Possible Hot Pc

So I have a few question about my PC. I was first looking at updating Video Cards and need to find out if my computer had 350W system power supply needed by the new card. That lead me to EVEREST Home Edition. Because I have no clue how to find out what my computer can support power wise. This program tells me all sorts of infor about my computer. What I looked at was the temperature, and when I read it I was concerned, these numbers seem aful high. Motherboard 34 °C (93 °F) CPU 43 °C (109 °F) Aux 31 °C (88 °F) Seagate ST3160021A 35 °C (95 °F) I have alwasy felt this PC ran hot and it sounds like it kicks on a secound fan or turns up the power on something. I've taken the panel off the side of the PC and installed a aftermarket fan and both help. By help I mean the PC doesn't kick on this secound powersurge/fan. All I really know is there is a power surge from time to time on my PC that causes my PC to lagg suddenly and 1min later it stops. When this surge occurs I hear something inside the CPU that turns on or up, like turbo. I had HP try and help me but I couldn't get the PC to surge while online with CSR. I'lve looked inside the computer but I can't make out what is comming on. Is my PC running too hot? 2nd question is about the Video card itself. Before I buy anything I want to understand what all this means so I'm sure to get the right Video card for my needs and my current system. Help me please to determine my system power supply, and my system memory. And any other advice too a noobie buying a video card. I've learned the geeks at "Generic computer store" Will sell you anything with little care if it will really work at home. System Requirements Pentium 4/ Celeron, AMD Athlon I have a Pentium 4 AGP 8x slot I have a AGP 8x 128mb ddr card in the PC now so got this At least 256MB of system memory I think I have this my C drive says it has 57GB free. Installtion software requires CD-ROM drive I have this. DVD Playback requires DVD drive Yep i have this too Windows 2000/XP I have this. A minimum recommended 350W system power supply No clue. How do I find this information on my System? An AGP compliant motherboard Yep i have this. Thanks so much Tomcoyote.

i dont think those temps are anything to worry about. they can vary depending on load. some BIOS may also display temps. i dont have a hd temp indicator though. the only way i know of finding out a power supply wattage is by the sticker on the supply itself. this might involve removing the ps. you might be able to find the info at your computer manuf. website based on make/model. if your computer is at least 2-3 yrs old i would bet you have at least a 350watt ps. you can check installed system memory by right clicking on my computer and selecting properties.

Thanks for your response about the temperature issue with my PC. Is there a way to see the Watt PS that my computer has? My PC is about 2yrs old and you might be right, but i'll want to be sure. Any ideas how to solve the mistery to what is causing my PC to suddenly lagg and make an odd sound.

hi,

heres a link to a guideline for critical temps for cpu's.

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/…peratures.shtml

Is there a way to see the Watt PS that my computer has

only way i know is by the label on the ps itself, if you take a panel off and look at the ps, you might get lucky and be able to see it with out having to remove it. you might also find more info at the comp. manuf. website using make/model of comp.
when you had the panel off did you see alot of those dust bunnies? other than a fan causing noise, hard drives can make noises to.
have you ever run disk defrag.

Yes I've run a disk defrag, and do so from time to time. Could be hard drive that would explain the lagg. What is PS?

hi Kirshna,

ps stands for power supply.

http://www.computerhope.com/help/ps.htm#support

Could be hard drive that would explain the lagg

i suppose it could, if it was having problems. defrag helps to organize the data stored on the drive, a badly defragmented drive would benefit from defrag but i really dont think with todays computers you would notice a lag even with a badly defragmented drive.

just for a look, have you posted a hjt log in the malware removal forum?
if not, and you want to– you can do this:

HJT downloads
* http://www.downloads.subratam.org/hijackthis.zip
* If you are unfamiliar with zip programs get HijackThis.exe here:
* http://www.merijn.org/files/HijackThis.exe

* First put hijackthis into a permanent folder.
* Do this first - go to C: and create a new permanent folder.
Example C:\AntiSpyWare or C:\hijackthis
* This is necessary to ensure you have backups should anything go wrong.
* Then put (or download - choose "save" not "run") the hijackthis.exe file in this folder.
If you downloaded a zipped HJT file unzip it to the permanent folder so you have C:\hijackthis\hijackthis.exe.
* Example of the wrong way:
C:\DOCUME~1\Name\LOCALS~1\Temp\Temporary Directory for hijackthis.zip\HijackThis.exe
* Running hjt from the wrong folder may delay assistance as your helper will have to ask for a new log.

* Double click HijackThis.exe.
* Hit None Of The Above, just start the program.
* Hit Scan.
* When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save Log" button.
* Click that, save the log somewhere, and copy/paste the log into your own new topic

create a new topic and post the log in this forum and i will look for it there:
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/HijackThis_Log…emoval_f27.html

Hello Shelf life. I do have a post in Hijack this forums and all was clean. Lagg- But if the PC was accessing the harddrive and it powered up and ran. Couldn't it then make a noise and cause a lagg. This noise and Lagg happens mostly while playing PC games. When it happens when i'm surfing the web or typing a letter in Word the lagg doesn't affect me because i'm not doing some activity that has constant moving, Like in a game. I thought heat was or is an issue. Because if I take the side pannel off my HP and move the CPU out of the shelf it sits on. Then the noise and lagg happens less often. At one point HP had me looking at some window that showed me what was pulling power on my PC so I could watch that meter and wait for the lagg to happen, but it never occured while I was on the phone with tech support. Kirshna

hi Kirshna,

I do have a post in Hijack this forums and all was clean.

ok

some window that showed me what was pulling power on my PC

performance tab under task manager?
hit crtl-alt-delete keys to bring up task manager

maybe heat is the issue. do you have good air circulation around the computer? you also said adding another fan seemed to help. maybe you should experiment with moving the computer around.

one of the least expensive performance gains you can do is to add more RAM to your computer. you have 256MB? you would see a noticeably overall improvement by adding another module or two of RAM. if money is a issue i would do this before getting a new video card. you may not need a new card after that unless you play cutting edge or fairly new games. iam not a gamer but i know some games may require certain card requirements like directX9 or pixel shader 2.0. my card is at least 4 yrs old but serves it purpose.

shelf life