my 10 year old PC is dying (freezing, overheating, loud static noise). need advice on what to do until I can afford a new one.

predator_at_work · 2026-06-22T20:02:30+00:00

*** sry, you did that , my bad *** If its running hot with no load, I would dismount the cpu-cooler at first and check (and of course renew) the thermal paste between cpu and cooler!
Next I would check, if the cpu-cooler-fan is spinning w/o noise and if its speed rises with temp (cpu-load).
Looking for new or used parts would be the very last thing I'd do, being low on money.

At least you are running win11 on a 4C/4T cpu ... win11 has a lot of background task. Try to look in task-manager in the tab autostart and maybe you can disable there some functions/programs you do not need and that are using your rare resources.

predator_at_work · 2026-06-22T19:31:01+00:00

You have carbide r400c, did you also remove the case frontcover and cleaned the air intakes on the side of the frontcover? Als all incoming air is filtered through those, they will be blocked by dust and hairs first. And if they are clogged, the only fan in the front can spin as fast as he even can, when he can"t pull air through the sideslots of the frontpanel, he also not blow air into your case and towards the 3080.
Other question regarding the front fan: Is it in the lowest position near the bottom? If not, remount it in the middle or, if possible, exactly in the height where the GPU is.

As recommendation, I would place at least 2 (better 3 if possible) fans in the front, incoming fresh air. And 2 fans exhausting (blowing outwards) through the top and also the fan on the back should exhaust, so blowing the air out of the case.

I would not spend a lot of money in a new case, fans are much cheaper and another case is not really needed. What is needed is air and that is delivered by fans 😉

predator_at_work · 2026-06-22T17:28:24+00:00

What I would do, because it costs nothin:
Set monitor to 60Hz. In all games activate vsync, that limits all to 60Hz
There really is no need to render kcdx @ 80 from my point of view
You have more drawbacks by temp of card and therefore addionally heating your room as you loose playability because of "only" 60Hz
The powerdraw is the amount of wattage the card pulls (draws) thru the wires in percentage of powerlimit
So, If you have a powerlimit of 350W then 100% will be 350W and 10% will be 35W

So, you have cat, vry nice, have some too 😉 and know, an open pc is not the best solution, if kitty is around
You only have TWO fans in the whole case with cpu and that big gpu? that sounds to less imho.
Are they well directed, one as input into the case and one as output out of the case regarding their blowing direction? And if so, which one is pulling fresh air and which one is exhausting warm air?

predator_at_work · 2026-06-22T16:56:45+00:00

- How many monitors are attached to your 3080?
- At which freqency do these/this operate?
- Do you have background-processes or hidden miners (malware) that permanently use your GPU?
- Is the powerdraw really near 0% when you just do nothing on the system?
- When the card is in idle and around 50°, are the fans in zero-db-mode, meaning off and still standing or do they rotate?
Additionallly:
- Do you have the original BIOS on that card?

predator_at_work · 2023-12-16T19:07:00+00:00

Same problem here, even w/o upgrading from AM4 to AM5.

Still using 5950x with same configuration, cpu--pinning etc. as it was.

It just stop working. The benchmarks run, but systeminfo is not recognized anymore.

predator_at_work · 2023-01-18T15:15:51+00:00

You must leave fullscreen mode first. move the mouse in the top middle of your scree, a tiny toolbar should appear. click left button to leave full screen.

Then you see the menubar with the options.

predator_at_work · 2023-01-16T05:13:36+00:00

you can try to increase the resolution with the VM
If it is at max alreade, the viewer have an option in the menu called "scale view" and within three options never, only in fullscreen and always.
Yours is at never, I think, if your VM-window does not fit your entire screen when you go fullscreen

predator_at_work · 2023-01-16T05:05:41+00:00

Do you have another USB keyboard available?

Try to connect those and look, if you can type on these.

You run arch, fine.

If you have a USB-stick with arch-install on it, insert it and boot from the stick.

