Why is my CPU running so HOT!

[Vich]

Everything in my system is stock.

The idle cpu temp is 60C while load is 65C (used Prime95).

I have a vantec aeroflow cpu fan, with 4 case fans and an aluminium lian li case.

My motherboard is an Asus A7v333 and it was replaced by ASUS because the same one died previously. I also have a brand new barton 2500+ that is not even a year old.

What could be the problem?


Any help would be great...
Thanks
-Rich

 

[PCTweaker5]

You need AS5 and some new case fans! What HSF you got?

 

[warath]

That or: what are you using to measure the temp? Could it be the Motherboard again having an issue, and mis-reporting the Temp of the CPU ??
From the shoulds of what you have as way of heatsink and fans, you shouldn't be running that hot! What is the abient (room) temp?

 

[NokiaDude]

How much thermal grease did you use? If it was more than a tiny BB then you used WAAAYYYY too much.

 

[Vich]

What is AS5?

have a vantec aeroflow cpu fan (its a HS+ FAN)

To measure the temp im using Motherboard monitor 5.

Ambient room temperature is about like 73-75 dorm room t-shirt and pants

I dont remember how much thermal grease i used but if i did put to much could it really radically make the temperature go so hi??

-Rich

 

[NokiaDude]

Yes, too much thermal grease is actually like putting a brick wall between the heatsink the CPU. Heatsink's are supposed to be touching the cpu without any grease. But now we use thermal grease to help the heatsink contact every inch of the CPU. You only need a paperthin layer of thermal grease. Or else that "wall" will make it take longer to get rid of the heat. Have you ever touched a brick wall shortly after sunset on a warm day? It's still warm.

 

[Vich]

Ok so ill clean the thermal grease off the heatsink with alcohol pads i got, but what if there is to much all over the processor what do i do then?


Thanks

-Rich

 

[Vich]

How do i remove the thermal grease if its all over the outside of the processor?

 

[mechBgon]

The A7V333's routinely run in the 60C+ area (by their way of measurement). Disable Q-Fan in the BIOS if it is enabled, so that your fan is running at normal speed all the time. The target temperature for an A7V333 is, in fact, precisely 60C and that is what Q-Fan will attempt to hold your CPU at (by lowering your fan speed). more info than you ever wanted to know about A7V333's, inlcuding a link to my fact-finding mission with my own.

Short version: don't let it bug you, because in your case it's merely a calibration thing. Ensure that your heatsink is properly installed with a thin layer of high-quality thermal grease, ensure that your case has some airflow going through it, and go frag some enemies in UT2004 Demo

 

[NokiaDude]

Originally posted by: Vich
How do i remove the thermal grease if its all over the outside of the processor?

Cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol!

 

[MrCodeDude]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude

Originally posted by: Vich
How do i remove the thermal grease if its all over the outside of the processor?

Cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol!

Heh, you shouldn't have thermal grease all over the outside of the proc. If any, it should be very little that squeezed out when you attached the heatsink.

 

[Vich]

Well i did because of a mess up but i used nail polisher cleaner and got it up and now i put a thin layer as advised cleaned everything and its running at 57C.

-Rich

 

[NokiaDude]

Did the CPU core look like this?!?!

 

[Vich]

No the CPU core after i put the grease on and attached the heatsink then removed it to double check looked like this except mine was more even

 

[Vich]

Yeah, it's all in the calibration. It's like this: early-generation boards used a little temperature sensor in the middle of the CPU socket, so it was measuring the air temperature beneath the CPU. Not exactly an exact method of determining core temperature! And these typically read around 45C or so. This temperature sensor is what people mean when they use the term "socket thermistor."

Then came the AthlonXP, which had an actual real live temperature sensor right in its core. One company, EPoX, bravely made a mobo that actually reported this true, on-core temperature reading directly to the user. These were the EPoX 8KHA family boards. People saw the real, non-candy-coated, non-estimated temperatures (which were mid-60C area) and simply freaked out. EPoX got hammered with an avalanche of returned boards because people thought the boards were bad, when in fact the boards were simply truthful. AthlonXPs really do operate in the 60-70C area.

The A7V333 was the other board that at first was thought to read the true on-core temp sensor, but my tests proved that it really used a socket thermistor that was calibrated high enough to give semi-realistic readings... but without the moment-to-moment real-time response of an on-core reading... as you can see from my testing. It ramps slooooooowly over the course of a couple of minutes when the CPU loads and unloads. Later, Motherboard Monitor 5 figured out how to get at the thermistor on the A7V333.

We still have an A7V333-RAID at my workplace. It has Q-Fan enabled and the mobo will ramp the fan down to 65% speed unless the CPU manages to make it past 60C, in which case it'll start to notch the fan up a step at a time until 60C is reached again. So I'd say 60C is 100% ok

By the way, my A7V333 died when I knocked a tiny tiny surface-mounted resistor off of it, while clipping down a heatsink with a wide 3-lug clip. Here is the place to be careful of: photo. Also, your PCI bus will perform way better if you disable the USB 2.0 controller, so keep that in mind if you have any PCI hard-disk controllers or other high-traffic PCI devices. Hope that helps

mechBgon helped me out with this once, thanks to him and to everyone one else! :beer: