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CPU very very hot
W2
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Just a quick question about a heat issue I've been having with my old computer.
General specs, because they're probably relevant:
- Celeron 2.8ghz
- Geforce Ti4800
- 2gb ram
Admittedly it's aging, but I kept it around after I upgraded my primary rig so a buddy of mine can LAN games like Titan Quest and UT2003 with me. This ran fine all the years I had it.
Anyway the issue I'm having is that when I turn it on the CPU temperature climbs rapidly to around 80 degrees, at which point it just shuts itself off.
What could be causing this? I did move the guts of it into a different case (a nicer looking case), could this case be poorly ventilated, not have a decent enough power supply, etc? Could the CPU just be rubbish, it is admittedly very old. Ambient temperature is very low, like, it's the middle of winter and my room is not very well heated.
Like, it's not critical that I get it running, but it would be nice if I could solve this. Any suggestions?
General specs, because they're probably relevant:
- Celeron 2.8ghz
- Geforce Ti4800
- 2gb ram
Admittedly it's aging, but I kept it around after I upgraded my primary rig so a buddy of mine can LAN games like Titan Quest and UT2003 with me. This ran fine all the years I had it.
Anyway the issue I'm having is that when I turn it on the CPU temperature climbs rapidly to around 80 degrees, at which point it just shuts itself off.
What could be causing this? I did move the guts of it into a different case (a nicer looking case), could this case be poorly ventilated, not have a decent enough power supply, etc? Could the CPU just be rubbish, it is admittedly very old. Ambient temperature is very low, like, it's the middle of winter and my room is not very well heated.
Like, it's not critical that I get it running, but it would be nice if I could solve this. Any suggestions?
W2 on
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I'll give it a bit of a clean and try and get some of the dust out, as well.
There's a good chance that the heatsink just got bumped when you were transplanting the board to the new case and isn't quite properly fixed to the the processor any more or something.
Just taken the heatsink off and pulled the CPU out, looks like the paste was applied pretty unevenly initially and it's been so long that it's gone hard.
The best way to clean it off is some soft cloths or paper towels and some rubbing alcohol.
Most stores carry a tube of the stuff, even if it's not the best stuff, it will get you back up and running quickly. I purchased a whole new heatsink/fan because my old one was not that great to start with.
Dip q-tip in booze. Shake off excess. Cover in small strip of coffee filter, torn from the main filter. Wipe up thermal paste until q-tip is excessively dirty, repeat with other side of q-tip and new strip of coffee filter. Continue until processor and heatsink are both clean, then reapply new paste.
Cheers.
Depending on the processor, it's gotten pretty non-hazardous to clean off excess paste. If it has a hard metal plate on there, you can use a razor blade with no ill effect, but the older procs where you literally put paste on the chip, not so much.
I was meaning to ask this back when you posted your thread, and this may seem like a stupid question, but what processor in this day and age still has pins?
I ask because this particular overheating Celeron is LGA775, and it's old as hell. It's probably been... eight years since I've actually installed a chip that has pins.
Is it an AMD thing?
It was a mobile G4, and seemed rather robust. Plus the rubbing alcohol wasn't working at all.
Ah, I can imagine writing off £120+ worth of processor would be very very annoying.
LGA775 is pin-less (well, you know what I mean, pins on the mobo) but AMD procs still have pins, and of course a million Intel chips pre and post Slot-1 are pinned. I really like the LGA775 design and definitely wouldn't mind seeing AMD adopt the tech. Still, even a ZIF socket makes me feel like I'm living in the lap of luxury compared to the 'old' days. ZIF sockets and keyed power supply connectors. Good things.
Razors work well for removing gunk from a heatsink. I would be much less inclined to use a razor on a CPU. Sometimes a heatsink can be hooked up 180 degrees out of position (reversed), which can also cause the symptoms of the OP. I don't figure that's what happened though since it sounds like he left the CPU/HSF attached to the motherboard. Pretty sure the contact-broken-and-paste-sucks-now theory is the right one.
just to clarify: you really dont need to be gentle with the heatsink.... use whatever you want to get it clean.
You really don't want to scratch the surface though. Supposedly it makes it harder for the heatsink to rest against the processor if it's badly scratched or uneven.
AMD Athlon XP 3000+
It's old. 939 I think. So definitely not "this day and age".
AMD's new server chips have LGA sockets (Socket 1207); their desktop chips still don't and won't for the forseeable future (the upcoming AM3 is supposed to be forwards-compatable or backwards-compatable or something, in any case it has the same connector as AM2+).
(It's really funny. I'm a techie, work in IT, yet my computer is 4+ years old and I just now upgraded to an SATA HDD.)
I usually keep up on this stuff, but this keyed connector thing I must have missed? I'm not as bad as my dad though, who ordered a new HDD, then called me up and said, "When did they change the connector on HDDs? (he had ordered a SATA drive without even realizing it - dunno if his motherboard/PSU even had a connector for it)
AT was the form-factor for x86 systems that preceded the ATX form-factor used in most PC's today (BTX hasn't really taken off.) While the ATX form-factor dictates a keyed power connector, so that the power supply can only be plugged into the motherboard one way due to the shape of the connector and socket (it won't fit the other way), AT form factor just had two rows of pins sticking up from the motherboard, into which you would plug two more or less identical looking equally sized power connectors.
If you hooked them up properly, with the black wires lined up together, your computer turned on. If you hooked them up red wires together, your computer never turned on ever again.
There were good rhymes to remember, like
'black to black, don't look back
red to red, your mobo's dead'
But you didn't need a poem if you ever did it wrong.
Oh, you were talking about how it just goes in one way. It thought you were referring to some new type of connection.
I remember the good old AT days.
Actually upon further thought I was thinking of a different thread, someone who had bent his CPU pins pulling the heatsink off with the CPU still attached.
You know, the burned wires guy. :P
Anyway, quick update, I reapplied thermal paste and reseated everything and gave the case a bit of a dust-out and now the CPU idles steadily at 45 degrees. Which, I guess, is probably a bit high but I can live with it, the computer doesn't get used very often. It's a lot cooler now, by comparison.
45 isn't bad.
My proc was hitting 100C when it would fail.
Repair places make a killing off of that kind of thing. People come in and say "oh my computer shuts off after I play WoW for 20 minutes" or whatever it is that casual people do. 20 minutes later they just made an easy $100.
If you have a heatsink with tight fins on it, detach the fan and run it under the sink for a minute, then blow it off with a hair dryer. Having dust trapped between the fins of the heatsink will absolutely kill any dissipation you are getting and sometimes compressed air can't get it all.