AT3-710-UR52

jonry14
jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
edited March 2024 in 2020 Archives
Hello All,

I have an ACER AT3-710-UR52/Windows 10- 64Bit/ Intel i5 6400/ 8GB DDR3 / 2 TB HD, 
For work: I use a website that allows us to fill out completions, bids, and invoices. But, I also must be checking emails and also navigating the windows photo viewer for large amounts of photos taken at job sites. My problem here is this: While running this website, scrolling through hundreds of pictures, and responding to emails, I start getting this accelerating fan noise. Its become bothersome because when running all three at once, either my email or photo viewer will freeze up and i'm forced to close it via task manager. Why is this happening? Is it because the 8GB memory is too low for all this to process together? or is it the i5 that isn't strong enough? Lead me in the right direction so I can take steps to remedy this if possible. 

Thanks!

Best Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 35,014 Trailblazer
    edited September 2020 Answer ✓
    Better would be an M.2 SATA3 SSD and keep your current HDD for data storage. Your motherboard has the M.2 slot, though it's just old enough it doesn't support NVMe drives. A swap to booting and running from a SSD gives a huge increase in system performance. Put the new drive in, clone the old drive to it, remove the old drive and boot up to make sure everything is working right, then shutdown and reinstall the old drive, then wipe it and reformat for data when booted up again.
    I'd move the iPhone backup to the data drive after you are all setup because there's no good reason to keep that kind of data on the fast one.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓
    @jonry14
    Yes, there are many parts you can use for your PC, but putting too much upgrades to an old PC may not be a very good idea. With all the money applied to upgrades, it is getting close to the cost of a newer generation low end PC. However, upgrading to M.2 SATA SSD definitely is worth it, you will see immediately the performance boost. Now I agree with Billsey that you should use M.2 SATA SSD instead of regular SSD, as you will be using a previously unused port and you can retain the old HDD for data.
«1

Answers

  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @jonry14

    One easy way is to open the "Performance" tab of the Task Manager when you do the normal operation, hopefully before the computer freeze up. You should have an idea whether the memory usage is close to the 8 GB limit (I guess this will be your case, since you mentioned you view a lot of photos and doing multi tasks). If so, buy the same kind of memory stick and upgrade it.

    The onboard graphics (Intel UHD 530) performance is mediocre, also check it out under the "performance" tab.
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    @ttttt

    So I just tested this all out right now to see how the performance tab looked like, it shows memory pushing up to 5.1-5.3/ 7.9gb and the fan noise started going off again. That’s about 63% of memory usage. Could this be why I’m hearing that fan noise? Would it be best to upgrade to 16gb?
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    edited September 2020
    @ttttt also, just another thing I noticed, while all these things running at once, my cpu usage just jumped up to 95% at 3.09ghz and the fan keeps going off periodically. Seems to be maybe that’s why the fan keeps going off (intel i5 6400 cpu @ 2.70ghz) is what it says about the cpu detail in the performance tab. 
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @Jonry14

    How bad is the fan noise? It is normal when the CPU is under load the CPU fan will increase speed to cool it down, thus make some noise .

    My PC memory usage never exceeded 7 GB ( I had one 8 GB stick originally ), however I added another 8 GB memory to it, thus utilizing the dual channel capability of the memory sticks. This will bring some increase in performance for your PC (though not that significant , I would say 10% or so increase in performance). Now memory is not the problem source. Seemed to be temperature problem. Is the CPU usage constantly above 95%? If it is not "Constant", should not be a concern.

    You haven't mentioned the GPU usage, was it running close to limit?

