CPU overheated

[jmak]

Dear all,

I am having CPU overheat problem recently. I am using AMD XP1700 CPU and AsusA7V333 motherboard. When I rebooted the machine after running it for 10mins or so, I got warning from the motherboard saying the CPU tempature was too high (over 80oC).

My computer is 20months old and I didn't have this overheat problem until recently.

So I suspected the fan on top of the heat sink might have died. I opened up the case, but found the fan was still working. However, there is a layer of dust deposited between the fan and the heat sink. I suspect this layer of dust may be the cause of the problem. I attempted to take out the fan and clear up the dust, but have no luck so far.


The fan is tightly mounted on the heat sink with four metallic brackets, one at each corner of the fan. I simply could not remove those brackets. I didn't dare to use too much force as I didn't want to damage brackets.

What is the correct way to take out those mounting brackets?


Thanks


JM

[Darthtanion]

If there are screws, then you should be able to remove the fan. But either way, get some canned air and CLEAN THAT SUCKER OUT! Your processor will thank you for it. :)

[danman]

To get an 1700 to 80C would be caused by something much more serious than dust on the cooling fan. The Ideal operating temp for the XP's is in the high 30's to mid 40's when at full load, so your 40C above where you should be. The max die temp on that processor is 80/85 degress C. By having the computer get that hot you can cause instant damage to the computer. A little Dust between the fan and the heatsink doent cause that much of a heat spike. Your system would also be very unstable. Being that you have a VIA motherboard, that 80 degree reading may mot even be correct. Please give some more detail on your setup and anything you have changed recently.

[Wiggo]

Originally Posted by danman

To get an 1700 to 80C would be caused by something much more serious than dust on the cooling fan. The Ideal operating temp for the XP's is in the high 30's to mid 40's when at full load, so your 40C above where you should be. The max die temp on that processor is 80/85 degress C. By having the computer get that hot you can cause instant damage to the computer. A little Dust between the fan and the heatsink doent cause that much of a heat spike. Your system would also be very unstable. Being that you have a VIA motherboard, that 80 degree reading may mot even be correct. Please give some more detail on your setup and anything you have changed recently.

Sorry but the version Anal probe that came with that old mobo (which would usually show higher than normal temps) plus the layer of dust between the fan and heatsink would very likely show those those sort of temps.

jmak, definately clean that HSF out and get rid of any other dust bunnies in the case (case and HSF cleanin' should be done every 6months at the most).

[jmak]

I managed to take out the fan. The dust contamination was worse than I thought before. Lots of dust were sticked on the underside of the fan and on the top of the heat sink.

After cleaning, I turned on the computer, ran Ulead Video Studio for an hour and rebooted the machine. This time the motherboard didn't report any problem and the CPU temperature was reported to be 62oC.

The dust cleaning seems to have solved (at least partly) the problem.

Since Wiggo suggested that the temperature measured by the motherboard might not be accurate, I did further testing this morning.

I turned on the computer this morning (after a full night rest) and went straight to the motherboard temperature monitoring before Windows was up running. The CPU temperature was reported to be 36oC and the motherboard temperature was reported to be 28oC. The room temperature this morning was probably around 20oC.

I then touched the case panel above the transformer. It was mildly warm. Since the CPU is located just a few inches below the transformer, I am not too sure the motherboard temperature is wrong or it is the transformer problem?

What are your thought?

Wiggo, were there a lot of user reports on suspicious temperature measurements by the Asus AV7 333 motherborad before?

JM

[Mista K6]

Well, dunno if this applies to you but it recently happened to me. I was fooling around trying to see which fans I could take out of my system, and I ended up taking out too many and really frying the heatsink and CPU (too hot to touch hot). After that the CPU would get buggy in games (glitchy slow down) unless I ran both fans on it at full blast. I had an inkling it was the TIM, which was the original stuff installed by Dell. Luckily, my friend had a tube of Arctic Silver 5, so I took off the heat sink, and yah, some of the TIM was like, stuck on there, almost burnt :?: . So, I rubbed it all off using isoprophyl alcohol, lapped my HS a bit to get the rest of the TIM off it, put it back on, and no problem, even with both fans running on low. Might consider trying that with your HSF. : peace2: Mista K6