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What the hell happened to my Thermalright SK7?

yhelothar

yhelothar

Lifer
I'm using the Thermalright SK-7 in conjunction with an LED fan that spins at 2500RPM.

My CPU temps used to be only 5-7C above my case temp with my AthlonXP 2500+ @ 3200+ @ 1.7V

After a while, it went to 10C higher, I figured it was the dust that got cluttered in the tiny gaps between the fins. After I clean it out, it usually goes back to the 5-7C, but it didn't, and only grew worse and worse until the temps hit around 15C higher than my case temps!!!

Now I've changed to an AthlonXP-M 2400+ 35W. I ran my CPU at 2.4GHz @ 1.65V, and my CPU temps are 20C above my casetemps!! I turned it down to 2.2GHz @ 1.45V, and the delta dropped down to 17C, not by much!

I built a new system for a friend, using a t-bred 1.8GHz @ 1.65V, and a cheap $7 speeze cooler, and that only has a 7C delta over the case temp, which that CPU should run hotter due to higher voltage and lower quality heatsink!
I just had my CPU underclocked to 600MHz @ 1.5V, and right now it's running a whopping 15C over the casetemp!!

So what's wrong with my heatsink, and why is it apparently malfunctioning?
I don't want to replace this beautiful $20 heatsink that's supposed to be one of the best!

 
You could pick up some Artic Silver then remove, clean, and remount the heatsink. Though I haven't heard of compound losing it's heat conductive properties over time...

Have you let it run with the side panel off to see if the fan is working consistently?

 
Your first instinct to clean out the fins was correct; that solves the problem 99% of the time. 🙂

Did you actually REMOVE the dust or did you just force it down deeper into the fins? Possibly, did you jar the HS off the CPU when you were cleaning? Is it still seated properly?
 
The fan itself might be the problem. As the bearings wear out the rpm will drop and the temp will rise. The OC'ed Mobile Athlon should get hotter than your old CPU.
Did you update your BIOS? Updating the BIOS can change the temps as the board manufacturer quite often recalibrates the sensors with BIOS updates.
Another possibility is that the board temperature (which most people refer to as "system temperature") is lower now as the sensor chip is better cooled after a change in system configuration, i.e a new fan creates some airflow over the monitoring chip resulting in a lower temp even though the real sys temp hasn't changed.
 
I just lapped the cooler with 600grit sandpaper and smoothed it out, reapplied arctic silver 3 and put it back on. Temps didn't change at all. I also swapped the fan to another one that has about the same specs, 3000RPM, same temps!
Temperature: (Case: 29°C, CPU: 47°C, PSU Fan: 2360RPM, CPU Fan: 3125RPM)
 
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