CPU temp reaching 70 degrees Celsius

Iriah

It's a new Intel e8500 Core 2 and idles at around 49-53 degrees, and has begun to crash lately in CPU intensive games from overheating. I started up Left 4 Dead and got in to a game and it was about 70 degrees. It's about two months old, stock fan, and I had no trouble installing it. There doesn't seem to be much dust in the fan.

What can I do?

edit: The case is an Antec p180, which is good, but I suspect the graphics card is hindering the airflow. Still there must be something I can do.

edit2: for reference I'm using Core Temp to measure this.

OremLK

Did you use thermal paste on the heat sink? Are you sure it's properly mounted and fully locked into place? LGA 775 heat sinks can be a bitch to get on there right.

Also check your BIOS and see if you can set the fan to always run at full speed.

It may in addition be a good idea to remove the fan from the heat sink and see if there's dust you're not noticing within the heat sink itself, depending on how new the CPU is.

Even if you're having problems with airflow in the case it seems unlikely that it would be this bad, so I'm betting there's a problem with one of the above.

Edit: Last-ditch solution is of course to replace the HSF. Here are a couple good $35-ish options:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

Also toss in some Arctic Silver 5 if you do that:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

But definitely check all the things I mentioned above first.

Iriah

I didn't use thermal paste on the heat sink - the stock fans, apparently, came with thermal paste applied. Should I go for some Arctic Silver instead, then?

Bendery It Like Beckham

Iriah wrote: »

I didn't use thermal paste on the heat sink - the stock fans, apparently, came with thermal paste applied. Should I go for some Arctic Silver instead, then?

YES.

Iriah

okay. What RPM should the HSF be running at?

OremLK

Cleaning it off and replacing it with Arctic Silver would probably drop you at least a few degrees (well, after it sets in, which takes a certain amount of hours, I forget how many). Even then, ~65 degrees is pretty hot for comfort... Intel CPUs can take it, but it may reduce the longevity of your processor. So a new HSF is at least worth thinking about if you can't resolve the problem without.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that you can sand down the heat sink to make it more level (I think they call it "lapping" the thing) which allows it to contact more evenly with the processor and absorb more heat. This is potentially cheaper but also seems like kind of a pain to do. I've never done it myself but here's a guide if you're interested.

Iriah

Thanks very much.

Iriah

I think I may stop playing games for a while. I just alt-tabbed out of a L4D finale and it said it was running at 95 degrees Celsius.

Something here is very, very wrong.

edit: The air coming out of the CPU is lukewarm at best, and the System and AUX are at 33 and 25 degrees respectively. I am so confused.

Fats

The heatsink isn't seated all the way. Those little pins are a bitch to get in right, I can't do it without pulling the motherboard out myself. You're going to want to try and reseat it.

Iriah

I'll have a look tomorrow. How will I know when it's seated all the way?

LaCabra

It'll click in there in a sort of satisfying way...the best way though is to take the board out of the case. It's easy to think you have it in the right position and force it and bend those plastic feet that have to go through the holes in the board.

Deathwing

It'll click in there in a sort of satisfying way...the best way though is to take the board out of the case. It's easy to think you have it in the right position and force it and bend those plastic feet that have to go through the holes in the board.

Yes, be very careful with the plastic bits - if they get bent, you'll have a world of trouble getting them to go in right again (I speak from experience trying to reseat one after my psychotic cats knocked my tower off the desk). As Fats said, if you take the board out first, it will help immensely in trying to get them in there, unless you have a gigantic case.

This design is what made me switch to an AMD CPU & board soon after. :x

Jingles

Socket 775 are the worst thing, when I was installing mine I couldn't tell if they had clicked properly, and they kept popping out (what's wrong with a simple lever?!)

When applying heat paste, be sure to clean the old paste off completely with appropriate solvent, and apply a minimal quantity of Arctic Silver - the best thermal conductivity is metal-to-metal, the paste is only for filling in the microscopic pits and grooves between the surface of the heat sink base and the cpu.

Iriah

I've just opened it up and reseated the HSF - the thermal paste that came with it barely covered a third of the CPU face. I'm getting some Arctic Silver 5 ASAP. Just reseating the HSF, however, brought down the idle temp of the CPU to 32C (but it still reaches 80+ under CPU load, and each core is about 15 degrees higher than the CPU).

What kind of solvent should I buy?

OremLK

I think I've used rubbing alcohol in the past without any problems. Make sure it's all cleaned off though.

Even if it's properly seated now it's not surprising that the temps are still so high given that the thermal paste is now dry and the HSF has been reseated without applying new stuff. I'd definitely try to stay close to idle until you can apply some Arctic Silver.

Iriah

would methylated spirits work?

FlatEric

I had this problem, as well. Especially when running prime95 for testing: the temp would skyrocket immediately to 75-80 degrees, then slowly continue to climb.

At first I thought it was the stock heatsink that couldn't cut it, so I bought a sigmatek heatsink (looks very similar to the TRUE, but had higher ratings), but that didn't lower my temps at all.

What ended up being the problem was the little plastic push-pin design the socket 775 heatsinks use. It just couldn't apply the proper amount of pressure evenly.

The solution was to get a bolt kit. You have to remove your motherboard to install it, but it was the best thing I've ever done. It allows you to use this spring-loaded screws to connect the heatsink to the motherboard.

Now, with the bolt kit installed, my computer idles at about 36 degrees on core 0, and usually doesn't leave the 50s under prolonged extreme load.

OremLK

Iriah wrote: »

would methylated spirits work?

