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cpu avg temp creep: 50°C to 60°C over two years, sign of a problem?

T

tart666

Golden Member
athlon 1.4GHz (i know, i know, power hog) used to run at 47°C idle / 53°C load when I got it...

Now, some years later, the idle seems to be closer to 56°C and load to 62°C, even with the side panel open (just to make a point of having enough air) The cpu fan is the same, running fine looks like

What would you bet the reason is, paste drying out, cpu about to die, via drivers, anything else... I really don't want to re-apply the paste, now that AMD has condemned it
 
try to clean of any dust that you see.

but yes the temps do increase with age i think. when i first got my 1700XP it ran in the low 40's to low 50 range. now im only typing a paper and the temp is 51

also related to room temperature. maybe the heat is on next to your computer, just like mine?

just to add it is nothing to worry about. if it dies then it dies.
 
Had the same thing happen to my T-bird 1.4, took off the HS&F and noticed the paste was dryed out, cleaned and applied new paste, brought it back down. Give it a try, worked for me. 🙂

edit: it didn't bring it all the way back down, but certainly a better than what it had gone up to.
 
I wouldn't worry about that AMD-condemning-paste thing. They mainly want to discourage its use, because morons will want to try their hand at it, which can kill the processor, but they'll want a replacement CPU anyway, free of charge.
So, maybe the paste is drying out.

But the first thing that I thought when I read the title, which has already been mentioned, was:
Dust.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
I wouldn't worry about that AMD-condemning-paste thing. They mainly want to discourage its use, because morons will want to try their hand at it, which can kill the processor, but they'll want a replacement CPU anyway, free of charge.
So, maybe the paste is drying out.

But the first thing that I thought when I read the title, which has already been mentioned, was:
Dust.
Click to expand...

heh morons kill the CPU eh? maybe i should try my luck and "upgrade" my palo to a TB? =P
 
I would say it would most likely be due to the drying of the thermal paste, so if you do not want to take the h/s off, you will have to deal with the higher temps, which is okay, as long as it does not get too high.
 
i have the power-off threshold set to 63°C in the bios, and the load temp was getting dangerously close, that's why I got worried...

Then again, the weather finally cooled down here in austin, now my idle temp is 51, go figure... I guess I will re-apply, going back to ny soon, the heater will screw things up again I am sure
 
i had only the pre-applied paste that came with the coolermaster HSF... (low speed 2600rpm -- quiet as hell, btw, awesome) I have some other stuff that i never used, just wasn't sure about it...
 
Do you smoke? If so, you probably have an insulating film of tar on the heatsink. Thermal paste does lose it's effectiveness, some types quicker than others. I'd take the heatsink off and clean it thoroughly with a degreaser and brush. I've been using Cooler Master Premium paste (Shin Etsu), and mixing a little Arctic Alumina with it to make it spread more smoothly. It's supposed to last longer than the thin stuff.
 
Recently a friend called me over because his computer kept hanging. I suspected that there must be dirt on the heat sink so I checked for this and was shocked to see that all the area between the Intel P3 stock heat sink's fins were totally blocked by so much dirt that it had caked up and become like mud - solid mud !! I inserted a slim screw driver between the fans blades and pushed the mud out of the heat sink and generally gave it a clean up and it has worked fine since.

just my $0.02
 
update: the idle temp finally crept over 65 °C... The visible result was that everything got reaallllyyyy slo-o-o-o-w, instead of just reboot / shutdown (which i expected)

Anyway, I cleaned the HSF (btw, I don't smoke) and applied some thermal compound, idle is still at 62 °C. Looks like the new compound didn't help

I guess the CPU is just dying...

how is the amd warranty service, does anyone know? is the high idle temp enough to initiate an RMA?
 
I don't really think it's the paste... for me it has always been dust clogging up the fins of the heatsink... once i cleared out the dust.. the air can flow freely through the fins of the heatsink and dissipate the heat more efficiently
paste is supposed to last for more than 2 years easy...
 
I did try to clear the dust while I had the HSF removed...

But to test the airflow hypthesis, I removed the side panels from the case: the CPU temp dropped to 55 °C in 10 min (look!, CPU is temp2)

the case has one fan in the back blowing out, and the true330 with its dual fans. Apparently that's not enough anymore. I need to figure out how to plug in the front fan (the cable is 2" too short for the nearest mobo plug)

Thx, guys!
 
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