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Solve : Alarm goes off in computer... what is it??

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Sometimes when I boot up and turn on a game there is an alarm that will go off a minute or two into playing. It sounds "High-Low-High-Low..." and does not stop until i restart the computer.

My computer is running 3.0GHz Pentium 4 and an ATI RADEON 9800 Pro
As far as air flow and heat dissipation, the computer is on the desktop by the window with some noisy fans (good or not i don't know but they SURE aren't stealthy)

This happens only sometimes, after a reboot it usually doesn't happen again for as long as i have the computer on. If you have any idea what this might be please tell me so i can address the problem. Heat alarm i suspect...if those fans are noisy they are probably getting ready to fail.]

I also would guess it's the fan on the vid card that is failing.

Replace it.

patio. 8-)What are your system temperatures, fan speeds and voltages?

Are you using a temperature/voltage monitoring PROGRAM?

If so, make certain the monitoring program is properly configured .I was kinda thinking it was a heat alarm of some sort as well but i don't really know much about heat management other than the fact that you need fans or stuff melts

Thank you for the quick response and the help but i still need to clarify some things.

@ Patio: Well the fans have always been noisy but what do you mean by "replace it." Are you talking the whole video card or just the video card fan? And if so, where would i get a replacement video card fan?

@ Raptor: Temps, speeds and voltages... where do i find that info? Do you have any links that might help me learn a bit about heat management or COULD you recommend a monitoring program you mentioned?

Thank you very much guys, please tolerate my n00bishness.

-Kendizzlei don't suppose your motherboard has some odd system alarm to tell you your motherboard bios battery is failing???
just a thought.

I one had a motherboard yesr ago that ACTUALLY spoke to tellyou stuff like that, I was quite suprised at the time.

steveQuote

@ Raptor: Temps, speeds and voltages... where do i find that info? Do you have any links that might help me learn a bit about heat management or could you recommend a monitoring program you mentioned?

The BIOS or monitoring software that usually comes with the mainboard driver CD.

Any decent computer store in your area will sell replacement fans...have you isolated which ones are noisy yet ? ?

patio. 8-)Ok i got out my mobo CD and installed the monitoring software (i didn't even know it was there [smiley=embarassed.gif] )

Here's some of the info it's giving me:
System Temp: 30 C
CPU Power Supply Temp: 49 C
CPU Temp: 69 C

Mobo Chipset Fan speed: 5625 RPM
OTES Fan Speed: 5113 RPM <--- don't know what "OTES" means
CPU Fan Speed: 3013 RPM

Now the problem i was originally describing where the alarm would sound after a few minutes playing is because of the CPU Temp getting too high. It got all the way up to 90 C while i was running a particular game.

Now that i know what the problem is (thanks to you nice folks) what can i do to keep the CPU cooler? Should i see about getting a new heatsink or would simply cleaning it help?

Thank you guys so much for helping me figure this stuff out. 90 Celsius - OUCH!

A new heatsink/fan combo and some arctic silver PASTE. See instructions before applying. Don't bother with Arctic Silver. Buy a cooler that has thermal paste pre-applied. Less hassle, more efficiency.


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