PC CPU Overheating

Over the last few weeks, my PC fan has been running more heavily than usual. I wrote it off to the weather since it has been so hot and we don't have AC. I turned off my PC during a three day weekend away, and when I got back, I turned it back on, and went to mow the grass. When I got finished about two hours later, I came in, logged into windows, and immediately started getting CPU heat warnings as it was approaching 95C. Not sure what was going on, I turned it off, took it outside and cleaned it. It was dusty, but not too bad. Brought it back in, and it booted to heat warnings. I opened it up, felt the CPU cooler and it was cool to the touch. The air blowing out the back (it's one of those sealed water coolers) wasn't terribly warm. Eventually, though the pc shut down.

I've ordered a thermal paste cleaning kit and some more paste. My hope is that whatever is in there is just not making good contact. Why it would have taken almost two years to degrade, I have no idea. Any have any thoughts on what else I could check? I don't over clock, so I don't have any settings there that I could back off.

Should I take the CPU out to clean existing paste off? I am not sure how to do it safely. I doubt I still have any protective cover for all the pins if I did take it out, which is what i am most nervous of. Thanks!

Could it just be that the CPU temperature sensor is borked?

Try the new thermal paste and see what happens.

Yes, you should take the CPU out, get a bit of anti-static bag and/or foam so that the pins are protected and some alcohol to clean the top of the processor from the old thermal compound. Do the same for the heatsink and, if you're feeling confident, get a really fine emery paper and give the heatsink a new surface to contact the compound/CPU by gently rubbing it with the paper.

Wait, no, you don't need to take the processor out. Totally don't. You CAN, but every time you take it out and remount it in the socket, you run the risk of bending those teeny-tiny socket pins, and if you do that, it's usually new motherboard time. Those things are hard to salvage. You can take the cooler off the top, clean both it and the CPU, put new paste on, and then re-mount the cooler, all without ever taking the CPU out of the socket.

The fact that the CPU cooler is cool when you touch it is a big warning sign that it's not working... heat's not getting successfully transferred.

As far as *why* this can happen, the two most likely reasons are that a pin popped free on the motherboard, so that the cooler isn't held down properly, or else that the thermal compound degraded or dried out. Some of them will do that, but it usually takes five or more years, not just two.

If you buy one of the Arctic Silver 5 kits, they'll come with heatsink compound remover, a pair of bottles of chemicals that you can use to clean the old goop off the CPU. If the goop was a thermal pad that was stuck on the cooler, you may need to take a razor blade to it, in order to completely get it off. Play it by ear. You can also use 90% isopropyl alcohol.

Once you've got the old goop cleaned, the Arctic Silver website has a couple of videos on how to properly install the new compound. The overall best solution seems to be 'polishing' the compound in a super-thin, uniform layer over both the CPU and the cooler, putting a single line of compound down the middle, and using the cooler to smush it out flat. The thinner you can get the layer and have it be uniform, without air bubbles, the better. The videos on the Arctic Silver site, again, will show you where to place the line for best results; it's different based on whether you're using Intel or AMD.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check out arctic silvers website. I did order the AS 5 kit.

I'll also check to see if the heat sink popped out. I'm not doing anything until the paste arrives on Wednesday, but I'll give everything a good look before I start pulling things out. Now I hope the pc shut down in time to prevent the CPU from being damaged!

What kind of CPU is it?

I7. Looks like the Corsair H60 water cooler pump failed. I removed it, installed the thermal paste, reinstalled it and rebooted, and the CPU core temperature was almost immediately at 100°C.

I removed the cooler again, installed the stock cooler, and am now running around 37°C. I don't think the pump every worked right. The temperatures have never been great, but now that I see how it is cooling with the stock cooler, I'm almost positive this one was bad from the beginning, and eventually failed (in looking through my stuff, I now realize I built this last Summer, not two Summers ago).

Hrm. That's another H60 down. That's a shame.

While my significantly older H70 from their previous model line (and sourced from an entirely different OEM) is still going strong.

Thin_J wrote:

Hrm. That's another H60 down. That's a shame.

While my significantly older H70 from their previous model line (and sourced from an entirely different OEM) is still going strong.

I'm still at 100% (knock on wood) and at this point even if one does fail I've run them long enough that they arent any worse or better than other AIR and Water cooling units I've used. Its unfortunate that any of the other closed loop CPU water based coolers (Antec, Zalman) all look like they use the older ring based locking mechanism that Corsair started out with.. and those suck horribly to install.

Given how cheap the H60 is (I got one for $50 the other day) its really not that surprising they fail from time to time quickly

I tried water cooling once and decided I won't do it ever again. The closed loop might be convenient but the pump is still prone to fail much like the fan. I have a V1 on my old PC and my new one has a Mugen 3 ( I think it's a 3). The only problem I have with overheating is the 9800GTX on my old PC (downclocked and I think it helped) and the fact that some of the fans died (cats+cm690 = dead fans + sunk IO panel).

I think today's CPUs run cool enough to avoid water cooling (wasn't the case with the Prescott) . IMy 2500k is OCed to 4.6Ghz on air at about 43C idle. The room the PC is in is fairly warm but the AC is usually on this summer because of the daily 30-35C weather (It hits 30C before 9 am). I'm not sure what the load temperature but It doesn't bother me much. Soon the summer will be over and we'll have slightly cooler weather.The temperatures in winter are usually around 15-22C with the occasional 30C degree winter days . There are sometimes days the temperature drop bellow 10C but we don't let our apartment get that cold .

$50 if the pump breaks is a lot more than the $15 or so for a decent fan.

TheGameguru wrote:

Its unfortunate that any of the other closed loop CPU water based coolers (Antec, Zalman) all look like they use the older ring based locking mechanism that Corsair started out with.. and those suck horribly to install.

Can't really argue with that. The install on the H70 was not fun.