Topic: Shit... my CPU temp is running *really* high.

[Quemaqua]

I've got an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ toledo core, and it appears that the critical temperature is around 70°C.  I was just playing a game on my PC, which I haven't done much of lately, and the thing was running at 80°C.  My monitor popped on... so I quickly shut the game down, and things are back to around 65°C and holding.

Obviously, this is super bad.  What the hell happened?  And how does one go about correcting this problem?  I had a really nice, HUGE aftermarket heatsink on the thing.  It was like twice as big as the stock one.  How the hell is my CPU overheating?

EDIT - It should be noted that this is stock with an aftermarket heatsink.  Not over or underclocked.  It hasn't been long enough for the thermal compound to need redoing I wouldn't think.  It's now idling at 53°C and staying there.  I'm trying to determine what the idle should be, and this seems high.  Full load shouldn't really be too much higher than this.

[sirean_syan]

I know you're not overclocking it, but could it be running at a higher speed than it should? That happened with Aimee's CPU for a bit of time before we realized we were pushing it too hard.

It might also be possible that the fan isn't set right on the CPU for some reason any longer. That would require taking things apart and putting it back together again... I'd check the BIOS settings to see if it's being overclocked. Just look up what they should be.

[Quemaqua]

Went into the BIOS, apparently I can't even change the clock speed.  It's running at what it should be.  Restarting sent the temp back up to 59°C, and it's now going slowly back to the idle temp of 53°C again.  It was at 51°C when I was in the BIOS.

It definitely explains why the game wasn't performing well.  I was getting shitty frames and couldn't figure out why.  Video settings made some difference, but very little.  I was confused.  I'm not confused anymore.

I guess I'm going to have to open this thing up and clean it out.  When one attempts to reapply thermal compound, you have to clean the old compound off with alcohol or something, right?  I really don't think that's going to help, but it might come to trying it.

[shock]

Eek.  I am running the same core and push 35C at idle.  Additionally, I have the stock heatsink on it.

My only idea is that something has gone bad with the thermal stuff you put on when installing it (is it thermal paste? I forget the name..).  Perhaps taking off the heat stink and reapplying it is a good idea.

[Jedi]

Went into the BIOS, apparently I can't even change the clock speed.  It's running at what it should be.  Restarting sent the temp back up to 59°C, and it's now going slowly back to the idle temp of 53°C again.  It was at 51°C when I was in the BIOS.

It definitely explains why the game wasn't performing well.  I was getting shitty frames and couldn't figure out why.  Video settings made some difference, but very little.  I was confused.  I'm not confused anymore.

I guess I'm going to have to open this thing up and clean it out.  When one attempts to reapply thermal compound, you have to clean the old compound off with alcohol or something, right?  I really don't think that's going to help, but it might come to trying it.

I think it might be the thermal compound, if nothing else has changed and yet the CPU is getting too hot… it’s probably that the compound has dried up and its not transferring the heat up to the heat sink effectively now.
This is what happened to my PC, for the longest time I couldn’t figure it out, the PC would lock up when playing WoW. I replaced and tinkered with everything then I replaced the thermal paste; problem solved. I scrapped the old compound off with a blade… probably not the best idea. Obviously be careful that the alcohol doesn’t get everywhere (like on the pins).

[TheOtherBelmont]

I guess I'm going to have to open this thing up and clean it out.  When one attempts to reapply thermal compound, you have to clean the old compound off with alcohol or something, right?  I really don't think that's going to help, but it might come to trying it.

Yes, as far as I know, isopropyl alcohol is the way to go.

[Quemaqua]

Well, it's idling at 35°C.  I opened the sucker up, and... man.  The dust.  It was obscene.  It was like I took the thing to the moon and threw it in a pile of the stuff.  Blew and cleaned the hell out of it, and couldn't believe it.  It was insane.

Anyway, I think that was all it was.  I can't believe it was that simple (or that there was that much dust in there... I checked it not that long ago), but it's idling at 35°C now.  I'll stress test it with the game and see what gives, but hopefully this is fixed now.

Thanks for the advice, everybody!

EDIT - Well, 20 minutes of gametime and it's gone up to 50°C.  Seems like it'll be okay.

[sirean_syan]

So you're in the clear then. Good stuff. Redoing the thermal paste always scared me a little.

[NatchDan]

I'm having the same problem, to the degree that it'll restart itself just from the load of booting. I'll open 'er up later and take a look.

[scottws]

I think it might be the thermal compound, if nothing else has changed and yet the CPU is getting too hot… it’s probably that the compound has dried up and its not transferring the heat up to the heat sink effectively now.
This is what happened to my PC, for the longest time I couldn’t figure it out, the PC would lock up when playing WoW. I replaced and tinkered with everything then I replaced the thermal paste; problem solved. I scrapped the old compound off with a blade… probably not the best idea. Obviously be careful that the alcohol doesn’t get everywhere (like on the pins).

I don't think thermal paste really goes bad.  The heatsink probably wasn't sitting properly on top of the CPU.

[Jedi]

I don't think thermal paste really goes bad.  The heatsink probably wasn't sitting properly on top of the CPU.

Well in my case when I took the heat sink off the CPU came out with it, they were still very joined. I guess the act of taking it apart and replacing the paste then putting it back together would have solved an issue of the heatsink not sitting on the CPU but... the pc was 3 years old why all of sudden wouldn't it be setting right? meh.

[PyroMenace]

Well, it's idling at 35°C.  I opened the sucker up, and... man.  The dust.  It was obscene.  It was like I took the thing to the moon and threw it in a pile of the stuff.  Blew and cleaned the hell out of it, and couldn't believe it.  It was insane.

Anyway, I think that was all it was.  I can't believe it was that simple (or that there was that much dust in there... I checked it not that long ago), but it's idling at 35°C now.  I'll stress test it with the game and see what gives, but hopefully this is fixed now.

Thanks for the advice, everybody!

EDIT - Well, 20 minutes of gametime and it's gone up to 50°C.  Seems like it'll be okay.

Ha, well thats good, that was going to be my recommendation but you solved already. Though that makes me wonder about mine, I havent checked the CPU temp in a while nor cleaned out my system and I've noticed I've been getting these really bad dips in framerates in WoW which never used to happen.