CPU Temp. Sensor Reporting 107°C

[joshyz]

My brother just turned on my family's PC and got a message before the post screen about a CPU over temperature error (the PC had been powered off all night). I checked in the BIOS, and it was reporting the CPU temperature to be 107°C/224°F. I immediately shut the PC down, and disconnected it from the wall.
I then opened up the case, and plugged it back in to the wall. The CPU cooling fan came on, and the heatsink was just slightly warm to the touch. Then I shut it back down, and connected the keyboard, mouse and monitor to it and powered it back up. I got the warning again, and checked the BIOS and received the same temperature reading (and it does fluctuate about 2 or 3 degrees up or down as I watch it).

Does it look like something is wrong with the temperature sensor?
I have not removed the heatsink since the CPU was installed (and it is the original HSF), and the PC had been off for over 12 hours when it was first turned on, it never got a chance to overheat. Nothing changed on the PC at all. It was fine when it was shut down, and then came back up with the error. Any ideas?

 

[TSCrv]

hmm, if you have any heatsonk grease laying around i would try to reapply the HSF... with a warm heatsink that means that heat is comming from the cpu and to the HSF, so it doesnt seem that the HSF is mounted improperly, make sure airflow to the HSF and THROUGH the fins is not obstructed (dustbunnies) and that the fan indeed spins rather fast... if the HSF isnt the problem it is possible that A your sensor is bad, B bios is reading it incorrectly, or C something is wrong with your cpu and its producting too much heat or the thermal diode is bad.

then theres more farfetched stuff buy still possible, power supply, try a bios reset if you can,

a HSF with no fan on it with cpu reading around about 50deg C can get hot enough so you cant keep ir fingers on it, so if it is "slight" heat i would make sure that the HSF is mounted correctly. if it isnt mounted correctly get some heatsink grease, clean the die and the HSF base, and if you have an athlon xp, use enought HSF grease to make it look as big as a grain of rice, for all other cpus, (a64/pentium) i think the amount of grease is 3 grains of rice? (some1 confirm)

hope it helps

 

[Kakumba]

correct amount of Arctic Silver 5 would be much less than that (no more than 1 1/2 grains of uncooked medium rice for an A64)

remove the heatsink, clean and reapply thermal paste (doesnt need to be AS, only a few degrees difference really between ALL the TIMs), and re-intall the heatsink properly. if that doesnt fix it, theres a prob with the sensor or the BIOS. if this just happened suddenly, as it seems, I sould say something happened to the sensor (no idea how though).

As long as it keeps working, and you know you got the heatsink on there ok etc, then its not an issue (but I think you would still like to know whats going on)

 

[joshyz]

Yeah, I really would like to know what is going on. The processor is a Celeron D 310 Socket 478. Do they have any kind of fail rate on the temp. sensors?

 

[oynaz]

I do not know which temperature sensors are used in computers, but most temperature sensors are rather fragile. IMO, a faulty temp sensor is probably the cause of your problems.

 

[daniel49]

if you have not removed the heat sink and the cpu fan is spinning. I would be awful suspicious of the sensor.
At the very least you should have a very hot heatsink and smell a burning odor at those temps.

You might also try reinstalling the sensors software and check for bios updates.