Cpu Overheating

luckylucky

My Pc shut off today and I'm pretty sure it had to do with the Pentium 4 CPU overheating. Got some computer voice saying something about overheating that I couldn't quite make out when I powered up again. I have an Asus p4c-800e deluxe motherboard and after the crash i re-installed Asus Probe. At one point it was over 90 degrees C :eek: .
I've opened up the pc and cleared out some of the dust. Even now with it lying idle it's at 76 deg C, I also checked the temperature in the BIOS Setup and it was also in the 70's

I'm not really that hardware savvy, but here's some thoughts on what i might need to do.
1. My PC Case is probably the crappiest part of my PC, I don't even have a chassis fan, so I think a new decent case is in order?
2. Should I invest in a new heatsink?
3.I've seen products that are placed on top of the cpu to cool it, worth getting something like that?

Any help would be great.

zilog_jones

It's generally recommended you have two chassis fans - one at the front and one on the back, both blowing in the same direction to make airflow through the PC. If your case is only designed for 80mm fans, I'd highly recommend getting a better one with 120mm fan holes. I got this for my new PC last year - nothing special but it does the job and I have no trouble with heat (though I don't have a stinky heaty P4 ).

If by any chance you've taken the heatsink off your processor, you *MUST* clean the surfaces and re-apply the thermal compound (the grey/white crap between the CPU and heatsink) before putting it back on. I know someone who broke their laptop by not doing that - there isn't a proper connection between the metal surfaces on their own as they are not really that flat (imperfections and stuff).

luckylucky

zilog_jones wrote:

If by any chance you've taken the heatsink off your processor, you *MUST* clean the surfaces and re-apply the thermal compound (the grey/white crap between the CPU and heatsink) before putting it back on.

Cheers for the info. I must confess I never heard of this thermal compund stuff before searching the internet for info on cpu overheating. I originally installed the motherboard, along with the cpu and heatsink myself 2 years ago, sure this is going to sound real real stupid, but was I meant to apply this thermal compound stuff then? I saw a brand called arctic 5 mentioned,this any good?

mathias

When you originally put the pc together there was almost certainly a square of heatsink compound pre-applied to the underside of the heatsink.

But heres the catch , that works once ! If you take off the heatsink after than , you are supposed to clean off the compound and re-apply.

Arctic 5 is good stuff , get some of that an re-apply , and the temps should go down.

luckylucky

mathias wrote:

When you originally put the pc together there was almost certainly a square of heatsink compound pre-applied to the underside of the heatsink.

Cheers was hoping that might be the case. No doubt I would have had problems much earlier if it wasn't.

I've given the Cpu fan a good cleaning, it was covered in dust. Seems like a big improvement the temperature has dropped a lot. Currently it's at 52, though it was around the 70 mark after it booted up.

mathias wrote:

Arctic 5 is good stuff , get some of that an re-apply , and the temps should go down.

I think I need to be a bit more proactive though, so I'm going to buy a new case and also going to look for this Arctic 5 stuff, do I need to wipe off the original stuff with some special cloth?

BKtje

Use acetone or isoprophyl alcohol and a lint free cloth to clear it off the cpu and heatsink.

luckylucky

B-K-DzR wrote:

Use acetone or isoprophyl alcohol and a lint free cloth to clear it off the cpu and heatsink.

Cheers, will do.

Have another problem now, the power fan is switching on and off according to Asus Probe. It is even showing minus figues sometimes The connection is attached properly. Anybody any ideas why this might have stopped working? Is it likely that when cleaning and hoovering the pc that I might have damaged something that might have affected this :eek: ?

Edit: For the record I have checked out some other useful threads here on cPU Overheating http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055064712&referrerid=&highlight=cpu+overheating

and

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055072604&referrerid=&highlight=cpu+overheating

Also my Power Fan is working ok now according to Asus Probe, just as I was going to have an actually physically look at it .

Edit: Managed to get to look at Power Fan when Asus Probe had it's speed as zero, the fan was rotating normally as far as I could tell, so presume Asus Probe was just not detectign it properly, maybe I need a new version of it.