• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

CPU Slow and TOO hot

T

tfcmaximus

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
103
I have the Pentium D 2.8 ghz intel processor. Since I built the computer 2 years ago, the processor has never really ran as I had expected for a processor as many older single core intel processors run better at 1.8 ghz. Two graphics cards the nvidia 7950 gt ko and the 8800GS have been tested on my computer, the graphics running fine, however my processor seems to run fine. Apparently I did not check the pc temperature enough early on, but the prcoessor temperature is running between 188-202 degree farenheit when it startup mode in the bios. So I would assume that with all the fans running and an aftermarket heat sink that I either did not apply the thermal grease right or something horribly wrong. The high temps I believe would explain the slow speeds in gaming as the temperature probaly increases greatly when i load up a video game. I do not know what to do, order some grease? I was planning on getting a the new core2 processor, but I just need some suggestions. diagnostics said that the MIPS or whatever were 3200 and processors of the same speed/model were supposed to be running more around 8000. Something just doesnt seem right. You would think a dual core even thought its first gen dual core would be able to handle high def video at 2.8ghz (tried at 3.0 ghz OC'ed) but it doesn't very well. I have the asus P5LD2 mobo and over 1GB of RAM at 667. Thanks for any help.
 
Your CPU is running way too hot (even GPUs don't run this warm). Most Intel CPUs since the first Pentium 4s have thermal throttling built in - if the core(s) get too hot it will lower its clocks to prevent damage from overheating. Make sure you have a tight mechanical contact between the CPU and the heatsink (with a thin but even coat of thermal compound) and that you have good ventilation in your case, and verify that the fan is running on your heatsink.

If all of the above is true you might want to test with a beefier cooler to bring those temps down, which will allow that Pentium D to run full tilt.

Also making sure you have all updates installed with all the latest drivers won't hurt, either.
 
thanks for the great post, that was my first time building a pc, so I am learning, I did apply the grease, but come to think of it may have not done near a decent job, if any what grease would be ideal, I like to use newegg and I heard Antec 5 is good?

As for the drivers, I have always been and have learned from expierence to update everything, chipset, graphics, bios, windows update, software, etc.

Heatsink (Zalman aftermarket) fan is running and so is case fan.
 
either you didn't lock down the heatsink properly, or you didn't remove any plastic film on the base of the heatsink
 
several factors keep me wondering, the heat sink screw on one side was a little loose and I dont think I originally applied the grease on correctly, I am going to reorder more grease and retry the heat sink.

UPDATE: alright just opened heatsink, dont have the grease yet, but I did remove lots of dust from heatsink and fan, secured connection, grease seems lacking. I have done plenty of diagnostics and found this:

speed rating initially is at 8350 MIPS, or around 103% on PC Pitstop,

after about 15 minutes it goes down to about 8200, 40 minutes 7800 MIPS, etc etc. downward slope

So something is working and something isn't working. If the heatsink wasnt working at all it would instant burn, but it's just not STAYING cool or near cool. Would the thermal grease most likely take care of this or am I looking at whole different issue, please suggest some ideas, thanks!
 
problem almost solved with some expieriments at least it is now identified, CPU runs more than the 100% easily when case is open, when case is closed, heat is dramatically trapped in and basically runs the processor down to 1/3 of full speed in less than 24 hours. So I am assuming I need to order more case fans or change the one I have, area the computer is placed is pretty openly ventillated, so I think its the case fans. Anyone suggest which ones I should use.

Also, if this thread needs to be moved that is find, as I learn more about this, topic has changed.
 
track cpu temp in windows as well. also get rmclock and check for thermal throttling.

grease shouldn't have that big an impact honestly. too little or too much can hurt temps but not as bad as what you're seeing.

if temps are better with the case open, chances are, the heatsink is getting quite hot otherwise. clean up your cables in the case and add some intake / exhaust fans.
 
If all of the above still doesn't work, go buy a better heatsink. Zalman or ThermalTake sinks usually work pretty good. Make sure that it's copper or aluminum with a copper base. If you do spring for an all copper one though, make absolutely sure that its firmly secured (but not too tight!) because these suckers can be very heavy (up to 1kg for the big heavy monsters) so take care in mounting them. And as always, proper case ventilation is a MUST.
 
thanks for the quick replys!

Ya have a Zalman copper.

It's running 103%, so over full speed, it runs great now.

Trouble is case has to be open, so I feel that means I need better intake outake.

To me that says case fan is having problems getting circulation.

So how should I go about intake and outake cooling/fans?

