My computer, she burns
Zombiemambo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I just bought and installed a new motherboard, video card and RAM and my PC is running extremely hot. The PC shuts down almost immediately after I start playing a game. Speedfan says that Temp 2, Core 0 and Core 1 (whatever those mean, I'm not sure) are running at about 65-68 Celcius while idle and into the mid 80's whenever I'm doing something more intensive than browsing the web.
What can I do to cool down my PC? I have a CPU fan, a case fan and the video card has a fan (it's a nVidia 460). The case cover is off and I'm using a separate fan to try and cool it down but it's not doing much.
What can I do to cool down my PC? I have a CPU fan, a case fan and the video card has a fan (it's a nVidia 460). The case cover is off and I'm using a separate fan to try and cool it down but it's not doing much.
Zombiemambo on
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You should always clean and re-apply thermal paste when you've removed the heat sink. This is most likely what is causing the problem.
Second this. It's best to give it a new application so things can re-settle with the new hardware. There's no other reason your CPU should be overheating that badly if it wasn't before.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Agreed agreed. You need to clean off the old paste (you can use isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel) from your cpu and heatsink. Then put some new paste on your CPU (a small grain-sized dot in the middle of the CPU will work, the heatsink will spread it out when you clamp it on). http://www.techpowerup.com/printarticle.php?id=134
You can get the paste at Best Buy or Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
EDIT: Basically the same price, too...somewhere around $10.
I'm not sure.
@everybody else: thanks, I'll look into some thermal paste, then. Unfortunately the heatsink was quite possibly the single most annoying part to install on anything in my entire life.
Also make sure that the heatsink is seated level on the processor.
Another thing you can try is checking the direction that your air is flowing in your case. I typically go front to back. Make sure that the fan of the heatsink is pointing in generally the same direction (assuming you have one that isn't parallel to the motherboard.
Thing is, temps that high won't generally be due to something like poor airflow...at least not temps that spike that high that quickly. Assuming you're at stock clocks (I am assuming this?) you should be able to stress the processor for several minutes, even with the worst possible airflow, before you see issues.
So really your problem is probably either CPU, heatsink, or fan. The CPU could be either generating too much heat, or it's at least theoretically possible that it's reporting the heat incorrectly (that it's not actually that hot). The heatsink may not be conducting heat away (we'll assume for a moment that you've eliminated this, by reinstalling the thermal paste and sink). Or the fan could be either running too slowly or stalled out entirely.
The fourth possibility is the motherboard, that it's delivering too high of a voltage to your CPU. Unless you have it set up for some kind of overclocking this is unlikely, but it's still possible.
So thinking about it, my order of troubleshooting (though I'll admit I'm not exactly an expert) would be:
- Am I overclocked?
- Is the fan running at all, and at what RPM (at 100%)?
- What voltage is being delivered to the CPU (vcore)?
- Is the heatsink properly installed?
The last is actually the most likely issue, so checking it first is also sensible. However the other three can be checked without any annoying hardware reinstalls, even if they were less likely.