    I would recommend download one of the HWINFO64 , the CPUID HWMonitor or CrystalDiskInfo programs to monitor the temperature closely.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 35,014 Trailblazer
    Try running on of those little utilities that gives you temperature readings. I'm guessing the temps are getting high enough to cause the fan to spin higher than you are used to.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    @ttttt it is not constant on the 95% cpu usage. The fan noise is not extremely loud or anything but was just concerning due to the fact that you dont hear it running at all and then it suddenly kicks in and accelerates to a high speed almost instantly.
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    @billsey what are these little utilities you speak of? I'm open to try.
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    @ttttt just tried out performance tab for gpu and highest I saw it go was about 32%. 0.6/4 gb
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    @ttttt now running CrystalDiskInfo and it shows Health status: Caution/ Temperature: 104 F
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @jonry14
    Which item has 104 F? CPU or HDD?
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    edited September 2020
    Not entirely sure to be honest, this is what I see... (picture attached) @ttttt
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    104 F is like 40 C, nothing alarming for HDD. Have you tried HWINFO64 or CPUID HWMonitor ? Check the CPU temperature. If you change for SATA3 SSD, replacing the 2TB HDD, you can see 33-35 C range, may help to lower the PC's interior temperature, hopefully the CPU fan will not turn on that frequent. 
    Also, spray compressed air to the CPU fan will help.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 35,014 Trailblazer
    I use Core Temp to monitor my temperatures and have it in Celsius mode since most guides use that.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    edited September 2020
    @ttttt @billsey okay will try downloading the others to better see temperatures. Not too familiar with computer components but a friend recommended this to me. Will this work with my PC? He said having an SSD will lower internal temp down and also help a bit with performance.
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @jonry14
    You friend is correct. I can see you are still using a 5400 RPM HDD. Do yourself a favor, replace it with the SSD ( I believe almost all standard 2.5" SATA3 SSD can be used, including the one shown by you). You will appreciate how much time you save every year after using a new SATA3 SSD. I always recommend my friends to change for SATA SSD but they seldom listen to me as they don't want to make changes. One even replied in such a ridiculous way that "I rather let my PC runs slow".

    Maybe you need to buy a SATA3 data cable. I recommend buying one with a clip (if you are not going to use it side by side with another SATA connector at the motherboard, the clip may make the cable hard to remove ). SATA cables tend to come loose easily.
    If  SSD doesn't come with the 4 mounting screws, you may want to get that too.
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    @ttttt this is good to hear! I will definitely be going that route. Just sitting here wondering if I should try for 2TB or go with 1TB. I am currently on at 467GB used on my HDD but 283GB of that is my iphone back up file. Currently trying to see where I could move that away and then I think I can manage with a 1TB.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 35,014 Trailblazer
    edited September 2020 Answer ✓
    Better would be an M.2 SATA3 SSD and keep your current HDD for data storage. Your motherboard has the M.2 slot, though it's just old enough it doesn't support NVMe drives. A swap to booting and running from a SSD gives a huge increase in system performance. Put the new drive in, clone the old drive to it, remove the old drive and boot up to make sure everything is working right, then shutdown and reinstall the old drive, then wipe it and reformat for data when booted up again.
    I'd move the iPhone backup to the data drive after you are all setup because there's no good reason to keep that kind of data on the fast one.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    @billsey
    But it being a secondary port will this not hinder the performance of the drive?
    Is there any you recommend out there?
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @jonry14
    Using SSD as a boot drive need not be high capacity. I think 1 TB is more than enough for most people ( I only keep the most used files there, other files for archive  and back up are kept with 1 TB or 3 TB USB 3.0/3.1 external HDD, most of my other PCs only use 120 GB or 240 GB SSDs) However, make sure the new SSD should have larger capacity than the amount of data on your current 5400 RPM HDD.

    Before you migrate your old drive to the SSD, be sure to burn an image file first.
    Control Panel->System and Security->Backup and Restore (Windows 7)->Create a system image (left panel)

    I presume your PC is old and cannot use ALT-F10 to restore this image file, it is also a good idea to Create a system repair disc at this time.

    If you need more help, feel free to post another thread.
  • jonry14
    jonry14 Member Posts: 20 Troubleshooter
    @ttttt yes you are right, I can use the back up storage from the 2TB if I go with the  M.2 slot like Billsey suggested.

Categories