How do i acces the BIOS temperature settings on PC?

[NSEP]

Whenever i play KSP my PC overheats and shuts down. I have tried cleaning the fans in my PC, disabling the auto shutdown (havent tried it with BIOS yet, can someone tell me how to acces the BIOS settings?), and letting some air from outside in to my room. I blame the summer on this problem. So how do i cool down my PC? I dont have any money or fans with me. Nothing. I think there are 2 options: Wait untill the summer is over, or somehow disable auto-shutdown on my PC with the BIOS settings.

So the main question is: How do i acces the BIOS settings?

 

[Galileo]

Typically during boot up  you should see an option.  It will tell you to press a particular key like f12 or delete.  It differs from motherboard  to motherboard. If you don't have an aftermarket motherboard though,  it can be difficult to turn your fans up.  Stock motherboards aren't meant to change like that. And as far as your computer shutting down due to heat,  that's your CPU.  If your CPU doesn't have a cooler on it,  turning up you case fans won't really help you because CPU 's have a built in thermometer basically that shuts  your computer down to protect itself.  As far as I know,  there is no way to over ride that without causing permanent damage.  So best course of action for you is probably getting a cooler for your CPU if you don't already have one. If you have one but don't have a motherboard that allows for fan control,  then upgrade the motherboard. 

Edited August 29, 2016 by Galileo

[LordFerret]

I'll take it you've no air-conditioning? Ouch.

If it's a laptop, you could try elevating it a little more. Put some items (wood blocks, plastic chips from a checkers set, etc) under the little rubber feet on the laptop bottom... even if you just elevate one end with say a 'ruler' under the feet. That can help.

If it's a tower, you could try opening the case and directing a household fan at it. Been there, done that. Also, a bowl full of ice in front of the fan (which introduces humidity though).

You might need new thermal paste beneath the heat-sinks on your CPU and GPU, if you've an older machine.

What you don't want to do is override the thermal shutdown ability of the machine, unless you're looking to bake it and cause permanent damage.

[NSEP]

1 minute ago, LordFerret said:

I'll take it you've no air-conditioning? Ouch.

If it's a laptop, you could try elevating it a little more. Put some items (wood blocks, plastic chips from a checkers set, etc) under the little rubber feet on the laptop bottom... even if you just elevate one end with say a 'ruler' under the feet. That can help.

If it's a tower, you could try opening the case and directing a household fan at it. Been there, done that. Also, a bowl full of ice in front of the fan (which introduces humidity though).

You might need new thermal paste beneath the heat-sinks on your CPU and GPU, if you've an older machine.

What you don't want to do is override the thermal shutdown ability of the machine, unless you're looking to bake it and cause permanent damage.

I also want to fry eggs on my PC. So i can make breakfast without moving.

Thanks for the tips.

[Kerbart]

9 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

If it's a tower, you could try opening the case and directing a household fan at it. Been there, done that. Also, a bowl full of ice in front of the fan (which introduces humidity though).

Instead of a bowl of ice cubes, get two thermal packs at the local pharmacy. They're not that expensive and can be reused. One in the freezer, "charging up," the other one being used for cooling. And then just swap them.

[NSEP]

1 minute ago, Kerbart said:

Instead of a bowl of ice cubes, get two thermal packs at the local pharmacy. They're not that expensive and can be reused. One in the freezer, "charging up," the other one being used for cooling. And then just swap them.

Or have a waterproof bag with ice and salt in it. Also re-usable. Maybe. It is the same as a thermal bag right? No? Yes?

Im not a DIY specialist.

[Ten Key]

Like LordFerret says, don't turn off the thermal shutdown. That's a great way to end up needing a new computer.

34 minutes ago, NSEP said:

So how do i cool down my PC?

Dust and gunk can build up on your CPU's heatsink (same goes for your video card) so often times cleaning the fans isn't enough. You may or may not be able to get at those heatsinks, but if you can, it might be worth looking to see if they're reasonably clean.

I had a tower a long time ago that liked to overheat and shut down. I ended up pulling off the side of the case and used a box fan to blow massive amounts of air into it. . .it worked well enough.

I have also done the ice thing, though I wouldn't recommend using ice cubes-- excess humidity can create all sorts of problems. I went to the store and bought a six pack of bottled water and put the bottles in the freezer. Put them next to the intake fans (and, if I had enough, the exhaust fans too) and rotated as needed. Just remember, sealed packs of ice shouldn't leak, but they will sweat condensation. You don't want that water dripping into your computer. 

Edited August 29, 2016 by Ten Key

[NSEP]

1 minute ago, Ten Key said:

Like LordFerret says, don't turn off the thermal shutdown. That's a great way to end up needing a new computer.

Dust and gunk can build up on your CPU's heatsink (same goes for your video card) so often times cleaning the fans isn't enough. You may or may not be able to get at those heatsinks, but if you can, it might be worth looking to see if they're reasonably clean.

I had a tower a long time ago that liked to overheat and shut down. I ended up pulling off the side of the case and used a box fan to blow massive amount of air into it. . .it worked well enough.

I have also done the ice thing, though I wouldn't recommend using ice cubes-- excess humidity can create all sorts of problems. I went to the store and bought a six pack of bottled water and put the bottles in the freezer. Put them next to the intake fans (and, if I had enough, the exhaust fans too) and rotated as needed. Just remember, sealed packs of ice shouldn't leak, but they will sweat condensation. You don't want that water dripping into your computer. 

