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Intel Core i5-4440 running at 95 C

mrcheez

My CPU is running at 95 C at all times. I'm assuming this means the heatsink is malfunctioning. It seems to be seated correctly and has thermal paste applied.

Any recommendations on an alternative I should try?

Do they come with thermal paste or do I need to buy that as well?

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srsly78

Buy a proper fan/heatsink combo and some good paste, then replace. Noctua make monster heatsinks, but they are quite large and expensive.

My old pc had a monster heatsink installed, even when the fan broke down the passive cooling kept it at around 60.

Is your fan even spinning?

mrcheez

srsly78 wrote: »

Buy a proper fan/heatsink combo and some good paste, then replace.

I guess that's the question I'm asking.. what's a proper fan/heatsink/paste that you recommend?

Yeah fan is moving.

mrcheez

This one good?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCTIC-Freezer-Pro-Rev-Multicompatible/dp/B002G392ZI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1515601078&sr=8-2&keywords=intel+heatsink

srsly78

Yep that would be fine. A lot depends on your skill when installing it tho - the interface between heatsink and cpu must be free of air bubbles etc. Not too much paste, not too little (most people use too much).

Some other lads will be along shortly to tell you about "delidding"

Alun

95 deg is way too hot. I have an i5-4460 with the bog-standard stock Intel cooler, and I could leave it at 100% CPU all day and it wouldn't get above 60 deg.

I'd say check that everything is OK with your current installation first before spending money on a fancy cooler.

challengemaster

There's no way that cooler is installed properly if you're getting those temps.

srsly78

Yeah definitely check the fan is actually spinning first!

Alun

srsly78 wrote: »

Yeah definitely check the fan is actually spinning first!

... and how fast. Use something like cpu info or hwinfo to check. Plus, make sure the blades of the fan and the fins of the heatsink are dust free, ditto for all the case fans.

mrcheez

Yep fan is spinning as mentioned before.

It's one of those fiddly heatsinks you need to turn corners 90 degrees and then push into place, it's possible it's not sitting right, but even if I apply enough force to make my finger purple it won't go down any further.

Might be dust alright, lots of dust on the fans

K.O.Kiki

Does your case have intake / venting fans?

Are they clogged/working?

Alun

mrcheez wrote: »

Yep fan is spinning as mentioned before.

Again, how fast? A heavy dust burden can reduce the speed of the fan and the airflow to a trickle.

Might be dust alright, lots of dust on the fans

Blast it off with a can of compressed air if you have it, or if all else fails, what I do, a hoover in reverse. Make sure the fins of the cooler itself are clear too. Make sure to prevent any fans spinning though, they can act in reverse like a generator and cause damage to the MB, or so I'm told. Probably best to do it outside too if there's lots of dust

challengemaster

mrcheez wrote: »

It's one of those fiddly heatsinks you need to turn corners 90 degrees and then push into place, it's possible it's not sitting right, but even if I apply enough force to make my finger purple it won't go down any further.

Been a long time since I installed a stock intel heatsink, but I'm 99% sure that they come out of the box ready to be pushed into place. If you turned them 90 degrees you disabled the locking mechanism - this is the way you turn the clips for removal. So its not even going to be touching the CPU properly.

Alun

challengemaster wrote: »

Been a long time since I installed a stock intel heatsink, but I'm 99% sure that they come out of the box ready to be pushed into place. If you turned them 90 degrees you disabled the locking mechanism - this is the way you turn the clips for removal. So its not even going to be touching the CPU properly.

That's it ... you just push them down and they click into place, you rotate them in the direction of the arrows to release it.

TerrorFirmer

challengemaster is right...there's no way it's installed right. It's a push-pin design so one or two of the pins are not locked in place.

Take it out, reset the pins, reapply paste, and re-install. The stock cooler is perfectly fine for all usages except heavy overclocking.

A lot depends on your skill when installing it tho - the interface between heatsink and cpu must be free of air bubbles etc. Not too much paste, not too little (most people use too much).

Honestly, there is no skill involved. Pea sized amount of paste in the middle of the CPU, then install the heatsink.

The only way you'd get 95c on idle is either zero paste installed or cooler installed incorrectly (most likely). Using too much or too little paste wouldn't produce a result like that.

mrcheez

Please tell me thermal paste doesn't expire... my one is a few years old (several years maybe??)