Thanks for all ideas.
 
pentium D's are great for heating up your room. :D

90C is definitely too high. You want below 80C.
 
ya with case door open its well below 90C, got it down to stable 70C, is that OK or how do i make that even cooler without replacing heatsink, use grease?
 
Airflow is key. 20C difference is really high with the case off. My case is like 8-10C difference with the case closed or open. You can also clean off the dust. That reduces temp by good amount. Thermal grease is a joke. If you already have grease on there I wouldn't worry about it. Makes minimal difference but a good heatsink will drastically change your temps.

Are you using retail heatsink? You might want to invest on a nice heatsink. When you upgrade to core 2 duo or something you can use that heatsink later.
 
nice case choice would maybe look at the tuniq tower or thermalright 120 ultra for heatsinks tho will most likey give u better temps than the zalman and u can change the fan if it fails lol
 
one trick is with the side air duct on that case. The ducts work very well but a lot of people do not realize you can unscrew the duct and put an 80mm fan in between the inside of the side cover and the duct. Screw fan onto the inside of the side cover by running screws from the outside of the cover, through the cover and into the fan holes. With the fan now secured on the inside, the duct will screw onto the fan. This pushes air down the duct and helps overcome the fact that the end of the duct does not seal tightly around the CPU fan. Without the side fan, the CPU fan has to pull air all the way down the duct and due to it not sealing tightly the CPU fan gets a lot of warm case air in addition to what it can pull down the duct.

Hope that made sense.

If you really want to cool that sucker down, get a fairly high speed (40CFM or higher) 80mm and put an inexpensive Zalman Fan Mate 2 on it, you can drill a 3/8 (verify the size I am just guessing) hole in the side cover next to the duct and mount it on the inside with the control knob sticking out on the outside and dial in the cooling vs noise.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118217
 
wow thanks for the awesome replies, I am going to look into all of that, when you say duct I hope you don't mean that piece of plastic attached that I took out to install heat sink, but I am going to really look into this and probably choose the "cool that sucker down" option.

UPDATE: I have the fan mate thing which was included with something I had already purchased, I am looking for good fans now, feel free to suggest any, thanks.
 
what exactly happens if you dont no what happened to that plastic duct? Cause I removed it due to the heatsink not fitting with it
 
I am not joking at all I purchased the following items from newegg to try and lower my CPU temp which was at 164 degrees (case open), and with case closed it was nearing 200 degrees fahrenheit. Notice, I already have a nicely rated Zalman aftermarket CPU heatsink, Pentium D 2.8 ghz, ASUS P5LD2 mobo, and a Cooler master case.

So to help battle that terrible CPU killing temperature I spent around $20 with tax on the following 2 items:

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM - $5.99
Thermaltake A1357 80mm Case Fan - Retail - $7.99

I first cleaned off old grease using 91% Isopropyl alcohol, then applied about rice sized amount of arctic silver 5 compound on HS and CPU. Even though the grease isn't supposed to have its full effect until after roughly 200 hrs of on and off computer time, my CPU temperature immediately dropped 40-42 degrees fahrenheit!

Still hovering at a high temperature between 130-140 degrees F, I was already happy with the immediate success. I then decided to pull out the brittle ugly orange 80mm fan and install it on the side of my cooler master case. The fan is a monster blower, yes it is. 3 options to choose from for cooling method. Sensor, constant full speed, or adjustable knob speed. I didn't really like the sensor thingy installation wise so I used the adjustable method, knowing that I could adjust the RPM at any time with just a few turns. The fan is fully adjustable with minimum setting of 20 CFM at 1300RPM all the way to a maximum of 75.7 CFM at 4800 RPM, mine went to 5100 RPM actually. I settled for something around 2300 RPM because this not only lowered the temperature in my computer another 8 degrees fahrenheit, it kept my computer cool and not so noisy. I could use full speed but my computer would sound like a powerful vacuum so I set it lower to sound almost exactly how it originally sounded with the case stock fans.

Currently my CPU temperature hovers around 119-127 degrees fahrenheit. I am pretty sure from what I have read on this forum that CPU temperature that high isn't good, that may be true, but it sure as hell beats 200 degrees or 160 with the case open.

If anyone else has any more reasonable tips that arent way to costly, but effective, please let me know, I would really like to see how I can lower the temperature for even better performance. So please continue to post ideas and solutions in this thread, I really appreciate it and learn so much from everyones contributions.

It's amazing to know for the last 2 years I have come to the conclusion with all the tests I have performed and knowledge gained from personal expierence, that my computer has been operating at about 30% at the most from it's true capability. I also know that I still have lots of room to expand on performance with a little help from you guys.

Thanks to everyone who posted and contributed to this thread even if it switched topics several times, thanks Hardforum mod/admin!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top