Hot CPU and GPU, dunno why!

[Michael]

I'm trying to fix an older computer (not even mine, it's my mom's) that was recently slightly upgraded (only went from 512mb ram to 1gb and something like an athlon 2400 to 3200). The computer itself is probably 3 or 4 years old. It has an Athlon 3200+ XP, NVidia 6600GT (128MB), and the motherboard is this K7N2 Delta2-LSR thing. Basically, she was complaining of World of Warcraft crashing or the computer restarting, or the graphics going crazy. So I updated the drivers to everything (sound, video, mobo, bios), and checked the computer temperatures, which were really high.

So I reapplied some thermal paste to the CPU and GPU heatsinks (I put on the normal amount of paste, Arctic Silver 5, and the temperatures went up slightly, put on even more and it went down), added another fan to the case, and moved around the fans to improve the airflow in the case. The air coming out of the PC is cool enough. This reduced the temperature some, but it still seems really high.

On the bios itself, it says the CPU is sitting at about 70c. Using SpeedFan, it says GPU is at 55-60c idling, while the CPU is at 50-55c idling. When I open World of Warcraft up in windowed mode, the CPU jumps up to 80-85c, and the graphics card
goes up to about 70c, maybe 75c. It says the same for the MSI mobo utility program thing (Core Center). They also say the system temperature is 30c. Here's a screencap of both while idling and while under stress:

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w314/p4x-650/idle.png - Idle
http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w314/p4x-650/stressed.png - Stressed

The CPU and GPU are not overclocked.

I can't figure out why this stuff is overheating, any help or ideas would be appreciated.

eternalbl

Well, 80-85c on the cpu is definitely too high. You've checked airflow and that the HSF is properly seated, so it must be that the HSF isn't dissipating the heat of the CPU. Upgrade that sucker. I'm assuming you checked that it isn't full of dust and the fan is properly attached.

Crashtard

I'll definitely second the HSF being full of dust. I've seen this happen before, and it can be hearbreaking.

vonPoonBurGer

While the CPU temperatures are definitely way high, the GPU temperatures are actually fairly normal. Thermal shutdown for most 6-series and higher Geforce chips is actually over 100C. Yes, you read that right, their thermal safety shutdown is over the point at which water boils. These bastards run hot. I'd recommend focusing your attention on the CPU.

[Michael]

I cleaned the heatsink out, so dust is not the problem. Maybe it's just a crappy heatsink Good to hear the GPU isn't overheating though. Just one less thing to worry about. I guess I'll try out a new heatsink; Any suggestions for a cheap Socket A heatsink that'll actually keep my CPU cool?

eternalbl

zalman cnps7000B-Cu was what I had on my 2700+ or whatever it was. Did a really good job with a retrofitted nexus fan at 7v

AtomBomb

I think those things are rated at 85c max, but I wouldn't run it like that for long. In my experience the Athlon XP's run hot. I had this one:



It's a Cooler Master Aero. Did a pretty good job and was quieter because of the hamster wheel fan. I actually yanked it out this weekend (haven't used it for awhile) to reuse the Sonata case it was in.

Scikar

You shouldn't need to upgrade the heatsink, the stock cooling should prevent it overheating. Upgrading it should only be necessary if you're overclocking. Are you sure it's a 3200+? The 2500+ was the same multiplier but 333 MHz FSB instead of 400 MHz, and it was common to overclock them.

Secondly, you say you added more thermal paste, did you clean out the existing paste before that? You need the surface of the die and the heatsink to be as clean as possible and use entirely fresh paste to get a good thermal interface.

[Michael]

Yup, it's a 3200+, definitely not overclocked and I cleaned the thermal paste off both the CPU and heatsink. The thermal paste I'm using was opened maybe a month ago, so it should be fine. I've got an out of town friend bringing a decent heatsink that he doesn't use anymore, so hopefully I'll have this problem fixed.

JediNight

The P4s and Athlons definitely run much hotter than you can imagine. I think for mine my idle temp for the CPU was indeed around 50C and at load it would go up to 70-72C.

Rather than dumping money into very old equipment, have you thought about just doing a proper upgrade? You could probably do a "WoW upgrade" for that PC for literally $150 or less. AMD X2 3800+ on Newegg is like $35 now -- that's a dual core CPU which really is a noticeable difference to single core CPUs. 2gb of DDR2 memory is under $50 now, and a reasonable motherboard for that would be like $80 or less.