CPU TEMP: how hot is too hot? (newbie needs help)

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Pocatello

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I have an AMD socket 754 3200+ CPU in an ASUS Motherboard, K8V deluxe.

During POST, a lady's voice tells me that the temp is too hot.

So I went into the BIOS settings (setup) and found out what the temperature was. 159F.

How bad is this? What can I do?

I don't have much CPU / HSF experience.

Thanks in advance.
 
If you're hitting 70c at idle, somethings messed up. Reset your heatsink using AS5. Do you even have a case fan? :p
 
Rofl-Mic-Lofl said:
If you're hitting 70c at idle, somethings messed up. Reset your heatsink using AS5. Do you even have a case fan? :p
Click to expand...

Do you even have a fan on the heatsink :eek:. Case fan or not, 70c at idle is impressive.
 
After checking to make sure that the heatsink and fan is mounted correctly with enough thermal compound, you might also check and see if there is a bios update that might have something to do with temperature sensor issues. That's kinda reaching though, it really sounds like there's other hsf problems.

 
The HSF is present and the fan is running.

I don't know if it is functioning as it should be.
 
I do have a case fan, in addition to the fan on the PSU.

Right now I am running without the case door mounted. Still running hot.
 
Touch the heatsink while the system is on. If it feels warm (especially at the base of it), then its doing its job. If it feels like its at room temperature, then its improperly seated.

 
Good advice. I will check soon.


I just rebooted, and it was 81C or something like 177F.
 
Pocatello said:
Good advice. I will check soon.


I just rebooted, and it was 81C or something like 177F.
Click to expand...
that's super dangerous

i feel anything 60*C or above for a desktop processor is realllly bad and dangerous and omg no!

what thermal compound (thermal paste) are you using?

even if it's not Arctic Silver, here's a good guide to how to apply it:
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

i wonder if you still have a thermal pad on there that's doing this to you...
 
I took the whole computer apart.

I just noticed that the fan on the MSI 6600GT graphics card was not working. It had failed; it was coming apart.

As for the HSF, I checked it before dis-assembly. The Heat Sink was quite hot. The fan was running.

I took the motherboard out and removed the HSF. It was clogged with dust on the top.

No visible damage to the HSF or the CPU.

I'm in the process of installing a new MB and CPU combo in the same case.

Not sure what happened with my AMD 3200+.
 
Maybe.

I have let it run at this "higher than recomended" temp for some time. No apparent damage.
 
Pocatello said:
I took the motherboard out and removed the HSF. It was clogged with dust on the top.
Click to expand...

that's the culprit, no?

Have you taken the heatsink off the CPU and looked at the base of the HSF and the core of the CPU?
 
Carnival Forces said:
that's the culprit, no?

Have you taken the heatsink off the CPU and looked at the base of the HSF and the core of the CPU?
Click to expand...


Yes, I removed the HSF from the CPU. It all looks okay. Both the HS and the CPU core looks okay.
 
okay, so just to clarify, you did in fact clean the dust out?

can you post pictures of your naked cpu, naked heatsink, and naked heatsink base? something seems really fishy...
 
Carnival Forces said:
okay, so just to clarify, you did in fact clean the dust out?

can you post pictures of your naked cpu, naked heatsink, and naked heatsink base? something seems really fishy...
Click to expand...


Yes, I cleaned out the dust.

I also cleaned the heat sink and the cpu. I got off the old goop and put on some Arctic Silver.

I can't take pictures because I have put it all back together. Well, most of it. I have not attached any hard drives, and I am running in the BIOS right now just seeing what kind of temps I will have.

It is sitting on 40C/104F per the BIOS monitoring.

------------------------------- Video Card Gone Bad>>>>>>>>>>>>

I don't know what happened to my MSI 6600GT video card's fan. It just sort of disintegrated. I thought I had lost the entire card, but it was working (video was displaying) when I took the computer apart.

I took off the HSF, threw away the fan pieces, and cleaned it up really good. I reattached the HSF and then put a larger fan on the heat sink.

The video card is working at the present time.

