hi, help!

[quintinius]

hi im qunitinius i play world of warcraft some of you may have seen this similar post on the mmo forum but my friend said i should ask here aswell, basically ive got a problem, when im playing WoW for a few hours ( its a addicitive )my computer comes up saying that a critical error has occured and clikok to terminate the application so i clik ok, then it shows a report thing that it wants me to "send" even though i have no idea where it sends it, it justs eems to lie in my wowerror folder, now i know it isnt RAM i just bought new ram i got a 512 on top of my 215 or something like that and my cpu is 3.4ghz i think i dont know what cooler i have but i believe that is in the equation because my computer gets very very hot! and sometimes instead of coming up with an error thing it just kind of dies then starts booting up again and it normall says its around 80 degress centigrate is this too hot for a computer? do i need a new cooler? ca someone please help i surrender to my computer!! the antivirus things i use are spy bot search and destroy ad aware se personal and super antispyware free edition
please and thankyou!

[dangel]

80 degrees sounds pretty toasty - is that the cpu temp? P4's are hot little sods but that's too high nonethless. Post some more info on your system - is it a pre-built one or one you've put together yourself? Is it telling you about the temps when booting or in windows?

[Pob255]

80c is way to hot, but we still need more system details.
It still could be ram, depends what you had what you put in, the codition of the ram and the settings in the BIOS.
Could be hard drive
could be windows
could be a few other things

oh and thoes antivirus things you listed are all primarily antispyware not antivirus (they do cover some forms of virus, generally blocking security loopholes)
If you don't have a "real" antivirus program then download a copy of AVG free edition.

[quintinius]

ok umm i dont really know how to get to BIOS im only 13 xD downloading avg, and it comes up in green saying magiduct temp 80c 0rpm and i have an intel celeron d procesor and i use a wireless networking card/ router called belkin 54g umm if u want to know more tell me how i can check things because taken from WoW im a noob xD

[charleski]

Hmm, open your computer and check the fan on your CPU cooler is running.

[DanceswithUnix]

A quick google around came up with "Magic Duct" as part of Jetway motherboards.

Here are some motherboards some of which have some sort of ducting around their CPU voltage regulators. I wonder if the fan there has failed?

[quintinius]

there is a small fan on my motherboard that is working (i htought it wasnt and stupidly enought put my fingers in to give it a check) so if its a temp thing i can always just open the computer and sit a fan next to it till it's cool right?

[quintinius]

oh and thankyou for all the concern and help you guys are giving because im quite simply clueless :/

[GoNz0]

what about the fan for the big metal CPU cooler? and check the CPU cooler isnt full of dust as that stops the fan from blowing cool air over it.

[charleski]

There should be a large heatsink with a fan on it over your CPU. This will be near the top left corner of your motherboard. Check that the fan on that is working and that the heatsink isn't full of dust (computers can be a dirt-magnet inside). Many motherboards also have a small fan near the middle of the board that cools the northbridge, it's seesm that's working at least.

[Pob255]

Definately open the case, turn it on and cheek to make sure all the fans are running.

PS don't try to clean the dust out with a vacume cleaner, as you can quite easily damage stuff.

Best thing I find for cleaning dust is a small stiff brisseled clean paint brush (hoghair brushes are good) and human lungs (give it a blow but try not to inhale the dust clouds)

EDIT: Also CpuZ is a good tool for showing you what bits are inside your PC.

[b0ned0me]

There should be a large heatsink with a fan on it over your CPU.

I remember when I was new at this - the heatsink is a big lump of metal with lots of fins or spikes on it, possibly tucked away inside a metal shroud to make it look tidy. If you look at this picture it should look a bit like your mobo. The heatsink is the big black lump - does that look like what you stuck your finger into, or was that fan mounted on the motherboard itself?

It's generally not recommended to go poking computer insides while it's still switched on and running - you might try leaving the side open, play WoW until you get a crash, and then (quickly) switch the PC off and touch the metal of the heatsink. If it's hot (freshly made cup of coffee hot) then you've definitely got some sort of heatsink problem. If it's just warm then there might be a problem somewhere else - possibly the heatsink is loose.

The green text with the temperature on it - does this show up when the computer is starting, just after you've switched it on and before the windows screen shows?

[quintinius]

yeah the big black thing is what i stuck my finger in and the text come up when i turn on the computer its the bit where it checks all the memory and tells you the temps it comes up at the bottom and i thought the motherbord was that big thing that bug black chunk is sitting on (lol very accurate ) is that wrong?

[DanceswithUnix]

The motherboard is the really big circuit board screwed to the bottom of the case that everything else (CPU, RAM, video card) plugs into.

As for the BIOS, on most computers if you press "Delete" a few times after you first switch it on it will say something like "Entering Setup" and take you into a screen that will probably look like technobabble nonsense at first, but most of it is not that bad. There should be several screens to move around, and hopefully one of them will be a Hardware Monitor screen that lists all your temperatures and fan speeds.

Note that if you get worried in the BIOS that you have changed something you don't understand, it only actually changes the setting when you do an "exit and save". You can always bottle by pressing the reset key

[Thorsson]

Get Everest from here: http://www.download.com/Everest-Ulti...-10499291.html

Install and run. Open up the first section, computer (click on the +) from the left pane, and select sensor. This should show all your temperature, fan speed and voltage information. Now select Report from the top menu. Choose Quick report, plain text. Copy the [sensor] section of the report and post in a message.

It is almost certainly a dust problem. You can get tins of compressed air from places like Maplin which are particularly good for this, but as has been said a good blow will shift a lot of it. A small brush can help too. Note that if there is a lot of dust it will be quite mucky, so you might want to lay the PC on a dust sheet or newspaper to stop it going over the floor.

If you have caked in dust though (which seems entirely probable) then nothing short of removing the HSF will get it properly clean. If you do go this route you will need to clean off the existing thermal compound and put on some new. This is a bit nerve-wracking for a novice. Don't you know a geek at school? There's usually a few around...

BTW you are a bit lucky that your newly bought RAM worked OK with the old if you're a hardware novice. Different sizes, speeds and makes of RAM often don't get on with one another. But this isn't a RAM problem.

[GoNz0]

to add to the above, if it it full of dust and crud, take it outside !