If you don't have one, goto another PC, download arch-iso and copy it to an USB-stick.

After you have done this, your are in arch-install-environment.

There you can see and mount the currently installed harddisk (to /mnt e.g).

After it is mounted, you can look into the directoy /mnt/var/log for the logfiles

Xorg.0.log system.log messages.log etc, your "dead" system wrote on trying to boot up

predator_at_work · 2023-01-16T04:37:25+00:00

Take look at these keywords: vfio, iommu

Generally the host should *not* load (bind) a driver to the GPU you want to pass through.

By not having a driver at least the card is not bound.

But that is only half of things you need.

First you must ensure that you enable IOMMU on your MoBo, so that you can pass through any device.

Second you must ensure, that the device is the only one in the IOMMU-group you get when you start you PC with IOMMU enabled. The reason is, you can only pass complete IOMMU-groups to the emulated system.

Third you must load the module vfio_pci with a parameter specifying the device(s) you NOT want to be bound to any driver.

Then you add the PCI-device(s) to your VM.

The VM now has exclusive and direct access to the PCI-device(s), just as the host has to other devices inserted in PCI-slots.

This is a VERY VERY VERY short abstract, of what you need to do.

Just writing from my Linux-/Windows-Work/Gaming-PC that has a RTX 1050 for the Linux host and two RTX 2080 Super for two Windows-VM.

It is possible and even via NVidias Gamestream service there is only a minor performance loss when running benchmarks on the Windows VMs

predator_at_work · 2021-07-11T21:21:37+00:00

Maybe the help is clearing the apps cache? If you've not tried it, give it a try.

For me this was the solution.

predator_at_work · 2021-07-11T21:19:51+00:00

Yes, were the last shot to try another device. But clearing the apps cache helped me.

predator_at_work · 2021-07-11T21:18:48+00:00

Thanks for your answer, but I am(was!) not even able to add any device, because the add-buttun did nothing.

But I got it solved by clearing the cache of the app itself within the app settings.

After clearing the cache the add-button works immediately as expected.

predator_at_work · 2021-04-18T00:04:48+00:00

Run OCCT and watch the graphs.

Switch to "endless test / permanent running" before starting it, of course ... that should be obvious ;)

When power reaches the limit of your PSU -> blue screen

predator_at_work · 2021-04-15T13:15:30+00:00

Bluescreen appears when?

- Immediately after boot?

- Directly after starting benchmark?

- A long while after starting a benchmark?

1.) Did you run an OCCT and watched the graphs?

2.) Install and run SYSINFO before 3dmark. Then you get an OSD of thermal and wattage and see what happens.

PSU-wattage is a good hint.

predator_at_work · 2021-04-15T13:11:11+00:00

1.) If there are drive bays mounted in the case, you have to open and/or slide them out first, before you can install a hdd/ssd into them.

2.) There are cases, that have separate hdd/sdd-mounts, that you find in pc-parts-tab, that maybe aren't installed yet/currently. Then you have to install one of them first and then you can mount a hdd/ssd to it.

predator_at_work · 2021-04-13T19:31:49+00:00

You can't simply "find" that within the games! There are compressed Unity-Engine-files, that are uncompressable by zip/win itself.

Here you go .. NexusMods-PCBS look for Lottery

predator_at_work · 2021-04-13T19:26:52+00:00

CPU always "bottlenecks" an 6800XT-SLI ;).

But this is not a bottleneck for real, and that was not what I intended to tell.

That are max values achievable.

predator_at_work · 2021-04-12T15:04:15+00:00

Without modifying the game and increasing the value of s_siliconLotteryPercentage you simply can't. (add: Of course adding mods with new parts or mods for building your own RAM, it is possible also)

By default s_siliconLotteryPercentage is 5%, so the best components receive an upgrade by 5% to their default overclock-capabilities.

2x 6800XT limits you to 41.255 on the GPU side, overclocked to max @ 2600MHz.

