CPU in eternal heat.

BadOmen

Senior member
Oct 27, 2007
249
1
76
HI all

A friend asked me for help with an Emachines (BestBuy gives me the creeps for selling such thing). The thing crashes and turns off by itself all the time. Ah, the oldest problem of Emachines history.

It's a p4. Intel motherboard. WD harddrive with the funniest noises ever. Every 10 seconds it does "tsk tsk".:D

I checked the cpu temp with speedfan (coretemp doesn`t go with p4). 50C idle. I took the heatsink out, the dust on it was unimaginable. Cleaned and used some AS5, just as Arctic Silver teaches (grain-of-rice ammount in the middle, no spreading). The heatsink is pretty crappy, locked on the motherboard by screws, and I have a feeling that fan is spinning in the wrong direction.:laugh:

Well, although the cpu fan is calmer and more silent now, the temps are exactly the same after that. Maybe 1 degree lower. Prime95 fails due to rounding problems within 8 minutes.

My next step: formatting and reinstalling windows, as his cpu usage is totally erratic and he has so many viruses that they are probably joining and forming a union by now.

Am I missing something? Is that anything else I should do? I removed the heatsink but not the fan from it. Could it be more of that wonderful dust jamming the fan?

Many thanks in advance!
 

SerpentRoyal

Banned
May 20, 2007
3,517
0
0
Zero fill the HDD and clean install windows. The HDD may not last long, so I would buy a new HDD and load windows. It's smart to replace HDD every 3 to 4 years. That's the most cost-effective solution.
 

BadOmen

Senior member
Oct 27, 2007
249
1
76
Yes, I really thought about recommending a new HD, it seems old and is definitely noisy.

What about the overheat? I kept monitoring cpu usage and trying to eliminate running processes. Even when the CPU calmed down and got unloaded, the temp was still 50 degrees. No hope for that, you think? Or the HD problems can be causing that too? I don`t see how cpu temp and hd would be related in this particular case, but I may be missing the big picture here.
 

SerpentRoyal

Banned
May 20, 2007
3,517
0
0
Probably little ventilation in that case. CPU should run okay for a few more years. Those throw-away PCs are good for about 3 to 4 years so no need to invest more time into this dog.
 

swing848

Member
Nov 11, 2007
38
0
66
The power supply may be going bad or you may have some other piece of hardware going bad that is drawing too many amps, such as a component on the motherboard. I have seen things as simple as a bad fan bring a computer to its knees, even destroy a hard drive.

e-machines, like many others, use junk parts to begin with and a good power supply is vital.

By the way, heat will increase if a component is going bad because the power supply will try to pump enough power to supply demand, too many amps will cause more heat.

If the problem is the power supply and your CPU is overheating because of it, get a new PSU as soon as possible, before the computer is trashed.

You might want to take your computer to a good computer repair shop for diagnosis, it may cost you $75 for labor but that is still less than a new computer.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,379
126
Examine the caps around the cpu area carefully. If you feel any that are bulging at the top, or heaven forbid, any seepage/oxidation/etc visible, then the board has serious issues.

A barebones rebuild wouldn't cost much :

Fry's has this right now :

Intel Celeron M w/Mobo $59
2GB DDR2 $37
250GB Sata Drive $49

Use that with a decent little case+psu, and you'll be in a much better situation.