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Help, my CPU isn't cooling anymore

C

cyrusfox

Limp Gawd
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Joined
Dec 8, 2010
Messages
175
So I have a watercooled setup. I was troubleshooting my main rig and I finally found why it wasn't booting,(stupid 1.8" IDE I was working on drive was holding up boot). In the course of troubleshooting I switched out my Phenom 965 with an Athlon 265, The water cooling was keeping the Athlon 265 a chilly 35ºC @ max load with intel burn test. I reassembled my computer with the phenom( I had cleaned off the thermal paste) and reapplied thermal paste to cpu and put the water block back on.

I booted back up and my cpu is now idling around 48°C, and if I try to do a burn test it shoots up to 65-72°C, I end the test as I don't want to see how high it will go. It instantly heats up, water block is firmly on, System use to never go above 45 °C. I have reapplied thermal paste 3 times, I am thinking it may just be this really crappy radio shack "Silicon Base Heat Sink Compound" I bought a year ago and had lying around, Am I right? Unfortunately I used up all my good thermal paste on the last build.

Where should I go to get some quality thermal grease(store front), not many options besides best buy and radio shack around me. This is horrible, why did I clean the old stuff off!

Also, could it possibly be anything else, I have already refilled my loop and thrown a thermocouple on it, Temps are 60°F. Any other thoughts or experience with bad thermal grease?
 
is there any air in your waterblock?
is there crud buildup?
does your loop mix copper and aluminium, and if so is there any galvanic corrosion?
Is your waterblock mounted properly?
How are you applying the thermal paste and what consistency is it? (i use fairly runny (AS5 like) thermal paste in two very thin lines)
Is anything else in your loop showing higher temps? it could be your pump dieing
 
lilfiend said:
is there any air in your waterblock?
is there crud buildup?
does your loop mix copper and aluminium, and if so is there any galvanic corrosion?
Is your waterblock mounted properly?
How are you applying the thermal paste and what consistency is it? (i use fairly runny (AS5 like) thermal paste in two very thin lines)
Is anything else in your loop showing higher temps? it could be your pump dieing
Click to expand...

No air in loop, no build up on cpu or heatsink, just cleaned, There could be corrosion, as I am mixing copper and aluminum but I am using de-ionized water. Also it was working perfectly just an hour ago before I cleaned off the old thermal compound. That was the only real change, cleaning off all the good old Thermal paste I had on and then applying this mystery silicon compound from radio shack. It is the only thing suspect. Here is the product.
Water block is mounted properly and firmly.
Thin layer of paste is applied uniformly(this compound is also pretty runny)
loop itself is near room temperature, and the rest of the rig is sub 30°C

I am thinking about running around town as I try to find a better paste, I really can't conclude it to be anything else. I fully cleaned off both waterblock and cpu before applying new thermal grease(Acetone and paper towel). I don't have a clue what else it could be.
Fenris_Ulf said:
Differening thermal paste won't make that much of a difference if you have good contact.
http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm
Problem probably lies in the mounting, due to the quick increase in temps, or maybe a flow problem.
Click to expand...

You could be right, I am pretty sure I got good contact, I just tightened it some more and am able to get idle around 39°C but it still shoots up to 71°C during a burn test. and it does so quickly, like up 20 degrees as I am doing mini stress test. Problem is I have the heat sink so tight on the cpu that If I tighten the block anymore to the board I am worried about possibly cracking the top side of the block or damaging the board. Maybe the problem is flow, through the block. Oh boy, I do not want to drain my loop, but maybe I need to test it and the pump. So it sounds like its either contact related(mounting, paste) or flow related, Cpu block/ Pump. I am going to get paste either way, as I am hoping for a simple solution.
 
I would start fresh. Get some new thermal paste, if you want, and take your time remounting the block. Only a small dot of paste is needed as well as an x-pattern for tightening. Judging by what you described above (tightening the mounts = decreased temps), i think your problem lies in the mounting.
 
New thermal paste did the trick, maybe I messed up the mounting the other times as well, but this time I disassembled the mount and reassembled it. This Thermal pastes is a crappy BestBuy Dynex silver compound, and it seems to be working great. At Overclock (CPU 1.55V) I am not getting temps above 49 °C. So glad I didn't need to mess with my loop, it was a PITA to set up and I hate having to mess with it. I want the reward of a new cpu/mobo if I need to change anything out(That's when I plan messing with it).
 
this may sound stupid. But are all fans on the radiator(s) working? I had this issue and it turned out that one of my fans died.
 
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