What are the signs of an overheating PCU?

My current case has very poor air flow with no place to put a chassie fan, I don't plan on keeping this case very long. So far I haven't had any problems with heat, but tonight while printing many copies I think it might have overheated. My printer (HP deskjet 6122) has always used a lot of resources, while printing PCU useage is 100% and 0-10% between pages, after about 15 minutes of printing, the computer became unresponsive, and when it was done printing (almost an hour of printing) it remained unresponsive and PCU useage stayed at 100%. The mouse worked, the start menu would show, but I couldn't shut it down, restart, or reset, I ended up killing the power to the PSU.

When I restored power and tried to restart, the power light came on but nothing else happened, not even the PCU, PSU, or video fans. I killed the power again and let it sit for a while (about 10 minutes) and tried again. This time the fans kick in and I get a message about failed overclocking (I have never overclocked it), so I hit f1 for setup then esc and it booted normally. After rebooting I checked the PCU temp and it was about 50C (after sitting for 10 minutes), it normally runs around 38C. Of course, I have no Idea how hot it got after it hads stopped responding.

Is this signs of an overheating PCU? What is too hot for a PCU?

BTW, PCU is 2.5Ghz P4

Thanks.

Hi awg1011!

I'd say that it's overheating. Not really sure what's "to hot" for that cpu. It seems weird that a printer would suck up that much of the cpu though. It should send it to "spool" then forget it (basically, although there's more to it than that).

Is the fan on your machine in the back? If so, when printing like this, the quick fix is to pull the side of the case off, and put a small fan blowing on the inside of the case. You could also mod the case to put a side fan on it. Might be better off getting a different case IMHO.

One more thing you can do is to take the side off and clean it out with compressed (canned) air. If there is dust in there, it may be hindering the airflow of the fans, or slowing them down.

If this doesn't solve your problems, then please post back and let us know!

Hope this helps!

50C is not overheating. The CPU temp should always be below 60C, though. My obsolete Athlon XP 2700 idles at 47C. I suspect that the problem is software or OS related, not hardware.

What make and model is your computer ?

How long has it been since the OS has been installed/reinstalled ?

if its a packard bell, advet computer you could have this problem. As there fans are sh*t and the airflow on the case is sh*t

Thanks everyone.

The case I'm currently using has no place to put a fan, I don't plan on using this case very long, it's just getting me out of a pinch. As for dust, I just put in a new motherboard and cleaned the PCU fan and heatsink before installing them. I have been using this case and MB for a couple weeks now with no heat problems, but I also haven't been working it hard.

This printer has always used alot of the PCU, it's an HP deskjet 6122.

Pascor, the 50C is after sitting for 10 minutes powered down. It was a Gateway, but the motherboard went, and I replaced it with an ASUS board, the only thing left from Gateway is the PCU, everything else had been slowly replaced. Oh, and the modem is still from the Gateway.

Since the PSU has such long wires, I have it sitting on top of the case to keep all that extra heat out of the case.

This may be a part of the heat problem. Most (if not all) power supplies comes with a built in fan (sometimes 2) to help remove heat from the case. You may want to check to see if your psu has a fan on it. If it does, you might want to consider putting it back in the case, as it will help to cool the case.

I think that a new case with a few fans will solve this problem for you

Steve, the PSU has 2 fans, one runs all the time the other as needed. Another reason the PSU is out, is it would almost compleatly block the PCU fan. The power supply sits next to the PCU and would only be about 1/8" from the PCU fan. Yes, a very poor setup... And yes, I plan on replacing the case soon.

Good luck with it! Let us know how you make out!

The PSU is meant to be mounted in the case. It helps exhaust air heated by the CPU. Even with the case's side cover on there will probably (hopefully) be enough airflow in the case from holes in the box to provide enogh ventilation. As long as the PSU doesn't touch the CPU, its fan or heatsink it won't be too close.

A good experiment would be to reinstall the PSU, close the case and then download the free Everest Home and run it. It should provide a real-time monitor of the CPU and case temperatures. The CPU temperature shouldn't go above 60C even after extended hard use.