CPU Overheating

[wasiu0607]

My CPU keeps overheating and I don't know what to do about it. I've cleaned the CPU fan and it still overheats now and then.

The temperture is at 52c for CPU and 37c for case. When I play games, the CPU goes to nearly 70c.

I have a Pentium 4 3.0E ghz with 768 MB ram. The CPU fan is stock BTW.

Can I increase the CPU fan speed? Or do I need to buy a new fan/replace the old one?

If so, please guide me through it step by step. Thanks a lot.

Chris Fisher.

 

[PC eye]

You came to right place to get information on how to cool down your cpu. Besides grabbing a can of compressed air to get all the dirt and dust out of your case and fans you may want to consider a new heat sink/fan combination that will "chill" your cpu temps right down. Having had some fun with cpus heating up and even some saying bye bye let's take a look at some options. http://www.sharkacomputers.com/cpucoolprod.html
http://www.bizrate.com/hardware_softwareunder60/products__keyword--cpu coolers.html
http://www.crazypc.com/products/cooling/cpu.htm
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=62
http://www.coolerguys.com/so42pe4.html
Some good advice can also be read at: http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htm

As you can see the list of cooling products can be extensive. With the stock HSF the fan could be bound up with dust and debris along with the thermal pad(preformed thermal compound) now starting to give away. If you clean the fan and see it running faster it's still in working order. If worn you could easily replace the stock or elect to look into a more effective cooler. With the thermal pad letting go you would have to reseat the HSF with a good compound like Artic Silver 5 or even look into the new Liquid Pro that has a metalic base over the silicon type. http://www.svc.com/coolab.html In fact the article seen at this link was first seen posted on this forum.

 

[wasiu0607]

Can you tell me what the purpose of the thermal paste is for? I skimmed through the CPU and found that the thermal paste is basically dry...

Also, how do I tell the difference between a good heatsink/fan and a bad one?

 

[Yasu]

Thermal paste is used to increase the, for lack of a better term, connection between the CPU and the HSF. If you don't use thermal paste then it will be harder for the heat to be transfered from the CPU to the HSF.

If you want to know which HSFs are good then just go around and read reviews about them. Newegg has user reviews which may be helpful to you, but I don't know of any other sites that give in depth reviews of HSFs. Two of the best that are available right now are the Zalman CNPS 9500 and the Thermaltake Big Typhoon(there's also a mini typhoon).

 

[PC eye]

The term for heat transfer from the cpu chip to the mounted heat sink is called "conductivity" much like something can be electrically conductive. When you have a good bond between the cpu and sink it is continuity to be added to that. For other reviews other then seen at a vendor's site you can look over a few links here to see if any model works for you.
http://www.heatsink-guide.com/
http://www.ap0calypse.com/showthread.php?t=2304
http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/swiftech_mcxc370/print.htm
http://www.heatsinkdatabase.com/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2001/09/17/hot_spot/index.html
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/dp-102_heatsink_review.php
http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/swiftech_mcxc370/index.shtml
http://www.tweakers.com.au/articles/cooling/cm_aero7/page1.asp
http://www.frostytech.com/25hsf_6.cfm
http://www.a1-electronics.net/Heatsinks/2005/7th/SilverStone_NT02_Oct.shtml
http://www.gruntville.com/reviews/heatsinks/xp_120/index.php
As well as reviews on HSFs you can even find a few on thermal compounds like the one seen at: http://compreviews.about.com/cs/cooling/a/aaTCompounds.htm

 

[wasiu0607]

Well since the thermal paste it all dried, Im guessing that is part of the reason why my CPU overheats... Can I just buy some cheap thermal paste and glue it together?

 

[PC eye]

If you want it to last you wouldn't an inferior cheapie but rather spend a few dollars more for some Artic Silver 5 in a small tube to have a good reseat. If the stock fan is still good the reseat will make the difference for the time being. The $25-40 option gets into real cooling to keep temps lowere then stock for an even longer duration. When you continue to heat a system by gaming or even OCing you want temps as low as you can get them. Here the simple reseat and working fan is essential right now however so you save the cpu from worse.

 

[Motoxrdude]

Yeah, getting good thermal compound is very important. Running crap compound doesnt that work to begin with, and just gets worse. I would go with AS5, very nice stuff.

