CPU overheating

  • Thread starter Thread starter Malcolm
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Malcolm

I bought my PC about a year ago . It contains an AMD Athlon 64
3200+,bus 2200Mhz, 1024kb ram, 204Gb Maxtor HD and NEC RW ND3540A DVD.
Motherboard is ASRock K8 upgrade VM800.
Bios is American Megatrends P1.20 11 March 2005.

I loaded Itunes just after I bought it and over a period, loaded CDs on
to it usually 6 or 8 one after the other without a problem. A few weeks
ago, after loading about 3 Cds in succession the PC shut down. After
leaving it for half an hour I could continue.This condition continued
for a couple of weeks but now I cannot load one CD without it shutting
down. In normal use (surfing etc) it is fine.

I loaded PC Wizard and checked the CPU temperature. Under normal use it
reports a CPU temperature of about 45C but when I start to load a CD it
immediately rises at the rate of about 3 to 4 degrees C per minute so
in a few minutes it hits about 80C at which point it shuts down.
I opened it up and found that the two case fans were both pushing air
in so I reversed the rear one so it sucked air out but it has made
little difference. The CPU fan is reported by PC wizard to be running
at 3013rpm and when I feel the heat sink it only feels warm not hot. I
suspected it was not making good contact to the CPU so I removed it but
I can't see anything wrong. It has a thin film of heatsink compound and
the clip is holding it very tightly to the CPU. The inside is all very
clean . There is no dirt or debris on the heatsink fins.
For further information I tried getting it to calculate a large
factorial and it overheats in exactly the same way as it does loading
CDs.
When I opened up my work PC for comparison I was surprised how hot the
heatsink is. Certainly too hot to keep fingers on it so I went back to
my home PC convinced the heatsink is not contacting the CPU properly ,
I took it off again and pushed it back on. It adheres quite well
without the clip so it is definitely not that.
I am finding it hard to think of an explanation that explains this
degeneration over a period

I would appreciate any suggestions.
 
I bought my PC about a year ago . It contains an AMD Athlon 64
3200+,bus 2200Mhz, 1024kb ram, 204Gb Maxtor HD and NEC RW ND3540A DVD.
Motherboard is ASRock K8 upgrade VM800.
Bios is American Megatrends P1.20 11 March 2005.

I loaded Itunes just after I bought it and over a period, loaded CDs on
to it usually 6 or 8 one after the other without a problem. A few weeks
ago, after loading about 3 Cds in succession the PC shut down. After
leaving it for half an hour I could continue.This condition continued
for a couple of weeks but now I cannot load one CD without it shutting
down. In normal use (surfing etc) it is fine.

I loaded PC Wizard and checked the CPU temperature. Under normal use it
reports a CPU temperature of about 45C but when I start to load a CD it
immediately rises at the rate of about 3 to 4 degrees C per minute so
in a few minutes it hits about 80C at which point it shuts down.
Click to expand...

Ideally you would use software meant for your motherboard,
as 3rd party software can potentially read the wrong value
or report it wrong. Even so, if we were to take for granted
that it's overheating the next idea is to pull case cover
off and point a fan at it (temporarily) to remove the
chassis cooling from the equation... then retry same things
with the computer but itunes would take a long time, try a
stress test like Prime95's Torture test, it'll heat it up in
seconds, minutes at most.


I opened it up and found that the two case fans were both pushing air
in
Click to expand...


??

Which fans, where, who built it or what case is this if it
came that way? From what you write below it may not matter
but if even this basic part of the system is set up wrong,
it bodes ill for the rest of it.
so I reversed the rear one so it sucked air out but it has made
little difference. The CPU fan is reported by PC wizard to be running
at 3013rpm and when I feel the heat sink it only feels warm not hot.
Click to expand...

What heat sink? Someone might know the make and model, but
a link to a good picture online might be useful.

I
suspected it was not making good contact to the CPU so I removed it but
I can't see anything wrong. It has a thin film of heatsink compound and
the clip is holding it very tightly to the CPU.
Click to expand...

Is it possible the installer didn't take off a thin plastic
protector before installing the 'sink? If you have some
heatsink compound, I'd clean off the CPU and 'sink and apply
a fresh, _very_ thin coat of compound. Of course you should
never turn system on without the heatsink- to most people
this is obvious but sometimes not, so I mention it anyway.


