P4-1.8GHz at 84Celsius, no OC, help needed please

[imported_yellow]

A friend of mine gave me his computer to check out what was wrong. His computer was rebooting or freezing while gaming within a couple of hours between each time. Since 3 days (since he upgraded his video card Riva TNT2 to a Ati9600), the computer freezes each time after only a couple minutes of gaming.

CPU is P4-1.8GHz, with normal Intel Fan. With casing open, the cpu temp is 84celsius. With casing open and a massive house-fan just in front of the open casing, temperatue goes down to 76 celsius. CPU fan is working (around 3300RPM), Power Temperature is 29Celsius and System Temperature is 26Celsius (both with the massive house-fan directed into the casing).

I compared to my computer (P4-2.4Ghz with same normal Intel Fan), and mine is 42-43celsius. So what is wrong with my buddy's computer? IS it the CPU who is overheating by itself (which means switching cpu would do the trick) or is it the motherboard who causes the CPU heat? Voltage Core is 1.504V.

Also, is there a way to be sure of the temperature CPU-reading? Im reading it by the bios. His BIOS is Amibios Simple Setup Utility - version 1.21.06. Motherboard is EliteGroup P4S5a Rev1 2.a .

Thank you in advance.

 

[mechBgon]

Different motherboards can give very different temperature estimates, but since your symptoms sound like a possible overheat problem, it is probably correct enough. Check for any possible reasons that the heatsink would not be making good, flat contact with the CPU, including that the plastic cage that the heatsink attaches to has broken at one corner (look here), or that the plastic cage has lost its grip on the motherboard at one corner and is lifting when the heatsink pushes downwards.

Start with that and let us know what you find Welcome to the Forums!

 

[imported_yellow]

Thank you for the welcome, mechBgon.

And you were right about the attaches (thank you for the pic ). One is broken. The heatsink still seems to be well fixed. But by pressing hard with the fingers on the plastic of the broken corner, the temperature went down from 76celsius to 71 celsius in about 20 seconds. I wasn't able to make it go lower by pressing it longer.

So definitely this is one of the problem. can you buy those plastic attaches separately? (they are on the motherboard if im not mistaking... right? )

Thank you in advance.

 

[mechBgon]

If you live in the United States, you can get a metal replacement from here: link to metal one It's only $5 and it also features a SocketA lug pattern so you could even use a SocketA heatsink if you wanted to.

You should probably also scrape off the used thermal pad and use a thin coat of thermal grease on the CPU and heatsink. You can buy thermal grease from them too, if you don't have some already. Vegetto shows how to apply it on this page if you've never had to do it before. Good luck

 

[nick1985]

is the heatsink filled with dust?

 

[jefbak]

Yeah dust can be a problem. reseat the cpu and drop some artic silver on the heatsink. go down to your nearest computer store and try and find a zalman fan, they use metal rails instead of the plastice ones.