cpu hot and shutdown

[themaster1]

I have a problem with the asrock 970 pro3 rev. 1 , i'm not sure what's the problem.

* I have put a decent cpu cooler i believe from Noctua (with little thermal paste i admit because i don't have much.. for now)
model Nh-C12P SE14
* The cpu is a Phenom II 955 black edition (AM3 socket/4 cores/tdp 125 w) (bought second hand but certified in working order by the seller)

I can access the bios for about 5 min.
When i turn it on the temp of the cpu raise constantly for about 5 min up to ~ 90°C and then auto shutoff (to prevent damage i know).

- The cool n quiet option is enabled.
- No fan pluged into the 4pin cpu fan socket, i have put one on the 3pin cpu fan socket though.
- I use 4pin ATX 12V not 8pin(2x4 pin) (eps)

Could one of these explain the cpu high temp ?

Thanks for your help

[- wardog -]

Silly thought, I know, but check that you placed the fan blowing down on/through the cooler.

In the BIOS, are your fans set at Full On?

Take off any of the fan speed reducers Noctua may have provided with the cooler and retry.

Is the fan spinning at the prescribed RPMs?

[themaster1]

- the speed is set to full on
- fan spinning like it should ~1200 rpm

I'm not sure but i think it may be related to the 4pin cpu fan socket i think i will have to put a fan with 4 pins, will try tomorrow and report. the fan provided with the cooler is a 3 pins (thus no pwm)

[parsec]

You should be able to see the fan's speed on the same screen as the temperature display.

The three pin CPU fan header may be matched/based on the speed of the main four pin CPU fan's speed, and with nothing connected to that header, who knows what speed it will be running at. The fan on your cooler has a max speed of 1200 RPM, which again should be checked in the Hardware Monitoring screen.

That cooler is supplied with thermal paste, so not having any implies you bought the cooler second hand as well, or used it before now.

The two most likely causes for your issue are, the CPU fan is not spinning or is at a very low speed, or the cooler itself is not mounted correctly.

[themaster1]

- the cooler is mounted correctly (i have ensured this, twice), the cooler is in contact with the cpu.Some thermal paste has been applied, not great quality but still...
- the case is open so i can see the fan spinning and the cooler is a re-use of my current pc not "second hand"

I'll keep you posted on this 4pin fan thing, hopefully this is the culprit

[- wardog -]

And get a proper amount of TIM paste on there.

Depending on how the TIM was packaged and how old it was, "i don't have much" tells me it's been around awhile, it may have dried out and in the process of drying it may not have dispensed/spread out between the juncture enough that as it is now it's too thick in application and or little coverage, which would present itself in the building of temps as you describe.

[parsec]

- the cooler is mounted correctly (i have ensured this, twice), the cooler is in contact with the cpu.Some thermal paste has been applied, not great quality but still...
- the case is open so i can see the fan spinning and the cooler is a re-use of my current pc not "second hand"

I'll keep you posted on this 4pin fan thing, hopefully this is the culprit

Usually, less is more with thermal compound, as in to much is worse than to little. The quality of the compound will not cause the overheating you are getting.

A simple test for proper CPU cooler mounting is to grasp it carefully and slowly see if you can twist it. If it moves easily, it's loose. I mention this because some CPU cooler's mounting on AMD boards is not that good.

Are you using the ASRock AXTU program? That lets you change the speed of any fans connected to the board when in Windows, as well as check their speed. The Noctua fan used on your cooler has a very low starting voltage, meaning it will spin up easily, but may be running at low RPM.

If the fan is running at all, I can't see the CPU overheating that fast. It must be the lack of thermal paste.

[ASRock TSD - Emily]

Dear all,

Due to CPU is working at full speed under BIOS, CPU temperature under BIOS is more than the temperature under OS.

And the CPU temperature will increase more if you spend more time to browse the BIOS setup.
It is a normal behaviar.

In normal situation, system won't auto shutdown under BIOS.
Please kindly refer to below suggestions to try again.
1. Please spread enough thermal grease on the CPU.
2. Increase Chassis fan to try again.

Thanks!

Have a nice day
ASRock TSD
Emily

[Rale]

- the cooler is mounted correctly (i have ensured this, twice), the cooler is in contact with the cpu.Some thermal paste has been applied, not great quality but still...
- the case is open so i can see the fan spinning and the cooler is a re-use of my current pc not "second hand"

[M] Noctua NH-C12P and Noctua NH-C12P SE14 CPU Cooler Review
Temp delta is 40-50*C for your fan at ~130W, with ambient(room/case) temperature 22*C...
^{If you have a room temp is 40-50 degrees, well HERE'S your problem )))}

Radiator base is flat? (Some Thermalright have had this problem... but not Noctua)
Is radiator hot too?
Fan blowing on the radiator or pulls air from it?
The sealed end of the heatpipes facing up or side and not down?
(Sometimes wrong layout can give a difference of 5-10*C)

[themaster1]

Well it turns out the cooler wasn't in contact when the mobo was placed in vertical position.I've managed to fix that, will it last, only god knows..
The cooler has a flat base by the way

the temps i get:
mobo: 36-48°C
cpu: 45-60°C, cool n quiet enabled
cpu usage: 15%
values obtained with psensor on ubuntu

I got the feeling that i will have to get a better cooler if i want to overclock a little, probably one with a copper base + better thermal paste

Well at least now i know everything works (cpu, mobo, ram) which was the goal

Bad news is the auto fan speed don't seem to work as advertised but i haven't tested extensively, for now i've put a 7V LNA resistance so the fan max speed is ~900rpm