CPU suddenly getting really hot

[eng3]

I've got an old Athlon64 X2 5800+ with a Coolmaster cooler.

I've had this for several years, idle temps have been fairly low, around 40C. Temps never really going above maybe 60-80C.

We have had ongoing issues with the computer shutting itself down suddenly. Monitoring temps, it did not seem like a CPU temp shutdown. Replacing the power supply seemed to fix the issue. We have replaced the PS at least twice and the problem seems to go away then randomly come back.

Well, now the computer wont stay on for more than 2min. This time the symptoms are different. The CPU temp will gradually shoot up from cold (25C) all the way up near 100C before auto-shutdown. When I measure the heat sink temp as close as I can get to the CPU, I'm only getting may be 50C. The "finger test" I can hold my finger maybe 5-10 seconds before I can't keep it there anymore.

I tried removing the heatsink and reapplying new thermal paste but it seems to make no difference.

I even tried underclocking and bring the voltage down to minimum but that makes no difference.


I notice in "speedfan" the "CPU" temp is much higher than the "Core" temp. "CPU" will show near 100" when "Core" is near 80. Both seem high for pretty much idle. "CPU" seems to match what the bios shows.

I will even see it go up to 95 on the BIOS screen and shutdown


Although the heatsink does get very hot, I'm wondering if its a sensor issue.

 

[myocardia]

Hi, welcome to Anandtech. If the CPU heatsink is getting "very hot", then it is not a sensor issue. Has your CPU fan failed? Has it become unplugged? If not, it sounds like you need to unplug it from the AC, and blow the dust out of the heatsink with a can of compressed air. If it has been years, like you say, you would probably be better off removing the heatsink and removing the fan from it, and running it under hot water for a while, then letting it dry overnight.

 

[eng3]

Well, like I mentioned, the heatsink is around 50C (With CPU showing 95C, core showing 75C). I'm not sure how much differential between "cpu" and heatsink is normal. or how accurate it usually is.

The fan is working fine.

I did check the heatsink for dust and it is clean.

 

[Ken g6]

I wonder if something is taking all your CPU cycles. Try booting into safe mode, check task manager, and make sure nothing is running (checking "processes from all users".)

If nothing is running and it still gets that hot, then it's a hardware issue.

 

[eng3]

I wonder if something is taking all your CPU cycles. Try booting into safe mode, check task manager, and make sure nothing is running (checking "processes from all users".)

If nothing is running and it still gets that hot, then it's a hardware issue.

I tried booting the the bios and it still gradually gets hot.
I noticed that CORE seems to go up and down as I'd expect. (ie. Play several videos at once, core/cpu goes up. Stop playing, core goes back down, cpu doesnt really, reboot to bios, cpu still high and system shuts down)

If its a hardware problem, any way to know which hardware? This is so old, starting to replace the old CPU and/or old MB gets pretty expensive, might as well buy a whole new system.

 

[Burpo]

Edit.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've worked on a few older higher-end AMD Athlon64 X2 AM2 rigs, and those chips ran hot. And they run EVEN HOTTER with age. Seems that they degrade that way. I had one that was overheating. I even replaced the heatsink with a brand-new stock heatsink with four copper heatpipes. (The really good one.) No freaking improvement, it still overheated! So I put the big OEM hunk of Aluminum back on there, with some fresh paste, and clean up the system the best that I could, and gave it back to the customer, with the caveat that it was simply getting old and failing.

Honestly, the same thing may be happening to you. Especially if this is some branded OEM rig.

Time to replace the whole thing. (Just don't get Atom or Kabini-based rigs, because they will be slower than your X2 rig.)

 

[LTC8K6]

What are the voltages to the CPU?

If the CPU is actually getting too hot, then it is either under a very high load, or the voltage is too high, or possibly the CPU is defective.

 

[MongGrel]

NM, he did that.

 

[LTC8K6]

Possibly the heat sink clamping force has gotten weak?

 

[ShintaiDK]

I think its just time for a new setup.

 

[zir_blazer]

You may want to check this Thread. At some point I will have to do a follow up about it, since not long after it I delidded the A64, applied silicon thermal grease (Low end but should get the job done), and temperatures were still the same. I decomissioned that computer soon afterwards, but I was always puzzled about if the issue was the Processor itself or something else. I even noticed that the Motherboard (ASUS A8N-VM CSM) had bad caps and I send it to repairs, but temperature was also the same after they got fixed. Every now and then someone with the same problem appears around.

 

[eng3]

ok, I'll give the full background.
This is actually a computer I assembled for my parents to use for file storage and general browsing (email, youtube, etc).

MB: Asus K9N Neo V2
CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 5800+
Cooler: COOLER MASTER DK8-9GD4A-0L-GP 95mm

All of this was purchased back in early 2009.

There has been shutdown issues in the past but it did not seem like it was temperature related. I attempted to log temps and never noticed them going up, but maybe the log wasnt working. We thought it was the power supply and it seemed to solve the issue but would them come back after a year or so.

This time, they went away on a trip and turned the computer off for a month. They turned it back on and it would overheat. CPU would go up from 25C up to 100C. Core seemed more normal, not going about 80C. Heatsink measurement showed about 50C only while CPU was around 95 or so

1. I tried reapplying the thermal grease. no diff.
2. Tried buying new thermal grease, seemed to help a little
3. CPU voltage is at 1.4ish. I lowered it to minimum, 1.2V, and multiplier thinking (cv^2f) but it did not seem to make any difference.
4. Cleaning the dust from the heatsink and fan but that did not make any difference.
5. I tried turning on the CPU cold and only going to the bios HW monitor screen. It will start at 25C but gradually rise to 100C shutdown.

I'm wondering if I should bother trying to find a bigger/better heatsink/fan if I can find something that can fit.

or just upgrade the CPU/Mobo/Ram

 

[crashtech]

Really the only way to diagnose a problem like this is to have known good replacement parts available for swapping.