Grahamer666

It does degrade over time.

mrcheez

Reinstalled using my "older" thermal paste first just to try, and CPU fan speed is showing 2096 RPM on the BIOS and temperature is 94

One thing to note, when I clicked the cooler into place only 2 screws clicked in, the other two wouldn't go down despite my fiddling with it. They were oriented correctly.

I guess time to get the other cooler I listed before... do I need to get thermal paste with it?

Grahamer666

The one you listed comes with paste pre applied to it.

Billy86

challengemaster wrote: »

There's no way that cooler is installed properly if you're getting those temps.

That depends... I was getting similar issues not long ago at all, and it turned out to be an airflow problem (my PC is smaller than a shoebox with an i5 6600K and 970). I thought it was to do with the paste or cooler, but fixing that did nothing... in the end it was just warm air building and building and getting hotter and hotter until the case was like an oven. I picked up two case fans and even on Total War Warhammer, Civ VI or Witcher 3 on the most demanding settings with an overclock going, have not gone above about 63c on any single core, usually it's in the low/mid 50s when on those, sometimes below, and down in the teens/low 20s on normal usage.

Cannot recommend Noctua enough, either this for the CPU fan - https://www.amazon.co.uk/noctua-NH-L9i-Noctua-processor-cooler/dp/B009VCAJ7W/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1515677543&sr=1-1&keywords=noctua+nh-l9i - or this for the case - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KESS6O0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

K.O.Kiki

@Billy86

has that Noctua fan ever spun up to its full 3000rpm?

Billy86

I've seen up to a little over 2600, never 3000 - but I only ran the little speed reader program a few times. RealTemp keeps a track of your peak temps when you run it in the background, so I can play something for a few hours and not have to check up on it over and over. I think I've been using speedfan for the case fan but have forgot to use it beyond the first few days and couldn't see a similar feature on it, any ideas on any that might?

If I'm right it was yourself that recommended it and the tiny 92mm one which I also picked up, hugely appreciated man it's made a world of difference (especially with the heating on recently and the projector generating more heat again)! Saved a lot of stress compared to a liquid cooler too since I've got a 4TB (maybe soon to be 8TB) HDD wedged into the yolk that would have had to be removed/mounted externally otherwise.

Lu Tze

mrcheez wrote: »

Reinstalled using my "older" thermal paste first just to try, and CPU fan speed is showing 2096 RPM on the BIOS and temperature is 94

One thing to note, when I clicked the cooler into place only 2 screws clicked in, the other two wouldn't go down despite my fiddling with it. They were oriented correctly.

I guess time to get the other cooler I listed before... do I need to get thermal paste with it?

I would try with your current cooler first (the little tubes of paste have loads in them). I sounds like the heatsink isn't making good contact, particularly if the pins aren't closing. This would be supported by the high fan speed, it will spin fast when the temps are rising in the CPU, but if the heat sink isn't conducting the heat to the fins, the all the fan spinning in the world won't dissipate it. Can you check why the pins aren't clicking in? Do they look damaged?

srsly78

Possibly need to check the other side of motherboard to see if mounting pins are out of alignment.

mrcheez

Probably, but anyway the new cooler should be arriving soon and finally have nae probs

mrcheez

Now that my CPU is running at a cool 29 C (!) I'm assuming I can overclock it without damaging the CPU ?

Is that a BIOS setting (ASRock UEFI) ?

K.O.Kiki

mrcheez wrote: »

Now that my CPU is running at a cool 29 C (!) I'm assuming I can overclock it without damaging the CPU ?

Is that a BIOS setting (ASRock UEFI) ?

Your CPU can't be overclocked; Intel restricted that to the K-series chips (e.g. 4570K).

challengemaster

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Your CPU can't be overclocked; Intel restricted that to the K-series chips (e.g. 4570K).

*ahem*

:pac:

Not really applicable to the OP but non-K overclocking is a thing

K.O.Kiki

challengemaster wrote: »

*ahem*

:pac:

Not really applicable to the OP but non-K overclocking is a thing

Only on select 6000-series chips.

justsomebloke

did bios updates not do away with that? and with spectre and meltdown will people not be forced to now to the bios updates if they hadn't already?