I hope all stays well. Time to put the hard drives back in and run F@H again.
 
for the record. yes anything over 60c at idle is insanely hot. If you hit 70c then shut the thing off because you will definitely fry it if you game or run it in a warm room (like in the summer).
 
It is still sitting at 40C / 104F at idle

Just resting for now ( I mean I'm resting) ; been working on puters all day! And not much to show for it! Started out with six boxen, and 14 hours later I still have six boxen.



 
You have no idea how long it took to get my dual PIII 733 rig going.

You may want to consider disposable filters for any intake fans the case may have. You may also want to duct tape shut any other openings in the case so the filters actually work :p
 
I have learned something about dust and dirt in my computer.

I will learn from my mistakes in this case.

 
The heat sink and fan were clogged. All the passages in the heat sink near the fan were covered with dust.

Seems to be running fine today.

 
After folding non stop for hours,
151F at boot up.



 
Pocatello said:
After folding non stop for hours,
151F at boot up.



Click to expand...

66c is pretty hot. You may still need to improve airflow through the case to lower the ambient temps
 
Pocatello said:
After folding non stop for hours,
151F at boot up.



Click to expand...
Yea...that still just seems WAY too hot...hey...try posting a pic of your rig if you can so maybe one of us (probably alot of us) can comment on what we see to help you out. Preferably 2 pics, one with side on and another with side off.
 
First of all, you're running way too hot. That said, when I had the same mobo it was regularly reporting between 4-8 degrees celcius hotter than things really were. ASUS, as usual, fucked up the temperature sensors something fierce.

That said, what are your ambient temps? Are you sure that the heatsink that you have is flat? Next time you clean, use isoprophnyal (sp) and a coffee filter, NOT a qtip. Qtips leave traces of material behind and are not recommended to clean a heat sink or CPU with, whereas Arctic Silver does recommend using a coffee filter. How much AS5 are you using? If you have too much then your ability to cool the CPU will be hindered. Are you certain that you have the HSF securely attached?

 
Since DR_K13 hasn't said it yet, I'd suggest lapping the HS, and then re-apply some AS5 and try again.

Edit: Info on HS lapping here.
 
66C is a bit on the hot side, even under full load. I have a passive heatsink (Zalman 3100--the original flower) on my XP 1800, and it stays under 60C even under full load. No lapping.

I don't think that lapping will bring you down to where you should be. The fact that cleaning all the gunk out of your heat sink didn't make a difference suggests to me that something else is wrong. Do the finger-test. If your heatsink is hot, that means that it's doing a good job of getting the heat out of the CPU, but the fan is doing a lousy job of getting that heat into the air. If it's just warm, it means that either the heatsink is doing a lousy job of getting heat out of your CPU, or the fan is doing a good job of getting the heat from the heatsink to the air.
 
AtomicMoose said:
Since DR_K13 hasn't said it yet, I'd suggest lapping the HS, and then re-apply some AS5 and try again.

Edit: Info on HS lapping here.
Click to expand...

As a note, be careful when lapping. I've seen several people screw it up before because they were racing...go slowly and follow the instruction that Moose linked to.

 
Mohonri said:
66C is a bit on the hot side, even under full load. I have a passive heatsink (Zalman 3100--the original flower) on my XP 1800, and it stays under 60C even under full load. No lapping.

I don't think that lapping will bring you down to where you should be. The fact that cleaning all the gunk out of your heat sink didn't make a difference suggests to me that something else is wrong. Do the finger-test. If your heatsink is hot, that means that it's doing a good job of getting the heat out of the CPU, but the fan is doing a lousy job of getting that heat into the air. If it's just warm, it means that either the heatsink is doing a lousy job of getting heat out of your CPU, or the fan is doing a good job of getting the heat from the heatsink to the air.
Click to expand...

Good info here. If that heatsink is not actually hot to the touch, then something is wrong with the contact the heatsink is making with the CPU.

If the heatsink is hot, you have good contact but either the heatsink is not good enough to cool the processor properly or the fan is not getting the right amount of air to the heatsink to remove the heat. One other possibility is that the ambient temperature is high which could be causing this. If the temperature of the room or inside the case itself is high, then you will not be able to cool very well. This is why people are asking you for the ambient, or room, temperature. It is an important piece of information we need.