Dont plastic water bottles melt inside supah hot machines? Or is that just silly. Thanks for the tip man.

[Ten Key]

1 minute ago, NSEP said:

Dont plastic water bottles melt inside supah hot machines? Or is that just silly. Thanks for the tip man.

If they were empty, I suppose it's possible, but the ice/water inside them will keep that from happening. Water has a fairly high thermal mass. In any case, you wouldn't want to put them inside (or on top of) your computer. They will drip condensation.

[NSEP]

Just now, Ten Key said:

If they were empty, I suppose it's possible, but the ice/water inside them will keep that from happening. Water has a fairly high thermal mass. In any case, you wouldn't want to put them inside (or on top of) your computer. They will drip condensation.

So i put them right next to my computer right? Not under? Or am i just being silly again?

 

[LordFerret]

14 minutes ago, Ten Key said:

Put them next to the intake fans ...

 

[NSEP]

1 minute ago, LordFerret said:

 

Oh, ok.

[Ten Key]

That depends entirely on how your tower is arranged. The goal is to put the ice in front of the intake fans, so that the air going into your case has to travel over the ice on its way into the tower. If your intake fans are on the bottom, then yes, that's where the ice would need to be. Just don't set the computer directly on top of the ice. 

If your tower doesn't have intake fans, your best bet is to remove the side panel and use a household fan of some sort to push air into it. If that ends up not being enough, you could put the ice in front of the house hold fan. 

If you have a laptop, you're probably hosed.  

[LordFerret]

1 minute ago, Ten Key said:

If you have a laptop, you're probably hosed.

No, do as I suggested... elevate it. You can still use fans and ice, direct the flow under the laptop.

Also, if the laptop has an illuminated key feature, turn that off ... that generates excessive heat. Certain Toshiba models are notorious for that issue.

 

Tales!...

One very hot summer afternoon, 1980(?), at the office, in the computer room (a sealed environment), 10 HP-1000Cs all rack-mounted and daisy-chained together (plus drives)... and the A/C unit died - no backup. We opened windows that had never been opened (nor were meant to be opened) and put fans in them. Someone put a meat thermometer on the racking..... 140F. Too hot to touch. Hot enough to cook meat. Have no idea of the actual board temperatures, but the system stayed up... a serious credit to HP.

[Kerbart]

56 minutes ago, NSEP said:

Or have a waterproof bag with ice and salt in it. Also re-usable. Maybe. It is the same as a thermal bag right? No? Yes?

Im not a DIY specialist.

Not advertising these specifically, just as a "these look a bit like the kind I was using" reference. With a metal-body laptop I figured cooling the outside with one of those was a good way to draw the heat out of the computer (because it was too hot to touch when playing KSP). It died half a year later, still not sure if that had anything to do with KSP or the McGyver-style cooling or both. But using those as a mess-less way to cool off the air that enters the PC would be a good start without being too expensive.

[Elthy]

Often thermal paste is the biggest issue, in my laptop i got about 30K improvement after swaping it, going from thermal throtteling to overclocking by 24%.

[NSEP]

1 hour ago, Ten Key said:

That depends entirely on how your tower is arranged. The goal is to put the ice in front of the intake fans, so that the air going into your case has to travel over the ice on its way into the tower. If your intake fans are on the bottom, then yes, that's where the ice would need to be. Just don't set the computer directly on top of the ice. 

If your tower doesn't have intake fans, your best bet is to remove the side panel and use a household fan of some sort to push air into it. If that ends up not being enough, you could put the ice in front of the house hold fan. 

If you have a laptop, you're probably hosed.  

Im not on a laptop. I do have intake fans though on my computer, just not enough to cool down my PC. Ice is the way im going to solve it. Probably with a ziplock bag with ice and maybe with extra salt 4 extra chill

[pincushionman]

If you have a desktop or tower, you also may want to re-seat your CPU heat exchanger with new thermal paste, or replace it with a better (aftermarket) one.

But…cents before dollars. First thing to check is whether the CPU (not case) fan and heatsink are clean, or they don't do any good.

if that doesn't work, pop the heatsink off, clean both surfaces, and replace with new thermal compound. If the old stuff is cracked or loosened it won't transfer heat well (and if you've pulled them apart to check that, you're committed).

If it's still not good enough, your heat exchanger may not be up to snuff. Older heatsinks are basically a block of metal with vanes on it; better ones use a heat pipe to the block, separated from the CPU. You'll know what type you have when you see it (if there's a metal tube, it's a heat pipe).

But since money's an issue, try the first two first. Cleaning is nearly free, and thermal vompound is only a few bucks. Heat exchangers are't exactly cheap, but they're a hell of a lot less than a new CPU.

And if you can play in the basement, play in the basement. This has nothing to do with the technical suggestions.

[pxi]

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Don't know what the difference is between the free version and pro, but the free version has served my needs.  Won't do anything to stop the crashes, but it's probably more useful to you than checking the temperature in the BIOS.  You should at least be able to identify what exactly is overheating and proceed from there.

[StrandedonEarth]

On 8/29/2016 at 1:26 PM, Ten Key said:

If you have a laptop, you're probably hosed.

A quick way for me to get my laptop running cooler is to park it on top of the A/C vent . I could see myself setting up a ducted desk above the vent...