cooling - CPU temperatures high on new build after gaming
2013-08
Reznor
My friend had a problem with his computer a while back. His games were crashing, even within the menus. He was stumped as to what the problem was, so I posted on here requesting help. He found out the day later, when his computer would start up but wouldn't display anything on the screen. His video card must have came screwed up. So, he got a replacement.
Now, there's a new problem. His temperatures, which were acceptable before, are now insanely high. His GPU temperature runs 70-80c, which is understandable considering he's running his games maxed out, but the real problem here is his processor and motherboard temperatures. All four of his cores are running at 88-90c after coming out of a game. His motherboard temperature was also 70c at one point.
In terms of cooling, his case should definitely be adequate. He has an Antec Twelve Hundred. He's using stock fans. The cable management in his case is very good; better than average. He's using the stock heatsink with the processor too, but note, it was fine before the replacement, so it isn't like there's some inherent problem. He has checked the case too. Everything's fine! No cables in the way. The heatsink is seated properly. He turned his case fans up to high, as well, but the temperatures are persisting.
Could the processor be overheating due to running games maxed out? Any ideas?
Note: These temperatures are only during/immediately after gaming. The temps are completely normal otherwise.
Jay_Booney
My first course of action would be to physically check the heatsink. If it's a stock Intel cooler, they can be a pain to get secured as it requires some force to get the clips to click into place. If that fails, try removing the thermal paste and reapply some Arctic Silver or other decent branded grease. Otherwise, get a new cooler. Make sure all the case fans are functioning properly and physically feel the airflow with your hand in the case.
Head into the BIOS and make sure that you select "load optimized defaults" to let the system detect the appropriate settings and to make sure that the CPU is running at its intended frequency.
Other than this, you could have a faulty part from CPU, motherboard or PSU.
Good luck on diagnosing it!
mickburkejnr
Something similar happened to my computer. I am running ATi X1650 Sapphire (I don't care if it's old, it does a job) and it would crash the game a lot of the times after about half an hour. But after this the whole PC was slow. What I done to fix the problem was the following:
1) Removed the heatsink, used a vacuum to clean any dust and removed the thermal compound.
2) Remove the thermal compound of the CPU, and re-applied it and then re-set the heatsink.
At this point, I noticed that surrounding my CPU, was the 800W PSU and below the CPU the graphics card (which is passive cooled. So it has a heatsink as big as the Titanic). I then mounted a large fan to the back of my case, and a fan to the front of my case. The front fan blows cold air in, while the rear takes it out.
The moral is, check the air flow. As you have replaced the graphics card, I wonder if it's emitting extra heat inside the case.
Also, turn the games down a bit. I'm sure most people would rather their games to run instead of being all laggy and crashy :)
Chris Nava
Make sure the fans are pulling air in the front and pushing it out the back. If they are fighting each other the air isn't exiting the case properly.
Matias Nino
Everest Ultimate is suddenly telling me that the CPU temperature (and core temps) for my E6850 Core 2 Duo is 72 degrees Celsius. When I stress-test the machine, the temp goes up to 91 degrees and the CPU actually throttles. System remains stable though.
For over a year now, my CPU has run very cool (40's) with a large commercial copper heatsink/fan that I bought separately.
To top it off, I removed the cover of the box and felt the cpu heatsink and it wasn't even warm.
Is there such a thing as a CPU temp sensor showing the wrong readings?
Any tips would help.
UPDATE #1
Temp is also just as high in BIOS. So that leads me to believe it's a CPU seating issue (even though I used thermal paste to seat it two years ago when I built the machine)
UPDATE #2 Well. I removed the heatsink and cleaned off the original thermal paste (which was somewhat crusty). I polished the surface, re-applied some new paste, and reseated the heat sink. After powering it up, there was no noticeable change in the temp - ideling at 74. Ran the stress test and it went up to 94 degrees before being 100% throttled. I let it sit at 94 degrees for 20 minutes straight and the computer didn't even flinch. I then immediately shut it off and opened the case and felt around. The heatsink was completely cold to the touch. Even the copper rods were cold. The area near contact with the CPU was slightly warm but not hot to touch.
