to hot cpu

[zeppelin]

I have a problem with the temp of my cpu. It is a p4 3,2 on an asus p5gd2. I have a 120mm casefan located at the rear of my cabinet and a brand new Gigabyte Rocket cooler on the cpu.

When I read about people talkin about their cpu they say idle - 30C and load - 50C. But my cpu NEVER goes under 40C and is often 65C when playing (ie Need For Speed UG2).

Lately the computer has crashed due to very hi temps even though the cpu fan is running 4000RPM.

I have thought myself if maybe the case fan sucks the air away from the cpu fan. But when i disconnected the casefan the temp went sky high.

Has anybody got an idea of what could be the issue???


Thanks

[sr4470]

Re: to hot cpu

Use Arctic Silver 5 as a thermal material between the cpu and heatsink. and secondly, that cooler is a poor choice - a Zalman 7000Cu or 7700Cu would give better cooling performance (you can get the AlCu versions for less money).

[gerard]

Re: to hot cpu

Perhaps you guys can help a bit here as well.

I have a AMD AthlonXP 3200+ (barton) on an Asus A7N8X-E motherboard in a Coolermaster stacker. It is fitted with an Antex TruePower 430W PSU, 80mm extract fan on top of case, 12cm Thermaltake Thunderblade at the rear (near CPU) and 2 x 12cm Thunderblades at the front. All fans in stock locations. Fans controlled by a Vantec nexus fan controller.

The cooler is a Thermaltake Tower112 (copper heatpipe thing) with one of Thermaltake's 9cm fans blowing air upward (from bottom of case up to extraction fan on PSU).

CPU temps at idle at 40C to 42C, on a lucky day it's 39C. Heatsink is cool to the touch. Can't feel any heat on the section on the CPU. These temps seem to apply irrespective of room temperature, and this room has hit well on 40C thanks to this darn house's insulation (that was on a 38C day down here in South Africa).

I get the same temps with standard thermal grease as well as silver compound.

I got the same temps when I removed the fan from the Tower112 and allowed the case fans to do the cooling on their own. Turning off the machine in this situation indicated to me that there is indeed thermal transfer to the heatsink as it rapidly increased in temperature.

What is even more interesting in this setup is the load temperature. Maximum so far of 44C under load. That's a mere 2-3C above idle temps!

Does this sound like a) a faulty BIOS, die temp sensor and/or board, b) one amazing heatsink, or c) the fact that the Tower112 setup covers a large area on the back of the motherboard thereby holding heat against the underside of the board and CPU (but the board does not feel warm)?

By the way, this is the 2nd AthlonXP and Asus motherboard setup this year. Something shorted out in the previous setup, but I have replaced both items with the very same thing (thanks Mr. Bank Manager, will pay you back sometime). In the previous setup combination, the same story applied.

I initially thought it was the Antec power supply. That has 2 thermal controlled fans, but it sux. They will only start pushing serious air once the PSU decides it is over 45C. I currently have an old high-flow 80mm fan glued to the exhaust of the PSU and it is definitely sucking out loads of air. The section around the PSU is now cool, but CPU idle temps are still 39-42C.

The temps are however well within safe range, but I can't figure out why it doesn't fluctuate with cool ability. Even on a sub-20C day I am still sitting at 40-42C.

[sr4470]

Re: to hot cpu

Well Bartons do run hot, especially the 3200. Those are good temps for a Barton Athlon XP at 2.2ghz. The heatsink and fans are obviously doing the job well. Maybe a fan blowing across the heatsink from the side will lower temps. My athlon 64 varies between 28C idle up to 57C load.

[gerard]

Re: to hot cpu

Yeah, they run hot indeed. With the stock heatsink in this case, the CPU fan was overpowered by the 12cm directly next to it. Temps were 50-55 at idle. Not wasn't good at all.

What concerns me is that, before I got the coolermaster stacker, I had this item in a horrible mid-tower case where the power supply was right on the heatsink/fan combo, and I blasted that with a household extractor fan and idle temps were close to 30C and would be 34C or so without the massive extractor fan. The only difference I can spot, really, is that in the old crap case there was a cut-out at the back of the 'board tray and in the coolermaster case with the thermaltake heatsink there is no airflow at the back of the motherboard.

That's probably what is causing a heat trap of some kind. I can vouch for there being a difference in temps if you cool the back of the motherboard as well.

I can't replace this machine in the next 3-4 years, so I'm concerned with any heat stress it might be going through or could possibly go through. My old K6-2 eventually packed it in after 5 years, so this one must be kept in check.

I'm paranoid, ain't I? Considering only a 3C difference between idle and load temps, I should be well happy. :)

[gerard]

Re: to hot cpu

Hmmm... I'm beginning to think my diagnosis is correct. Coolermaster make a massive crossflow fan for the Stacker case which is positioned just right to flow air under the board. :)

[sr4470]

Re: to hot cpu

Well as long as it stays under 50C it'll be fine...My A64 system is with the side off and no case fans, so i can probably get lower temps if i put in some 80mm fans and closed the side.

[gerard]

Re: to hot cpu

Guess what? At 9AM this morning I was messing around and ... my case temps dropped to as low as 24C, motherboard temp to 21C and CPU temp hit an all-time low of 37-38C! This possibly in a room measuring about 19C. First time in setup that I use CPUIdle with any success. Never made a dent in the temps before in this case.

My problem with the screensaver jerking around the screen, and the problem with my CPU temps rising when the welcome screen or screenlock was on, has all been resolved.

OK, right now we're back up to about 40C again, but at least the temps don't climb when at the welcome screen.

Guess what it was? A small little application from Logitech called KEM.exe. I need the Logitech stuff for my dinovo bluetooth desktop stuff. Whenever the screen locked, KEM.exe would start to consume all available CPU time. Only found it when I became determined to get the screensaver to work correctly. Killed processes and then put task manager to show the amount of cpu time each process consumed. Got a baseline before locking, then let the problem happen. Next thing I see, KEM.exe is the only one that increased significantly in CPU time usage. Lowering priority of KEM.exe solves the problem.

What a crock. :p Anyway, got Logitech Setpoint 2.22 and whaddyaknow KEM.exe is no longer in the package. :p