Insanely High Temperatures

spiRos21r · Post by **spiRos21r** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:21 pm

Hello all..

I've got a really big problem as i get REALLY high temps lately...
I mean my cpu goes to 75-80 Celcius degrees when i'm not really doing something just surfing on the net with 2-3% of cpu usage and 50-55 Celcius degrees internal temp.. When i play a game after 10-15 minutes my pc shuts down and when i turn it on again it says it had to be shut down because of a thermal problem(cpu gets 90+ degrees and internal temp 60+ when i play a game)..

It's not a BIOS problem since i've updated it today..

I have an Intel 3.4GHz Prescott processor with the stock fan and a rear fan...
My first thought was to change the cpu heatsink and fan but i figured it might be a different problem since the internal temp is too high too..

What's your advice?

Ayah · Post by **Ayah** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:32 pm

You're a bit brief with the details.
How many fans in the rig total? sizes? direction
Rest of the rig?

spiRos21r · Post by **spiRos21r** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:38 pm

I've only got 1 rear fan 90mm and intel's stock fan.. I've got a geforce 6600 graphics card, 512mb ram, an intel D915GAV motherboard...
Oh and my cpu is NOT overclocked...

The weird thing is i have this pc for 6-7 months and only this week it started having these problems...

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:48 pm

is the intake blocked off or something? Have you changing anything physically about your system. Maybe your heatsink is loose?

Ayah · Post by **Ayah** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:50 pm

Is there dust?

spiRos21r · Post by **spiRos21r** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:54 pm

I didn't change anything and i my heatsink isn't loose..
I cleaned it the other day but not about the processor fan... Could dust on the fan cause so much temp rise?

Ayah · Post by **Ayah** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:21 pm

spiRos21r wrote:I didn't change anything and i my heatsink isn't loose..
I cleaned it the other day but not about the processor fan... Could dust on the fan cause so much temp rise?

Dust on/in the heatsink can cause turbulence, reduce airflow and other horrible horrible things.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:31 pm

One 92 mm case fan is generally not enough for a P4 3.4 Prescott (aka heat pump) and a 6600. I'm surprised it was fine before, but maybe it runs fast and manages to squeak by.

I would heavily recommend you take a look at the intake air paths into your case and annihilate anything that might be blocking them. Any kind dust needs to be gone, filters if present have to be washed out, any kind of obstruction in general is bad. Lack of fresh, cool air combined with high heat output of your components is what's driving your case temperature so high. CPU temp can only follow suit.

Elixer · Post by **Elixer** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:31 pm

What's the state of the airflow in your case? Namely, what case, fans, power supply are you using? Don't tell me you're using one of those 10 year old flimsy cases that's only way to remove hot air is through the power supply.

spiRos21r · Post by **spiRos21r** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:47 pm

It was the dust...
I did a quick clean now and you can't imagine how much dust the heatsink had...
The temps are still high but from 80 degrees it dropped to 55.. I'll clean it throroughly later and i'll put another fan on the case so the internal temp is kept at low levels...
Also all that noise my cpu used to make is gone now...

Thank you all very much for your help...

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:48 am

The Dust Monster strikes again......the worst thing about it is how gradually it comes on. If your CPU fan is thermally controlled, the fan speed gradually rises to compensate. You might think summer temps are responsible. Or your CPU temps just gradually rise. Maybe you don't pay close attention.....the end result is a hot, noisy computer.

Most people around here will tell you to just clean more frequently. I like to trap the dust before it enters the computer. Cleaning a filter is easier than cleaning out the whole case. Here's my latest case filter. A filter setup for a negative pressure case is harder to set up, but still possible.

Nudel · Post by **Nudel** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:02 pm

this may be a silly question, and slightly off topic, but how do you clean a computer from dust exactly? I've heard some use compressed air?

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:10 pm

I'm too cheap even for compressed air, so I just close my eyes and puff air myself.

Dust under a CPU fan can be quite insidious. The entire case could be nearly dust-free at first glance, but underneath the CPU fan is a solid layer of dust felt. I haven't had any such dust problems ever since I got into silent computing, though. None of my CPU heatsinks even have a fan, so dust can't hide underneath it. The lower airflows greatly reduce the rate at which dust accumulates compared to stock.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:28 pm

Compressed air is recomended. Here in sweden, a can costs just about 10-15$ (transformed to dollars) and will last quite some time if you don't use it overly often.

Just start your vacum cleaner with a clean nozzle (no furry things inside the computer, please!), hold it above the heatsink or the place you want to clean, and shoot short bursts of compressed air. The dust will "explode" into the air and get succed into the vacum cleaner. This way you avoid getting it everywhere where it weren't, and also not so much in your eyes

androgeny · Post by **androgeny** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:02 am

Just make sure to keep your fans from rotating when you blast them with the compressed air.

Begin urban PC myth:

Typical PC user with a typical desktop system buys some compressed air to clean his case. He opens it up and sprays air at everything that looks dusty, especially the fans. The user finishes, closes his case, and is quite proud of his computer literacy and DIY acumen.

The user turns on his power and is greeted to a horrible grating noise. Apparently, in blowing the compressed air directly at his fans and letting them rotate freely, he damaged his fan bearings.

End myth.

I was told this story early enough in my PC building hobby to always have a small screwdriver or some other fan-stopping device on hand when using compressed air, so I have no idea if this is even possible.

I would advise against blowing out the dust. Your breath contains a lot of moisture, and blowing hard enough to dislodge dust may also send saliva onto your motherboard.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:36 am

Begin urban PC myth:

Do you actually know anyone this has happened to (ie compressed air broke his fan)? Cos it seems kind of flaky to me; after all, the fans raison d'etre is to rotate freely.

Best thing for dust is to vacuum it out like Ackelind suggested, although be careful because vacuum cleaners pick up a lot of static which could zap your comp.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:44 am

It's not a myth....using compressed air to spin bearings easily doubles their max designed rpm range. Sometimes a ball bearing cage can even break, causing the bearing to fly apart. Computer fan bearings are very small, and easily damaged. Never spin up a fan with compressed air.......IMHO.

breunor · Post by **breunor** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:53 am

Just use short bursts of air, not long continuous streams. You can put your finger on the fan to prevent it from spinning too. I expect that the other issue is that the compressed air is pushing on just 1 side of the fan, rather than evenly on all sides, twisting the blade as it spins. This would cause undue wear I think.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 10:20 am

the funny thing about prescott is, that it does well under insane temps.

i mean, the chip sux, we all know that. I had to say it.

Well here goes options as I see it:
1. You need to professionally clean the hs and chip using the proper alcohol several times in a row or something that I found works amazingly well, the Arctic Clean stuff.

2. you need to get a better thermal compount like Arctic silver 5. (no, im not her to plug AS products, but if they work perfectly over others, I must say so)

3. The case has no intake flow, or so reduced that you arent noticing. if you have say a 15 CFM fan on the rear, and 3 square inches of space in the case total of open space, you arent pushing its cfm rating. A fan moves FASTER if you choke its source! (it's doing less work and so spins freely in its vacuum. people disagree with me but try it with paper and a small fan) really, a swap to an antec SLK3000 series is what I suggest for you. cheap case, lots of air, no resonance.

That and new thermal compound will open up the cooling. old cases are terrible. I have so many in my garage, when i look at them again nowadays, i wonder how dumb everyone was back then! (3-4 years ago)