Then I ran REALTEMP, which is supposedly more accurate and it told me the CPU was at 104 degrees. (LOL)
At this point, I'm thinking no doubt the cpu's sensor is wrong. Sidenote: the BIOS has the latest version so no option to flash there. Reverting hasn't been known to help from what I've read.
What pisses me off is the false temps force the CPU to artificially throttle from 3GHz down to 2GHz and my CPU fan is cranking at full force all the time.
Should I call intel and tell them to send me another E6850?
SOLUTION UPDATE
I switched the processor out with another one and got the same obscene temperatures with the new processor followed by a heatsink that was cool to touch. My suspicion in the heatsink was suddenly renewed. I swapped it out with the stock heatsink/fan and lo and behold the temperatures returned to the normal 35C-50C. Even though the thermal paste was visibly flattened out every time I removed it, it looks like the heatsink was still not pressing hard enough on the CPU to effectively conduct the heat. The heatsink is a Masscool 8Wa741, which screws into a standard position on a mount on the back of the MOBO. Only thing I can surmise after 2 years of use was that, over time, the heatsink pressure on the CPU gave way until the heat began to be ineffectively conducted.
Lessons learned:
- Intel CPU's can run SUPER HOT (upwards of 95C) and still be stable.
- Heatsink's need to be VERY firmly pressed against the CPU to conduct heat.
hanleyp
If the fan is very cool and the processor is reporting very hot, I would first suspect the connection between the fan/heatsink and the processor package. Make sure the heatsink is properly seated with thermal paste.
Let's get some terminology straight from Lavalys' KB:
- CPU Diode or Core temperature is the temperature measured across a temperature sensitive diode on the processor die. The most common implementation uses a temperature sensor part external to the processor with the CPU Thermal Diode Anode (+) and Cathode (-) connections to it.
- CPU Temperature is the temperature measured by a remote temperature sensors part on the motherboard near the CPU.
It is possible for these temperature sensors to fail although I haven't seen it personally.
Try installing a different processor and see if the readings are still incorrect. This can help point to where the problem lies. If the readings are OK, I would suspect your processor, if they are off as well, then suspect the parts on the board.
Unfortunately, if it isn't the heatsink, there is no easy user fix other than replacing the offending part.
sYnfo
It could be a bad sensor, but I wouldn't wager on it. Check layer of conduction paste, seems like that could be the problem.
alex
Just to be on the safe side, try using a different app to check CPU temperature. You could try using SpeedFan or, even better, just check it from BIOS. If both the SpeedFan and BIOS temperatures are as high as the ones shown by Everest, then it's probably either a faulty sensor (I've had a few of them on an ASUS motherboard) or something to do with the thermal paste, as sYnfo suggested.
dee bee
while defective sensing components are not unheard of, they are certainly not common. I'd be looking at the mechanical connection between the heatsink and the cpu.
is it possible that you have too much heat transfer agent installed?
Mundi
Once you have lm-sensors installed, make sure you run sensors-detect from command line, which will detect your sensors and give you a more thorough read out.
Another handy piece of code, is a coretemp script
function coretemp {
/usr/bin/clear;
while : ; do
/usr/bin/sensors | /bin/grep ^Core | while read x; do
/usr/bin/printf '% .23s\n' "$x";
done; /bin/sleep 1 && /usr/bin/clear; done; }
Then you just type 'coretemp' into your terminal and it gives you realtime stats on each of your cores.
slhck
I think your temperature sensor is wrong. As all third party software uses the same sensor of the board they all show the same result.
You already checked the heat sink and processor immediately after shutdown and found it's cool. Check once again to assure it.
If the wrong sensor boosts up the speed of the processor fan, the fan noise becomes uncomfortable. You can overcome this by installing SpeedFan. It can reduce the speed. For this to work correctly you should disable the automatic fan speed control of your CPU from the BIOS setup. After disabling it, reboot again and run SpeedFan. Reduce the speed to 50%. This will put your PC in a silent state.
You can also check if the CPU temperature rises while you reduce speed to 50%. If not, definitely the readings from the thermal sensors are wrong.
naps1saps
If your temperature reading is immediately over 50C or 60C in the BIOS from a cold boot, a sensor is definately defective somewhere. Even running without a heatsink from cold boot wouldn't get that hot that fast.