Crazy high temps with q6600 @ stock speed

[homesalad]

Recently I noticed that my core temps with my q6600, cooled with a thermalright Big Typhoon, were way higher than seems normal, or safe. Running prime95 (on all 4 cores) results in temps just under 80C after a few minutes, and idle temps are in the mid to high 40s (as reported by Speedfan). I haven't tweaked the stock settings in any way, and the fan on the typhoon seems to be fine, and spins at about 1200 rpm, according to speedfan. I thought that maybe I had installed the cpu fan kittywompus or something, so I pulled it off, cleaned off the thermal grease, reapplied it, reseated the fan, and there seems to be no change in the temps. The case has three 120mm fans, all of which seem to be operating normally. In general, the machine feels kinda sluggish, and occasionally reboots spontaneously (maybe it overheats and auto-restarts?)
Any thoughts for things to look at or try? thanks...

cpu: Q6600,
mobo: ABIT IP35-E
fan: thermalright big typhoon,
ram: 2gb
case: coolermaster (something big, I forget the model name)

 

[8millenium]

It's gotta be your cooler. Did you try it with the stock cooler? My guess is that it's not seated properly.
Otherwise, your CPU may have a problem.

 

[SolMiester]

80c...!! OMG....You should be able to idle at 33c with a mid range cooler and that chip.....is that a push pin HSF?

 

[Drsignguy]

I just googled it and it looks to be a push pin.

Seems that I am betting that you do not have the HS seated correctly and it's not making very good contact with your cpu. You best remove it and re apply...again. Have you followed the simple rule of applying the TIM? If not, go here to learn more. I think your best bet is to remove the motherboard and install the HS that way. This is to be assured that it is seated correctly. Pins must go all the way through to make good contact.

 

[homesalad]

I hear ya'll, seems like it still must be something funny with the heatsink. I checked out that page for the Arctic Silver instructions, I'll try that first (I actually used 'OCZ Ultra' paste, but I'm guessing they're not too different).
The Typhoon isn't a push pin design, it's got a backplate & top plate, and the cpu and contact surface of the heatsink are squeezed between 'em by four bolts, which I tightened until the top plate started to bend, but not much more. Anyone else using a Big Typhoon have similar issues?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Sounds like you may have over-tightened the sink, if it was visibly bending.

 

[F1shF4t]

Whats your ambient temp?
If its around 30C then you can't really improve the temps with anything short of watercooling.

My q6600 during summer (eg 30C - 35C room ambient temps) gets to almost 80C with a TRUE. At the moment with ambient temps of 15 - 20C it barely breaks 60C.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Your idle temperature isn't unreasonable especially in a warm room or case with limited airflow or very high power hardware (GPU, drives, .....).

80C load is what you'd be seeing on an extremely max. OCd Q6600, probably higher than you should permit it to run even under stress testing of 4xprime95 or whatever.

Update the BIOS to the latest stable version, clear the CMOS/BIOS NVRAM,
go into the BIOS and reset to factory default settings, then manually change things as appropriate to get it to work.

Turn off "auto" overclocking in the BIOS. Be sure the CPU Voltage is set to something that will NOT overvolt Vcore unexpectedly, often "AUTO" = "Auto overvolt", so maybe a manual setting of the nominal Vcore is even advisable if you are trying to determine if this is a factor in the temperature issue.

Typically a maximum somewhere in the 1.16 - 1.35V area is the Vcore range you should see / set for a Q6600 with there being some voltage/power differences between the G0 SLACR revision and the previous B3 or prior revisions.

Measure temperatures under prime95 x 4 load at stock 266x9 CPU speed and see if that stays under 60C with the expected Vcore.

It is probably either a heatsink problem, case airflow problem, or a BIOS / Vcore / CPU frequency setting problem.

I can run 3GHz OC on a Q6600-G0 with a ThermalRIght Ultra 120 Extreme + 120mm slow fan and still stay under 65C easily, you should be able to do so also, though maybe an older stepping like a B3/B2 could run a little warmer.

Try again with the side of the case removed see if that helps / hurts.
Try again with a big fan blowing into the open case side.

 

[homesalad]

Thanks for the suggestions, all. The temps actually were reported with the side off, and the box sitting on a tabletop with nothing else around it, so I think general airflow is OK. Ambient temps are probably a bit over 70F. There's a 8400GS video card, but that doesn't seem like the type of thing to create too much extra heat, right? There are also a couple sata drives in the case, but I'd be surprised if they're the culprit.
I'll update the BIOS tonight, and be sure everything is at stock levels, and see if that helps