The inside is all very
clean . There is no dirt or debris on the heatsink fins.
For further information I tried getting it to calculate a large
factorial and it overheats in exactly the same way as it does loading
CDs.
When I opened up my work PC for comparison I was surprised how hot the
heatsink is. Certainly too hot to keep fingers on it so I went back to
my home PC convinced the heatsink is not contacting the CPU properly ,
I took it off again and pushed it back on. It adheres quite well
without the clip so it is definitely not that.
I am finding it hard to think of an explanation that explains this
degeneration over a period
Click to expand...


I'd take it off and examine it again- something not right if
the CPU is getting overly hot, the 'sink seeming to make
good contact but not getting hot.
 
Malcolm said:
I bought my PC about a year ago . It contains an AMD Athlon 64
3200+,bus 2200Mhz, 1024kb ram, 204Gb Maxtor HD and NEC RW ND3540A DVD.
Motherboard is ASRock K8 upgrade VM800.
Bios is American Megatrends P1.20 11 March 2005.

I loaded Itunes just after I bought it and over a period, loaded CDs on
to it usually 6 or 8 one after the other without a problem. A few weeks
ago, after loading about 3 Cds in succession the PC shut down. After
leaving it for half an hour I could continue.This condition continued
for a couple of weeks but now I cannot load one CD without it shutting
down. In normal use (surfing etc) it is fine.

I loaded PC Wizard and checked the CPU temperature. Under normal use it
reports a CPU temperature of about 45C but when I start to load a CD it
immediately rises at the rate of about 3 to 4 degrees C per minute so
in a few minutes it hits about 80C at which point it shuts down.
I opened it up and found that the two case fans were both pushing air
in so I reversed the rear one so it sucked air out but it has made
little difference. The CPU fan is reported by PC wizard to be running
at 3013rpm and when I feel the heat sink it only feels warm not hot. I
suspected it was not making good contact to the CPU so I removed it but
I can't see anything wrong. It has a thin film of heatsink compound and
the clip is holding it very tightly to the CPU. The inside is all very
clean . There is no dirt or debris on the heatsink fins.
For further information I tried getting it to calculate a large
factorial and it overheats in exactly the same way as it does loading
CDs.
When I opened up my work PC for comparison I was surprised how hot the
heatsink is. Certainly too hot to keep fingers on it so I went back to
my home PC convinced the heatsink is not contacting the CPU properly ,
I took it off again and pushed it back on. It adheres quite well
without the clip so it is definitely not that.
I am finding it hard to think of an explanation that explains this
degeneration over a period

I would appreciate any suggestions.
Click to expand...

possibilities:

the heatsink is warped, so not making decent thermal contact.
the temp monitoring is faulty.

Touching the cpu itself, not the HS, shoudl tell you. If it bites its
too hot. If its frying hot but the heatsink cool, poor thermal
connection is inevitable.


NT
 
possibilities:

the heatsink is warped, so not making decent thermal contact.
the temp monitoring is faulty.

Touching the cpu itself, not the HS, shoudl tell you. If it bites its
too hot. If its frying hot but the heatsink cool, poor thermal
connection is inevitable.


NT
Click to expand...

The heatsink is much bigger than the CPU so I can't actually get a
finger underneath to touch the CPU. Judging by the very even film of HS
compound on the heatsink I would say it is not warped but I will get
some more compound and clean off the old and re-apply.
How can I tell if the temp monitoring is faulty?
M.
 
Malcolm said:
I opened it up and found that the two case fans were both pushing air
in so I reversed the rear one so it sucked air out but it has made
little difference.
Click to expand...

If both case fans are the same i would have both of them extracting.
I had this same problem. Solution i took the 80mm case fan off the
side panel and increased the hole so it could take a 120mm fan
extracting. And removed the rear case fan put the panel back on
now there is nice air flow through pc air is sucked in at rear and
expelled through the side.
 
If both case fans are the same i would have both of them extracting.
I had this same problem. Solution i took the 80mm case fan off the
side panel and increased the hole so it could take a 120mm fan
extracting. And removed the rear case fan put the panel back on
now there is nice air flow through pc air is sucked in at rear and
expelled through the side.
Click to expand...

It is not getting too hot inside the case.
It seems like the temperature being reported is incorrect.
 
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