CPU overheating

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kdn

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Master Geek

#124520 10-Jul-2013 14:49

Hi Guys,

had a weird problem last night, was running nero recode to rip some dvd's and the computer would keep turning off.

Did some research and found the cause was the cpu was overheating, ran a cpu temp monitor and sure enough the temps were rising to 90c and the computer would shutdown.

the cpu is AMD fx-4100 quad core with no overclocking. there is a case fan and standard CPU cooling fan which appear to be running correctly. I touched the heatsink and it sure was getting very hot as the cpu climbed.

I have never had the problem with any other applications (the system was built for flight sim's which are fairly intensive)

The strange thing ism I dont hear the cpu fan speed up, I would of expected when a certain temperature was exceeded the fan would spin up faster, I went all through the bios and all the smart fan controls are enabled, I even updated the bios to the latest version.

Should I look at installing fan control sdoftware perhaps? would prefer not.. but can't see what the problem is. I also believe the stock cpu cooler should be enough to keep it cool especially since its not clocked.

xpd

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#853371 10-Jul-2013 15:07

Or maybe your CPU fan has always been running flat out and hence why youre not hearing a change....

Sounds like you may just need to reseat and apply new thermal paste to your CPU heatsink.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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kdn

203 posts

Master Geek

#853384 10-Jul-2013 15:20

xpd: Or maybe your CPU fan has always been running flat out and hence why youre not hearing a change....

Sounds like you may just need to reseat and apply new thermal paste to your CPU heatsink.

Well I don't think so, when I first turn the computer on I hear the fan hit full noise then it spins down. I can definitely hear the difference easily.

I agree redoing the paste wouldn't be silly but otherwise the cpu temp appears to be fine, doing my normal day to day use its 35-40c so I am not sure it would help thats all... running nero recode had all 4 cores running over 90% utilisation, seems the fan never got out of low speed and into high speed.

raytaylor

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#853661 11-Jul-2013 01:39

Check your target temp settings in the bios.
I would set the thermal cut off at 80 degrees so you dont cook the cpu. 90 is much too hot.
60 should be your target temp - or if you have a loud pentium 4 like i used to until recently, i set mine at 65 just to keep the fan noise down as no amount of repasting was working.

Ray Taylor

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GBristow

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Master Geek

#853692 11-Jul-2013 09:09

It'll either be your heatsink being clogged with dust or it has come loose or the paste has dried/hardened. Get a tube of thermal paste, remove the heatsink and reseat it. Also clean the dust off.

kdn

203 posts

Master Geek

#853714 11-Jul-2013 09:45

Ok sorry I think I lied a bit. Did some better investigation with "speedfan" tool and could see the fan would start off at 2100rpm. then as the cpu usage ramped right up the fan would spin up to 3277rpm which seems to be its max (seems a bit slow to me, thought they could go 4000+) so anyways perhaps the cpu fan is doing its job.

There is a bit of dust in the case. I will give it a clean out with some compressed air and reapply the thermal paste. pretty sure I still have some artic silver left.

will see how it goes.

cheers.

KiwiTim

376 posts

Ultimate Geek

#853721 11-Jul-2013 09:54

Make sure you clean off the existing thermal paste from the heat sink and CPU, and use a quality thermal past like:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/cmq2.html

I have found the above thermal paste to be one of the most effective.

It pays to precisely follow the cleaning and application instructions at the above site. An oily finger print can affect heat dissipation.

I once had the plastic lugs on the motherboard that the CPU cooler attaches to, crack, so that the CPU cooler was no longer firmly attached to the CPU, resulting in high temperatures that prevented booting. Perhaps you should inspect the plastic surround that the cooler clips onto.