Correct fan layout?

[WithoutMotive]

Hi guys,

 

Weird one here.

I have an Acer Veriton 3700GX that, towards the end of the day, starts overheating to a lovely 70C on the CPU. Everything seems to be working as it should. Fans are spinning and in the right direction. I'm a little unsure, though, about the layout of the machine and whether air is blowing where it should.

 

The fan attached to the heatsink is blowing towards the HDD and is blowing COLD air. The small fans on the back of the machine are blowing but don't seem to be doing anything that's helpful. The heatsink and copper piping is very hot.

 

Is the layout correct? Is everything facing the right direction? I don't know. Follow the link to see a pic.

 

Dropbox - Photo Nov 04, 11 10 18 AM.jpg - Online backup, file sync and sharing made easy.

 

Cheers.

[Achandler]

As long as the fans on the back are blowing outwards like the CPU fan then it is the right. Is their a blocked cent on the front maybe which is meaning no new "cold" air is being sucked in.

 

Have you checked the PSU fan is blowing outwards to? It maybe that the PSU fan is broken and that one usually blew out most hot air?

[WithoutMotive]

Thanks for the quick reply. I've checked the PSU fan and it's all working fine. The CPU temperature is currently 65C and it hits 70C by the end of the day. I left the side of the machine off for the day and the CPU temperature still rises. No vents are blocked.

[difinity]

Maybe remove the heatsink, clean off the old thermal paste and use something like arctic silver ?

 

Install speedfan Download SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer to check temperatures and also the speed of the cpu fan. I've seen overheating casued by a fan not spinning fast enough.

[WithoutMotive]

Thanks for your suggestions.

In the meantime, I have a replacement computer for the member of staff in question but I'll definitely investigate this further.

[jamesreedersmith]

Is the fan on the heatsink blowing the air onto the heatsink or away from it?

[WithoutMotive]

@jamesreedersmith I can feel cold air coming from the fan on the heatsink, which I thought a bit strange.

[jamesreedersmith]

Should be other way - blowing air onto the heatsink - can you swap the lead around to reverse the fan?

[WithoutMotive]

I'll do that tomorrow, thanks.

[sonofsanta]

I had a computer last week where the CPU temperature was climbing dangerously high, for whatever reason the mobo wasn't spinning the CPU fan up correctly. It detected the temp correctly in BIOS (i.e. f'ing hot) but never span the fan up above 150RPM. Swapped the CPU fan plug onto a spare 3 pin fan header on the board, fan now runs at >1kRPM, everything shiny again.

 

TL;DR: try plugging the heatsink fan into a different fan header on the board.

[Butuz]

As it still gets hot without the side of the case fan I would rule out the case/psu fans and concentrate on the cpu heatsink and fan.

 

Does the heatsink get hot? If the CPU really is at 70 degrees and you have good thermal transfer, then the heatsink should be too way hot to comfortably touch for longer than a few seconds.

 

If the heatsink is not hot or only barely luke warm then you need to as difinity suggested and re-fit the heatsink with new thermal compound.

 

Butuz