Also, I didn't see where you said what heatsink you are using. Is it the retail heatsink that came with the cPU or is it an aftermarket one. If it's an aftermarket one, please tell us which one it is.

 
SmokeRngs said:
Also, I didn't see where you said what heatsink you are using. Is it the retail heatsink that came with the cPU or is it an aftermarket one. If it's an aftermarket one, please tell us which one it is.
Click to expand...

I am using the retail heat sink. No overclocking. The case is an Antec Sonata. It has a large (and quiet) fan for exhaust at the back of the case. I'm guessing 120mm. I have the side door on the case (to keep kids out of the parts).

No pictures available now. I'm at work.

(anyone have a simple picture hosting site they know of? No Pr0n for the [H]!)


Ambient air temp in the room was high 70's yesterday. I have not yet turned on my air conditioning; we just got above 80 today (supposed to be 88F all week).

Thanks for the advice.

Maybe I need a better case fan, and/or a better HSF?
 
Most of the time temps like that are caused by a heatsink not sitting flat on the cpu, or from re-using the stock thermal pad after removing the heatsink. Since you have re-installed the heatsink we'll assume that it's sitting flat, although if nothing else works re-installing it again might be an option. 151F is well within the design limits of a processor, it's higher than ideal for sure, but nothing to panic about. I run my main rig at 70-73C full load all the time (highly overclocked, overvolted, and watercooled).

What I'd do is run some applications that are sensitive to CPU errors to make sure you're totally stable. Try the most graphically intensive games you have access to and run the burn-in test from SiSoft Sandra. If I remember correctly, SuperPi can check for math errors from the cpu, it might be a good bet also.

If your machine is stable, and you're confident that you're generating correct data for F@H, I wouldn't worry about the temps too much. Keep ambient temps low if possible, as your outdoor temps rise more and more maybe make sure the computer gets good airflow from the AC.
Is your case the first or second generation Sonata? The v2 has a shroud that gets airflow from outside the case onto the CPU, if you have that make sure it's adjusted correctly to right on top of the heatsink fan. You also might want to turn up the speed on the 120mm fan at the back, there should be a speed control on the power wire to it (at least there is on v2 and I assume v1 had it).

Although they don't usually tell you, both AMD and Intel design their chips to be operational up to 90C. Higher temps does create the risk of errors and crashes, but your CPU should be able to handle 66C as long as your voltages are at stock.

And if you actually read all that then thanks for your patience. :)

*Edit* Spelling
 
My opinion, don't lap the cpu. 1-2 degrees savings vs. killing the whole mess not worth it. It's not like your trying to get the last 5% OC out of the box.

Does it fold? Then leave it alone. :)
 
Site was down today? I couldn't log in at work.

Anyway..

I have a Sonata 1 -- first generation. I've had few errors that I know of while Folding.

I have the case door off.

I have a program called Hot CPU Tester or something. Runs all kinds of tests. I'll try that.

Thanks for the advice. Yogi, I read your entire post. Twice!

 
I rebooted the AMD 3200+ this morning, and checked the temp thru the BIOS. Had been folding all night. I have the air conditioning set for 75F.

Well, good news for once. 118F this morning. The only changes I have made recently (since the cleaning) were:
*removed the case door
*turned on the air conditioning.

I should note that things have not been warm (requiring air conditioning) until last Sunday. So I discount the AC as making any big changes.



 
Pocatello said:
I rebooted the AMD 3200+ this morning, and checked the temp thru the BIOS. Had been folding all night. I have the air conditioning set for 75F.

Well, good news for once. 118F this morning. The only changes I have made recently (since the cleaning) were:
*removed the case door
*turned on the air conditioning.

I should note that things have not been warm (requiring air conditioning) until last Sunday. So I discount the AC as making any big changes.
Click to expand...

Checking temps in the bios after a reboot is not going to give you an accurate reading even if it had been folding all night. On my PC the temperature of the processor drops at least 10 degrees Celcius before I can get to the readings screen in the BIOS after a reboot. You should be measuring your temps while the system is running under 100% load. Try the program Speed Fan if it hasent allready been suggested before...
 
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