I think so. The key thing is that it not leave behind residue, so test it on another clean surface first, maybe.

dispatch.o

Whats the normal temp just inside the case? Have you cleaned the heatsink blades lately?

For every two fans blowing into the case, one should be blowing out. If they're all blowing in or the outblowing fan isn't working you've built a little convection oven. I like Artic Silver and all that, but the stock fan and heatsink should be fine, if properly applied. Artic Silver will lower it one or two degrees, but that's still way too hot.

Is your power supply okay? It can become a little toaster oven if it starts dying or gets clogged.

Before you rip everything apart, take off the side of the case and get a normal oscillating fan you would use to make cool breeze in a room in a house. Aim it at the inside of your case at the motherboard. Check your temps. If it's still hot, it's a seating issue, the heatsink isn't pulling enough heat off to dissipate. If it cools down substantially, it's an airflow issue and you should test all of your fans.

OremLK

dispatch.o wrote: »

Whats the normal temp just inside the case? Have you cleaned the heatsink blades lately?

For every two fans blowing into the case, one should be blowing out. If they're all blowing in or the outblowing fan isn't working you've built a little convection oven. I like Artic Silver and all that, but the stock fan and heatsink should be fine, if properly applied. Artic Silver will lower it one or two degrees, but that's still way too hot.

Is your power supply okay? It can become a little toaster oven if it starts dying or gets clogged.

Before you rip everything apart, take off the side of the case and get a normal oscillating fan you would use to make cool breeze in a room in a house. Aim it at the inside of your case at the motherboard. Check your temps. If it's still hot, it's a seating issue, the heatsink isn't pulling enough heat off to dissipate. If it cools down substantially, it's an airflow issue and you should test all of your fans.

With the way the P180 is designed I doubt the problem is power supply heat. Otherwise good advice here, though.

LaCabra

How many fans should a gaming rig normally need? I've just got one in the front by the hdds that came with the case, and one in the back. There's a heatsink on the northbridge of my board that gets super hot and I think it's heating up my video card quite a bit. Board is m3n78-vm

Iriah

I'm picking up some thermal paste tomorrow. I'll remove the old crap with methylated spirits and put on a new layer, and try to seat the heatsink good and proper, and let you know how it goes.

I've got 3 fans - one in front of the PSU, one in the top of the case, and one at the back, so I don't think airflow's a problem. I sincerely hope I don't have to take off the motherboard to seat the heatsink properly, because it feels like it's going in okay now. How do I tell? It's stuck on there pretty firmly as it is.

dispatch.o

LaCabra wrote: »

How many fans should a gaming rig normally need? I've just got one in the front by the hdds that came with the case, and one in the back. There's a heatsink on the northbridge of my board that gets super hot and I think it's heating up my video card quite a bit. Board is m3n78-vm

Had the same problem with a board heatsink killing video cards. It would cook the back end and shorten the lifespan to a matter of months.

LaCabra

Well fuck, I should sort that out somehow then. Suggestions?

dispatch.o

LaCabra wrote: »

Well fuck, I should sort that out somehow then. Suggestions?

new mainboard is really the only choice.

LaCabra

Are you fuckin' kiddin' me

Surely there's somethin' I can do to cool the motherfucker down

AtomBomb

LaCabra, put a fan on the northbridge heatsink (use screws if you can, but you can even zip tie the thing on) or get a new heatsink with a fan. If the current heatsink is glued on (no pins holding it down), it's a bit annoying to get it off but it can be done. That should take care of it. If it doesn't , or you want to get fancy, you could isolate it with some paper ducting (VW bugs use this, it's black on the outside and brown on the inside, like this) and an 80mm fan or something. Don't get an aluminum ductwork, you don't want to use anything conductive.

Buttcleft

those 775 heatsinks are a bitch.

I never could even get mine to seat, even after putting all my weight into it the last pin refused to seat.

I ended up going and buying an aftermarket heatsink that screwed/bolted on instead of those gay fucking pushpins.

Seriously Intel, how could you possibly think those were a good idea?

LaCabra

AtomBomb wrote: »

LaCabra, put a fan on the northbridge heatsink (use screws if you can, but you can even zip tie the thing on) or get a new heatsink with a fan. If the current heatsink is glued on (no pins holding it down), it's a bit annoying to get it off but it can be done. That should take care of it. If it doesn't , or you want to get fancy, you could isolate it with some paper ducting (VW bugs use this, it's black on the outside and brown on the inside, like this) and an 80mm fan or something. Don't get an aluminum ductwork, you don't want to use anything conductive.

so i realise i'm stupid

but should that fan be blowin' onto the northbridge or pullin' heat away from it

AtomBomb

Generally blowing on to it, but if it's big enough it can be pulling away. Pushing cool air towards the heatsink tends to work better than pulling hot air off of it. Both can work though. Try it both ways and see which drops temps the most.

Iriah

Super news! An even spread of thermal paste has brought the CPU temp down to 21C at idle, and the core temps to 34-37. When playing Left 4 Dead they go to about 45-49. This is awesome, thanks for your help!

The graphics card (it's a GTX280, so I can't expect much) still idles at 45 and is steady at 72C but I don't know what to do about that. Any ideas?

OremLK

Glad you got it taken care of!

Graphics cards are usually a lot hotter than CPUs. 72C is pretty hot even still but it should be well within the operating range for that card. If you're concerned (and have free slots for them) maybe add some more case fans. You could also try slapping a slot blower underneath the card.

That said, my case has like six fans, including a 25cm that covers most of the motherboard and all of the video card, and my GPU still runs at 60C under load.

Iriah

That's some fan.

Thanks again for your help Orem.

This is solved!