[divad130]

Well, hello everybody.
I have more of a question than a problem. My friend just helped me build a computer. When I go into BIOS to see the case temperature, it's about 40+ degrees celcius. The CPU is about 86, 87 degrees celcius. IS THE CPU TOO HOT?


By the way, the case has four fans and the processor is:
Intel Pentium 4, 2.66 ghz


Any thoughts, answers, questions, suggestions welcome. Thanks!

 

[linderman]

Welcome to TSF:

Yes those temps are WAY too high ~~ if they are correct / I dont believe even prescott CPU will run that hot without auto shutdown !!

I would download sandra lite / its a free utility to check your system readings / the temp readings are found in the "mainboard information" module once inside sandra lite

http://www.download.com/3000-2086-10018691.html


post back your findings

regards

joe

 

[Barry_R]

Just to give you an idea what normal is.

My P4 3.0 Northwood which is running at 3.3ghz is showing a temperature of 34C when in BIOS. And when in Windows it shows 27C at idle but I always add 5C error factor so I get 32C. Thats pretty close to what the BIOS shows. Prescotts run a little hotter as linderman sais but not that hot!

I used extreme care and cleanliness when applying my AS-5 thermal compound and XP-90 heat sink. My wife in amazement and asked me if I was practicing neurosurgery because I was wearing a shower cap to keep any hair from getting into the surgical area. I followed the recommendations of the manufacturers to the letter and got excellent results.

Just a bit of humor there, you may want to check the CPU installation.

 

[divad130]

Thanks for the tips. Umm...I'm assuming that I need to download Sandralite from my newly built computer, but I don't really want to do that. See, we JUST finished building it and we haven't installed windows yet. And I don't really want to run the computer on that temperature, now that I know it's too hot. Any other options? By the way, does it matter that any of the stuff on the bottom of the cpu fan touched the cpu? And could this all be a wrong reading from BIOS?

 

[Barry_R]

Thanks for the tips. Umm...I'm assuming that I need to download Sandralite from my newly built computer, but I don't really want to do that. See, we JUST finished building it and we haven't installed windows yet. And I don't really want to run the computer on that temperature, now that I know it's too hot. Any other options? By the way, does it matter that any of the stuff on the bottom of the cpu fan touched the cpu? And could this all be a wrong reading from BIOS?

What do you mean "stuff on the bottom of the CPU fan"? The CPU gets locked into the socket, a small amount of thermal compound is applied and the Heatsink and fan are placed onto the CPU and locked down to the bracket around the socket. The thermal compound should not squish out too much, if it does then you have applied too much. A very small amount spread thinly over the CPU is all that is required.

If the CPU is a Boxed version then it came with a Heatsink and Fan. It also usually comes with a thermal pad instead of the thermal paste. The pad goes between the CPU and the Heatsink. If I remember correctly there is a film protector that you have to peal off before applying the thermal pad.

Yes the BIOS could be wrong, but you need to make sure that it is not getting too hot! Can you feel allot of heat coming from the heatsink? Is it real hot to the touch? is the CPU fan running?

 

[divad130]

Well...the fan is working fine, and it's not very hot at all. Yes, my CPU came boxed, and I didn't peel anything off from the bottom of the fan. In fact, I was told that I shouldn't touch the bottom. Anyways, everything seems fine otherwise. Could it that I was supposed to peel something off the bottom?

 

[Barry_R]

The Heatsink might have had a film protector on the bottom, yes that needs to be peeled off. But I was refering to the thermal pad that usually comes packaged with the Intel boxed CPU. As i said it may also have a film protector on one or both sides that needs to be peeled off before installation.

The pad if used melts onto the CPU and heatsink creating a paste like layer between the two.

 

[divad130]

Sorry, but there was no pad in the box as far as I could tell, and there was nothing in the manual that said anything about putting a pad between the CPU and the fan.

 

[Barry_R]

So did you put anything in between the Heatsink and CPU? If not then that is a problem.

Look here Arctic Silver

 

[divad130]

I didn't put anything between them but I there was some stuff on the bottom of the fan. I don't really know if it's the pad or the film.

 

[Barry_R]

Ok well I think you need to check it.
If you remove the heatsink and the pad was there and properly installed (No film) then it will have melted onto the CPU top and the heatsink. You should not put the heatsink back on with a melted pad. You will have to clean it all off from both the CPU and the Heatsink and apply a good thermal compound according to the manufacturers instructions. I recommend AS-5, I posted the link to their usage procedures.

The temperatures you reported will kill your CPU. The Heatsink that comes with the Boxed Intel processors has a copper disk at the bottom. The Copper disk should be bare and clean aswell as the top of the CPU. The copper disk on the heatsink and the CPU must have thermal compound or a thermal pad between them.

 

[divad130]

Thanks a lot for your help. I think that I will try to clean all of the stuff off and get some of that Arctic Silver stuff.

NOW HERE'S THE WEIRD THING. I ran this P.C. for at least an hour and a half formatting the disk...blah blah...and yet after all that, the computer still works, even though now I know that the CPU should be dead in those temperatures. ANY IDEA WHY?

 

[Barry_R]

It is not always an immediate process, sometimes a CPU will run a while but the accumulative damage from heat takes it's toll.

Did you find a pad under the heatsink? Was it installed correctly?

 

[divad130]

I believe I did- there was a thin layer of grayish "stuff" partly melted on both the CPU and the CPU fan. I REALLY hope that the CPU is still usable. It looks fine except that it has melted stuff on it.