 

[PC eye]

One cpu at this end almost cooked when the stock stuff let go after the first year of use. The temps shot up from about a 47C idle 51-52C load to 61C idle with the 73C temp reached causing a number of issues like sudden restarts. When I asked specifically for Artic Silver 5 at one retail store THEY KNEW just what it was. Surprisingly it was sold under Antec for the larger tube. But you knew it was AS5 in different packaging. Even AS3 is far better then some cheapie brand.

 

[wasiu0607]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've purchased AS5 so it should be coming in a few days. Just wondering, do I have to wipe out the dried thermal paste before I apply the new one? Also, when I apply the new thermal paste, how much do I apply, and do I apply the whole surface area of the CPU?

 

[Motoxrdude]

Take a dry paper towel and wipe away the old thermal compound from the heatsink. THen take a few cotton swabs and gently wipe away the old compound from the processor.

With the new compound, dont over do it. Since the compound is going to compress, if you have too much, it will smear off the processor and go everywhere on the chip. So just enough to cover then processor.

 

[PC eye]

That would usually be about the size of a small green pea on your dinner plate. Maybe just a hair over a bb to allow it to spread evenly when your HSF is set down evenly.

 

[wasiu0607]

Take a dry paper towel and wipe away the old thermal compound from the heatsink. THen take a few cotton swabs and gently wipe away the old compound from the processor.

With the new compound, dont over do it. Since the compound is going to compress, if you have too much, it will smear off the processor and go everywhere on the chip. So just enough to cover then processor.

i tried doing that but the paste is too hard and it's almost impossible to wipe away with cotton swab. And if i use paper towel, i don't want to over-rub it and leave marks on the processor.

Edit:
I have 1 more question. By how much will AS5 decrease my CPU temperture by?
It's normally at about 65C. Also, when I apply the thermal paste, do I apply it on the circular metal of the heatsink or the square CPU processor itself? Thank you.

 

[computermaineack]

i tried doing that but the paste is too hard and it's almost impossible to wipe away with cotton swab. And if i use paper towel, i don't want to over-rub it and leave marks on the processor.

Edit:
I have 1 more question. By how much will AS5 decrease my CPU temperture by?
It's normally at about 65C. Also, when I apply the thermal paste, do I apply it on the circular metal of the heatsink or the square CPU processor itself? Thank you.

You should use a small bit of rubbing alcohol on the cotton swab to remove the thermal compound...the higher the concentration, the better. 70% is alright, 90% is good, 99% is ideal. This will clean off the thermal compound, and will evaporate quickly.

Arctic Cooling claims that AS5 will decrease CPU temps by 3-15ºC.

As for putting it on, put it right on the processor.

 

[Christian Darrall]

can i just say heatsinks might come with the compound allready on it, amd certainly do, but not sure bout intel.

 

[PC eye]

All new heat sinks come with what is called a thermal pad which is nothing more then preformed thermal paste. There you simply pull off the thin plastic sheet covering it when going to use it. If you get a third party HSF without a pad on it which many do come that way you then buy a compound like Artic Silver 3, 5, the next number when it comes out or some other quality brand to see it is put on correctly. A good compound offers the best heat transfer ability.

 

[wasiu0607]

Ok I've cleaned the previous paste and applied AS5 as it says on the instruction. When I went to BIOS, my CPU cooled down from 60C to 48C. However, after a minute of starting up, it still auto-shuts down due to thermal event (Overheating). Now I am truely clueless regards to why it does that... Please help, thank you.

 

[Yasu]

You might want to buy a better HSF. Something like the Zalman CNPS9500 or the Thermaltake Big Typhoon. Any one of those would be much better than stock.

 

[wasiu0607]

You might want to buy a better HSF. Something like the Zalman CNPS9500 or the Thermaltake Big Typhoon. Any one of those would be much better than stock.

But this has never happened before. I mean I've been using the stock one for nearly 8 months and this is the first time I'm applying new thermal paste... I mean at least after I apply a better quality thermal paste, it will get me another 8+ months right? Im not overclocking or anything.

...Or have I fried my processor or something? But I can still get past windows and start applications...

 

[PC eye]

When the original pad went on a stock setup on that old Atholon XP3200+ the next step was to try one of the third party HSFs. The temps went down from a 61C at idle and upto 73C with a good load to 39C idle with 46C with a heavy load on it. But you may also have a Windows or memory issue if you are still not getting to the desktop normally. It wouldn't hurt to run a good memory tester like memtest.