rpm speed, 200GB capacity
NEC ND-2510 16 Speed DVD Burner Drive

I don't have a clue when it comes to computers :confused: but what could be the cause of the overheating? Is the power supply sufficient? If not what can you guyz recommend? :)

Thanks in advance, I really appreciate this!
:D

Causes for overheating are usually a too high room temperature, or inadequate ventilation.
Is your computer installed in an almost closed or too small cabinet?
Are all fans running?
Is nothing blocking the airflow?
The 250V spec of the supply is not related to overheating.

If it is new, I would check with where you bought it. As long as you are providing air circulation to the areas of the case with ventilation holes, it shouldn't over heat. 250 volts? Maybe recheck what it says. Many power supplies will work on either the 120 Volts in the USA, or 220 common in Europe.

Hi,
You didn't say how long you have had the computer.
One cause of overheating is dust; it can clog up the fans; and the air intake "holes" in back of the computer.
Check the back where the fan is; and use a flashlight.
If you see dust inside; clean it out.
This is just a "long shot", but worth checking out.
fredg

The computer is roughly 3/4 months old and I did check and can verify that the power supply is 250 Volts.
I duno if this helps but I used SiSoft Sandra and noticed a warning message alerting me that my board temperature was 60.0°C / 140.0°F. Is this reasonable or should I be expecting a lower temperature? I checked my CPU temperature to be 43.5°C / 110.3°F

By the way, thanks for your help guyz!
You are much more help than the stupid computer manufacturers (Tiny UK!)

the computer is roughly 3/4 months old and I did check and can verify that the power supply is 250 Volts.
Are you sure that's not 250 watts?



I duno if this helps but I used SiSoft Sandra and noticed a warning message alerting me that my board temperature was 60.0°C / 140.0°F. Is this reasonable or should I be expecting a lower temperature? I checked my CPU temperature to be 43.5°C / 110.3°F


I don't claim to be an expert on temperature limits, but I'd say your CPU temperature is acceptable (although a little on the hot side), but your board temperature is _way_ too hot. Check your ventilation, make sure nothing is blocking the fans.

How many fans do you have? How many blowing in and how many out? You might need to increase that number.

Note it's also possible the board's temperature sensors could be off. I noticed a measurement difference of 5 degrees celsius between 2 boards of the same model, running with the same hardware in the same environment. (But I wouldn't take any chances).

For now, I'd run the machine with the case off, maybe blowing cool air on it, until you figure out what's going on.

:)
~psi42

250V (Volt, no Watt) is very common nowadays for computer power supplies.
Line voltage in Europe is 230V (not 220) plus or minus 10 Volt.
By designing the supply for 250V, it will work without problems everywhere.
Today's computer power supplies work within a range of 100V to 250V, at 49 to 61 cycles. In other words, no-one in the whole world should worry about line voltages and frequencies.
If your computer is too hot inside, then the ventilation is not correct.

Oh, BTW, the board and CPU temperature seem to be reversed. The CPU temperature usually is between 15 and 20 degrees (Celsius) higher than the board temperature. And in this case, the values are maybe a bit high, but very acceptable. No reason to worry I'd say.
****
I've read comments on that "sandra" utility, it's told to be pretty inaccurate sometimes (depending on the installed MB or processor).
What temperatures are given by the BIOS routines? They are probably closer to the truth.

250V (Volt, no Watt) is very common nowadays for computer power supplies.
Line voltage in Europe is 230V (not 220) plus or minus 10 Volt.
By designing the supply for 250V, it will work without problems everywhere.


Thanks for the clarification.
~psi42

If they came with the stock heatsinks and fans then that would be the cause of your warmer than desirable CPU, mobo and more than likely graphics card. All together they will cause the case to be warm. Being an Athlon 64 I expect your computer isn't too old. I would recommend looking into a better heatsink/fan for the CPU although that isn't too hot, and possibly one of the Arctic range of coolers or something like them for your graphics card so that it vents out the back of your case to help bring that temperature down. Other than that, make sure your case has plenty of fans in it and enough clear space to allow a decent air flow, perhaps a bigger or aluminium case would help? And another common mistake is to have the case fans the wrong way round; you want for example like on mine, one each on front and side as intakes, one on side and back as exhausts.

It's not the power supply, especially at that low a wattage.

And I can sympathise about Tiny, our first PC with a cd drive in came from them! :-)