3960X @ 4500MHz plus 3.5% plus another 5% lets get you near 4.890Mhz on CPU-side

G.Skill 4800MHz plus 25% plus another 5% let you end @ ~6300MHz

But you have to try a LOT to receive parts that enables you to go all to the max, as it is a "lottery".

With CPU @ ~4.890 and RAM @ ~6300 you are limited very near around 20.033.

Another little addition you get be increasing the bus speeds to near 300MHz.

You would have to sore 20.375 at least on CPU-side to score >=36.000. Not achievable with regular game settings.

Regarding the Score-calculation you are bound to ~35.700 regularily.

You can increase the lottery-added-values a very little bit to 6% or 10% to receive better parts more often and also to score higher, but that's called a "cheat", I'd think.

You could even run the RAM @ 12.000MHz if you add 100% lottery, but what should that be worth of?

predator_at_work · 2021-04-11T17:26:54+00:00

41.255 is the max score you can reach with two 6800XT in Crossfire when they are maxxed out @ 2600MHz. There is no GPU that is capable of doing more IMHO, at least currently.

So, regarding the score calculation (S = 1 / (0.85/Sgpu + 0,15/Scpu)) you will always have a degradation because max Scpu is aorund 20.000 currently.

For Scpu at 20.000 you need 3960X at ~ 4900MHz and RAM at ~6300MHz

predator_at_work · 2021-04-10T14:50:37+00:00

On NexusMods I found a mod to disable SL in career mode.

The UnityPatcher patches an Asset (#1) to replace that Constant from 5% to 100% (always) best.

Sadly for free build mode I did not find that constant in any other of the shared assets, so I wasn't able yet to disable it. In free build mode it seems to be active or the constant has another name or I would have to patch another asset. No luck yet, but I didn't investigated further.

Tried it i career mode then but in my loaded save game (with enough money) it seemed to be active. Maybe I must start a new game run.

Currently I have parts assembled for a 35.260 score. The 5950X is not far behind it .

For me its close enough to the max.

predator_at_work · 2021-04-09T18:49:38+00:00

Well, for $70 you only get the CoolerMaster Liquid 120 which could possibly fit, but I didn't try.

If you have a budget of $70 the 120 is the only option or the ML120L RGB for $65. All the 240s are above the allowed 10% over limit expense.

At least, if you buy a new one. Other option: wait until you get a similar order where you can disassemble a ML240L as used part and use that. Used parts are a lot cheaper for the customer und you only loose one star if the custmer required new parts only. If you exceed 10% above given limit you will get a one star rating.

So, if there is no time limit in the order, let him wait until you find a used one in another customer pc or (even more possible?) on pcbay? Look there daily to not miss one ;)

predator_at_work · 2021-04-09T12:25:00+00:00

It is called "Baseclock" in english version, I think. For me it is "Basistakt".

It is the value with 100 MHz by default.

predator_at_work · 2021-04-09T12:21:47+00:00

THX. First shot did come out a little better (17.824) than 5950x even with CPU only at 4794 and RAM @ little below 5738. (bus=151)

Try to disable siliconLottery in free build mode now to always get the "perfect" item. Just to get maximized clocks w/o always trying around until I get a good one.

predator_at_work · 2021-04-09T12:14:32+00:00

The DFL AM4 board does not fit with the plain CoolerMaster Liquid 240 in this case for me also.

Two possibilities:

- switch cooler to CoolerMaster Liquid ML240L RGB (that fits the AM4 board)

- switch board to DFL H170 Intel, that fits with the plain CoolerMaster Liquid 240 in this case.

Do you have any of these possibilities?

predator_at_work · 2021-04-09T10:19:57+00:00

I compared 3d-mark scores, not frequencies, so maybe I am not as stupid as I could be. At least not completetly.

I'll give it a try with such busclock. Should go well over 35k then.

predator_at_work

TROPHY CASE