windows 7 - CPU overheats when display turns off
2014-07
M4tchB0X3r
Since about a week I’ve noticed that my CPU heats up very badly as soon as the display turns off.
I can't find any suspicious processes when I resume, but, if I leave the display off for more than 20 minutes, the CPU reaches 82 degrees Celsius. It doesn’t get higher than that even if I leave it longer, but it’s bad enough, right?
This happens with the fan on at full blast.
Otherwise I can get such temperatures only if I play BF4 for a while on a hot day.
So my first thought was it’s some evil coin mining or some other malicious piece of work. But thorough scans (QVMII, Bitdefender, Avira and other engines) show no suspicious results. HijackThis also comes out clean.
Idle temps with full fan and display on are around 38 degrees C.
The machine is only about 2 months old and the specs are:
OS: Win7 Ultimate 64Bit
MB: ASRock 990FX Killer
CPU: AMD FX™ 8320 Eight-Core
RAM: 2x Corsair 4 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM
GPU: ATI Readon HD 4800 (for now ;) )
No overclocking due to stock fans.
I haven’t found any decent tools to log processes while the display turns off (no hibernate).
I’m at my wits' end; any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
PS: I know there are a ton of threads about overheating CPUs, and I have read most of them, but I have found nothing where it happens only when the display turns off.
UPDATE:
After using Sysinternals i noticed that the logitech SetPoint.exe is constantly using 5-7% with some 20% spikes of CPU usage. After investigating this exe a bit further i found this thread SetPoint 6.61.15 x64 Windows 7 overheating aka. overload CPU when display is off
Turns out this bug has been around for quite some time but there was a recent update which seems to solve the problem.
EliadTech
Some softwares that utilize your computer's idle time (mostly I've seen Anti-Viruses scans your computer when idle).
Try shutting down your AV and monitor it with Sysinternals Process Explorer.
Once this utility is up, leave your computer until you hear your fan run faster, then check the CPU graph (by putting the mouse on it) to see who used the most CPU.
Jakke
There are a lot of programs that start working when your computer is going idle, when your power-management kicks in... A few ideas are Boinc (e.g. seti@home), file indexer, anti-malware, ... most of these things won't be recognised by your AV software but can cause tremendous stress on your computer.
Use some process monitoring software that stays in the background, check your eventlogs for suspicious messages while your PC is idling, etc. There are many tools, like SysInternals Process Explorer, Lasso Process Monitor and many many more. Google is your friend ;)
Tim Alexander
So I have had a look at this post and am still somewhat in the mire. My computer is:
CM Stack Case, Tagan 900W PSU, Gigabyte K8NSNXP, 2 Gig Corsair something or other RAM, AMD 64 X2 4400+, 3 HDD (2x 200GB and 1x 120GB), ATI HD 3850 AGP.
It has moved house recently an then sat unused for 3 months in a garage. Since then I took it out and set it going. Was running windows update when it shutdown on its own. Turned back on and pulled some plugs out of the bank thinking I had put too much load through the multiplug. Same result. Installed speedfan and was just in time to see the temp rise to just under 100C!!! (on the Core variable, which I believe is the CPU from previous experience with Speedfan on this mobo).
Decided it must be the heatsink. spent an age degunking it from a hefty layer of dust, likewise for the other fans. Took it off, cleaned of paste and reapplied/reseated it. All seemed to be going well last night doing a virus scan and updates. Today however the problem has reappeared. I am worried it might be something more insipid than just poor thermal contact between the cooler and chip. Could the chip be damaged and thus overheating or am i jumping to conclusion? Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
William Hilsum
As you have narrowed the problem down to overheating on the CPU, most likely the fan/heatsink became damaged during your move.
Devices with moving parts such as the hard drive and fans are most vulnerable to vibrations and problems that can happen when moving - I have seen it happen loads of times to the hard drive and it is rare to get damage to the fan without getting damage to the hard drive - but not impossible.
Just replace it and cross your fingers. This advice is based on what you have said and I can't really say anything else without seeing the system - but if the CPU was at 100°c, this is what I think is wrong.