BIOS says it's running about 50-55 Celcius (120-127 Fahrenheit). I know BIOS temp check can be wrong but how off can it be?

How else would I go about checking the CPU temp?

well if its an ubuntu live cd you should be able to use either lm_sensors or at least the coretemp driver, there should also be a GUI sensor viewer to go along with those also.

A BIOS CPU temp of 50-55c is well within normal temperature for stock cooler. Don't worry about CPU temp until 70C+.

Given that you are asking these questions, I'm assuming you are using a stock cooler with the CPU at stock speeds. If that is the case, then use some compressed air to blow out any dust. After you've done that, it is highly unlikely that heat is the source of your instability.

Ack... I left out a crucial word.... it IDLES at 50-55c.
Would THAT be considered a bit high or is it still within normal? Google search keeps contradicting what you and about half of Cemetech keep saying and I just want to be entirely sure ^^;

And yeah, I'm using the stock heatsink/fan that came with the Intel chip. Could probably use better thermal paste or grease though....

That's a bit on the high side, but run some kind of stress tester and see where the temperature goes to verify what it does under load. I know of Prime95 and the rest for Windows; what's a good Linux program for loading, Kllrnohj?

Not a clue. I've only ever done stress testing and monitoring in Windows, which has far better OC tools.



Its a bit on the high side, but still well within normal operating temps.



Then stop monitoring CPU temp, because it isn't the culprit. Stock cooler, stock paste, stock clocks == plenty cool. Again, the only thing YOU should ever do is dust out the inside (seriously, go blow out all the dust in your case)

I haven't bothered to read back and find out what your system specs are, but assuming a semi-recent CPU (P4 or newer, really), your CPU will down clock itself if it gets too hot.

Ironically, inside my computer's case is the only place in this entire room that hasn't gotten incredibly dusty (if any, there's only minute traces of dust that I can't see) O_o

So I'm gonna go ahead and say that the CPU and cooling are NOT the problem. Also ran another memtest and got 8/8 passing so the remaining module probably has NOT decided to spontaneously self-destruct.

As for monitoring the temps, I'll jfgi and go from there

And ftr, it's an Intel Core2 Quad 2.66 Gigahertz processor


I think it's safe enough to assume it is the hard drive which has now been replaced. If it still acts up, I'm out of ideas. It can't be the optical drive malfunctioning because it seems unlikely that umpteen billion installs failed while 11 hours of memtesting and this recent 4 hours of memtesting worked like a charm. I dunno what else would be the problem.

I swear, it's almost as if the computer is dysfunctional solely because it wants to be

________________________

Update Edit:

Made an Ubuntu 9.10 USB drive installer and managed to install Ubuntu but my computer still froze trying to customize Ubuntu.

What else could be wrong?

_________________________

Second Update Edit:

Ubuntu seems to be working fine now. Got internet working on it too! I'm posting from my desktop

Still gonna keep an eye on this computer and hopefully it won't self destruct anywhere in the near future XD

Then your temps are perfectly normal and exactly what one would expect with stock cooling. Those Core 2 Quads are rather hot.



Honestly I would point the blame at Linux drivers. It is highly possible that your motherboards chipset isn't playing nice, etc... Cutting edge hardware is generally more miss than hit in Linux, although its much better than it used to be. Enthusiast companies like Asus tend to actually have Linux drivers if needed. It isn't the first time that I've seen something like the hard drive controller randomly freeze/lock up in Linux. Heck, the Seagate 1.5tb drive I have had a firmware bug that would cause it to randomly lock for some time in Linux, especially when in a RAID setup (since been fixed, but still)

Mkay, glad to know that. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get some extra cooling and whatnot but eh, if it ain't broke don't let the n00b try to fix it



Ah, that's also good to know. I'll be sure to post about any more troubles if I have some in the near future. I probably won't be using Linux often though as I've only installed it to use for software dev stuff (which, because I am a lazy***, I don't do often )

Right now I'm going to focus on figuring out what's wrong, if anything, with my optical drive (thanks to TheStorm for pointing out to me how utterly wrong I was in my previous "logical" optical drive diagnoses ^^; ) and getting more RAM to replace the faulty stick and some speakers. Seriously... how TF did I forget speakers? O_o;

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, what are some good apps for Ubuntu (or Linux in general) for productivity and coding (C++ or in general)?

Depends largely on what you are trying to do. If you just want something simple with syntax highlighting, the built in text editors are good enough (Gedit, Kate, Kwrite, etc...). If you want an editor, there is always VIM and Emacs (and their respective GUI versions). If you want a full on IDE like Visual Studio, Eclipse CDT is probably the best (although there is also KDevelop, Anjuta, Netbeans, etc...). If you are doing GUIs, both GTK and QT have their own visual editors (GTK's is Glade, don't remember what QT's is)

I personally prefer Eclipse when I'm working on an actual project, and gedit when I'm just messing around or testing something.

I usually just go the VIM/GCC/terminal/screen route. Actually, the old 'screen' is now known as 'byobu' under Ubuntu 9.10 and higher, just FYI. How did this work out for you, Keith, is it still stable?

I actually haven't turned the computer back on since the day I actually got it running (shut it off when I went to bed because I didn't want to chance it doing something while I slept). I still have some hardware to-dos and fiddlings to get around to before I start using it for anything. >.>;;

I'll be honest, though. After upwards of 6 months of having the darn thing sitting on the floor gathering dust, I still don't perceive it as a functioning and usable computer. >.<

Sorry to hear it. Is one of the hardware fiddles that you need to work on the optical drive? I recall you complaining about its repeated failures; does it need replacing or is the fix something in software?

Yep. I don't know how to go about diagnosing wtf's wrong with it though.

As for the other fiddlings and to-dos, I just need to get some more RAM, hook up the terabyte drive (1.5 TBs of cumulative HDD space FTW?), and go about modding a cable connector so I can hook up power to one of the case-front doohickeys (I think it was the LED power button indicator).

Hi,
I got the same problem while I was installing the in my new HP laptop.
I tried to install Windows Vista Home Premium. The error is the same it formats the partitions and then freeze after sometime.
I think there is nothing fault in your any hardware.
If you have the another Windows CD/DVD it can be any(XP,VISTA,7) it will do.
Try with another Windows CD/DVD.
Please mention your computer configuration. Specially 64bit or 32bit.

He already did. I'm swiftly coming to the conclusion that you're actually a bot that looks for Windows 7-related topics.

It does sound pretty likely..

BURN THE WITCH (or the bot in this case)

Goldion BanHammer time!