My computer almost melted

[Aseph]

Right, so I fired up my copy of "Condemned: Criminal Origins" on my PC. I started playing, and realized that my brightness was way too low. I exited out to turn it up, and then my computer suddenly rebooted itself.

Naturally, my first thought was that it overheated, because this had happened to me back when I first got my computer and I had to get a new component to fix it. So I check the temperature gauge on the front of my computer and became alarmed at the fact that it was ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY EIGHT FUCKING DEGREES!

My computer is normally running at about a hundred degrees below that, and I literally leaped out of my chair and unplugged the thing faster than Speedy Gonzales. I opened it up and checked the two fans and they both seemed to be running fine.

I closed it back up and turned it on and it's been running smoothly ever since. Does anyone know what on earth happened?

... While I'm at it, I might as well ask what the general consensus about "Condemned: Criminal Origins" is.

[Dr. Zin]

Computers only get up to 188 degrees? I thought they got hotter than that.

[Aseph]

All I know is that when my computer gets that hot, it means something is wrong.

[DeumReaper]

Do you know what component(s) your temp gauge monitors like CPU, Motherboard (I don't think case monitors display video cards unless u did it yourself); for any part that does sound like its hotter than normal. Is that temperature reading in Fahrenheit? 188º F (80-90 in Celsius) if so thats very hot but not unusual.

[jobro]

188C or 188F ? That is alot of heat. I've had the same problem on my previous computer, only thing is that it shut down and then refused to start to work after that.

If you are running WinXP then you should be aware that it uses 60% of your computers resources just to run winXP! I'm a composer, and my cpu is constantly running at 95%-99% when I'm working with my music.

[AirRaid]

DeumReaper said:

Is that temperature reading in Fahrenheit? 188º F (80-90 in Celsius) if so thats very hot but not unusual.

Well I would fucking hope it wasn't 188 Celcius, or he'd have a puddle of molten silicon.

Also, "Not Unusual"? 80-90 Celcius would cook most Intel CPUs. I know mine has a 'danger' rating of 75. The 'danger' rating being when circuits inside the chip start to fuse together, leaving you with a dead chip.

Aseph - Check your Heatsink mounts - if it's loose you want to fix that asap, otherwise it could happen again.

[Enjay]

AirRaid said:

Well I would fucking hope it wasn't 188 Celcius, or he'd have a puddle of molten silicon.

Whilst I agree that 188°C could be damaging to the chip and all the other things you said, the melting point of silicon is 1414°C.

[insertwackynamehere]

188 degrees F is very hot for a PC to be running at. It's not usual either. My computer when extremely stressed and choked with dust has never broken 150 and usually it hits 140 and then just gives up. Thats why I dust it out frequently, and it barely gets past 115, even under a lot of work.

[Infinite Ammunition]

jobro said:

188C or 188F ? That is alot of heat. I've had the same problem on my previous computer, only thing is that it shut down and then refused to start to work after that.

If you are running WinXP then you should be aware that it uses 60% of your computers resources just to run winXP! I'm a composer, and my cpu is constantly running at 95%-99% when I'm working with my music.

either a result of very cpu-intensive work or just all-round sloppy programming, and who on earth has 60% cpu usage on idle?