philman213

I think I know a fair bit about computers, hardware, and the like, but this one has really stumped me. I currently am running dual processors, two AMD Athlon MP 2.0GHz processors. I've had them for what must be a year or more now, and they have been working fine since I got them. However, now I am experiencing overheating issues.

Last night I had my first little scare, my computer must have overheated to the point of shutting off, or at least I thought. I checked inside and found that the power supply had died. I replaced it, but also checked the CPUs. The first one seemed fine, the second one however wasn't. There was a small black circle on the bottom of the CPU, it obviously had been running so hot that the poor thing had burned itself. I also took note at how little thermal grease was left on the CPUs. I'm now running the computer with the case open and a huge fan, bigger than the whole case itself blowing cool air into the computer.

I tried looking it, so in bootup I checked my PC health in the BIOS, and it said CPU #1 was running at about 45C, the second one running at 75-80C! I rebooted and went into windows and ran SiSoftware, and it found that CPU #1 was running at 37C, and CPU #2 was running at 47C.

After another reboot I see that my motherboard only detects one CPU running. I then take a look after windows loads at SiSoftware, and it doesnt detect a second processor either.

After some detailed looking at SiSoftware, it would appear the fan in CPU #2 no longer is running. SiSoftware only detected CPU #1's fan running and said nothing about CPU #2. This obviously would lead me to believe that the fan/heatsink combo on CPU #2 has died, and in the process I didnt realize it and ended up killing the second CPU.

Is my logic right? Did CPU #2 end up dieing, or did just the fan? How can I find out what really happened and how can I fix it?

I thought I should add that CPU #1 fan speed is running at 2900rpm, and the board temperature is at 27C. Is this a good speed for a CPU fan and is the temperature my motherboard is running at safe? I'd also of course like to know if 37C is a safe temperature for a CPU to run at.