Extreme CPU temperature -- what should I do?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Carlos Moreno
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Carlos Moreno

I seem to be having CPU temperature trouble. I have an
Athlon XP 2800+ on an ASUS A7N8X. I assembled it myself,
buying a Retail (boxed) Athlon processor that came with
the fan.

It has been mysteriously turning off -- checked the fans
and all are working fine (at least apparently)

The hardware monitoring section in the BIOS setup shows
temperature of 70 degrees Celcius most of the time (it
*never* goes below 68), and often going up to 80 - 82
degrees. The CPU fan is spinning at 3800 RPM, according
to the monitoring software.

I wonder if all this is normal. My wife's machine is an
Athlon XP 1700+ on a GigaByte motherboard (I think). Also
assembled by myself, with a Retail Athlon that came with
the fan. Her machine shows a normal working temperature
of 50 degrees Celcius, and the fan spins at 5000 RPM.

So, my two questions:

1) Are the values on my PC normal?

and

2) What should I do? Should I replace the fan? If so,
what brand/model would you recommend? Or should I
go straight and replace the CPU with a 3000+ or 3200+
with its own brand new fan? (not sure if the increase
in performance would justify spending the extra bucks
for the processor upgrade -- OTOH, perhaps these CPUs
are quite inexpensive these days?)

Right now it's been almost 24 hours since the last time
it powered down, but lately, it's been doing it at a
rate of two or three times a day!!

Thanks for any advice,

Carlos
--
 
from the said:
I seem to be having CPU temperature trouble. I have an
Athlon XP 2800+ on an ASUS A7N8X. I assembled it myself,
buying a Retail (boxed) Athlon processor that came with
the fan.

It has been mysteriously turning off -- checked the fans
and all are working fine (at least apparently)

The hardware monitoring section in the BIOS setup shows
temperature of 70 degrees Celcius most of the time (it
*never* goes below 68), and often going up to 80 - 82
degrees. The CPU fan is spinning at 3800 RPM, according
to the monitoring software.

I wonder if all this is normal.
Click to expand...

No, that's too hot (unless you are in death valley with no A/C).
Basically either the CPU HS isn't fitted right (there are two ways round
you can fit it - in one of them the 'step' doesn't seat and it isn't
touching the CPU properly .. or you can fit it without removing the
cover strip on the thermal pad, or ..)

Or else you don't have enough through case airflow (easily checked -
does the problem quit if you take the side off the case? What does the
motherboard temp look like, and what is your room temperature??

OF course, the BIOS could be lying - when you say 'it never goes below
68c' what does it say when you've just turned the m/c on, after it's
been off all night??
My wife's machine is an
Athlon XP 1700+ on a GigaByte motherboard (I think). Also
assembled by myself, with a Retail Athlon that came with
the fan. Her machine shows a normal working temperature
of 50 degrees Celcius, and the fan spins at 5000 RPM.

So, my two questions:

1) Are the values on my PC normal?
No

and

2) What should I do? Should I replace the fan?
Click to expand...

No, first of all figure out what the problem is.
 
Carlos said:
It has been mysteriously turning off -- checked the fans
and all are working fine (at least apparently)

The hardware monitoring section in the BIOS setup shows
temperature of 70 degrees Celcius most of the time (it
*never* goes below 68), and often going up to 80 - 82
degrees. The CPU fan is spinning at 3800 RPM, according
to the monitoring software.
Click to expand...

do a search on a program called Everest, it can monitor temperatures in
windows. that is way too hot, the sink is probably not seated properly.
my athlon64 never goes much over 35 degreesC at idle, or 55 deg C at
full load, and my cpu fan spins at 2,500rpm :)
 
I seem to be having CPU temperature trouble. I have an
Athlon XP 2800+ on an ASUS A7N8X. I assembled it myself,
buying a Retail (boxed) Athlon processor that came with
the fan.

It has been mysteriously turning off -- checked the fans
and all are working fine (at least apparently)

The hardware monitoring section in the BIOS setup shows
temperature of 70 degrees Celcius most of the time (it
*never* goes below 68), and often going up to 80 - 82
degrees. The CPU fan is spinning at 3800 RPM, according
to the monitoring software.
Click to expand...

What is the system board temp - that'll give us an idea if you have a case
ventilation prob. The Athlon XPs on MSI K7N mbrds we have in the office
run in the low 60s at max load but the absolute temp is not a reliable
measure due to BIOS and software "calibrations. I also saw a new BIOS drop
the reported CPU temp by ~10C.
I wonder if all this is normal. My wife's machine is an
Athlon XP 1700+ on a GigaByte motherboard (I think). Also
assembled by myself, with a Retail Athlon that came with
the fan. Her machine shows a normal working temperature
of 50 degrees Celcius, and the fan spins at 5000 RPM.

So, my two questions:

1) Are the values on my PC normal?
Click to expand...

In the 80s is way too high and even 70s is high if your BIOS/software is
reporting correctly. The "mysteriously turning off" could be due to a
threshold temp for power off of 80C in the BIOS/software.
and

2) What should I do? Should I replace the fan? If so,
what brand/model would you recommend? Or should I
go straight and replace the CPU with a 3000+ or 3200+
with its own brand new fan? (not sure if the increase
in performance would justify spending the extra bucks
for the processor upgrade -- OTOH, perhaps these CPUs
are quite inexpensive these days?)

Right now it's been almost 24 hours since the last time
it powered down, but lately, it's been doing it at a
rate of two or three times a day!!
Click to expand...

Did you have trouble seating the heatsink on the CPU the first time and did
the heatsink make even contact with the rubber pads on the CPU package? It
sounds like it's either on the wrong way or the thermal interface material
has gotten disturbed - those Athlon XP retail heatsinks came with
phase-change TIM which is a one shot deal. IOW you must not disturb it
after the initial heat soak... so before checking it make sure you have
some thermal paste to substitute for the original pad.

If you want to get a new heatsink, for a decent price, the Speeze
FalconRock is OK - has 3-tang clip, reasonably quiet and effective:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=35-150-023&DEPA=0

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??
 
Thanks for your replies!

The problem seems to be solved -- I feel soooo dumb
now!

The fan is, as far as I can tell, perfectly placed
on the CPU (the machine had been worked flawlessly
for half a year or more -- it was only during the
past couple of weeks that it started to spontaneously
power down).

DUST!!!

Turns out there was a *solid crust* of fine dust
blocking the airflow from the heatsink -- imagine,
after I vacuumed it the speed of the CPU fan
increased by 200RPM... just like that!! The
temperature went to 50 degrees C idle (from 70+
degrees idle)

Thanks,

Carlos
--
 
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