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View Full Version : My CPU is as Hot as My Sweet Arse



Shlup
01-13-2011, 01:57 AM
Is 91°C bad? For a CPU, I mean. Could that be why my computer reboots all the time?

Today I opened it up and put a box fan on it and it hasn't gone above 91 or rebooted yet.

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, by the way. Which the internets tells me has a critical temperature of 60.1°C.

NorthernChaosGod
01-13-2011, 02:28 AM
Isn't the critical temperature the maximum operating temperature? That's quite bad. xD

I used to have the same problem in the summer with my old desktop. Moving it to a better area and cleaning it from dust seemed to help.

Shlup
01-13-2011, 02:41 AM
I assume that's what critical temperature means. I didn't actually check into it though.

I cleaned the dust recently. So far the fan may be helping... or maybe not. Thing seems to be pretty fucking random and it enjoys toying with me.

NorthernChaosGod
01-13-2011, 02:58 AM
Yeah, the internet tells me that's what it is. A fan should really help, as long as running that hot so often hasn't caused any physical damage.

Shlup
01-13-2011, 03:02 AM
AHHH!!! It rebooted again. I hate this beast.

Mirage
01-13-2011, 03:23 AM
Is your CPU's heat sink clogged up by tons of dust? That could explain the high temperatures. It is also possible that the heatsink doesn't have very good contact with the surface of the CPU. This could have happened if the PC got some solid physical shock and/or the heat sink wasn't mounted properly.

In either case, taking it off,cleaning it if necessary, and reapplying new thermal paste before putting it back on could solve the problems.

And yes, a very high CPU temperature could lead to system instability, or the system might shut down as a precaution, to avoid damage. It depends a bit on how it's all set up.

Shlup
01-13-2011, 03:40 AM
No, it's not clogged. It's probably out of that gel or whatever.

Wouldn't an overheated CPU just cause shut down though? Not reboot?

Mirage
01-13-2011, 04:07 AM
If it's not clogged, does that mean you've blown dust off it with compressed air or something like that? It is very normal for a heat sink to get dusty after a year or two. It might not be super visible from every angle.

The thermal paste shouldn't really disappear, but its properties may change over time. Some kinds could dry out and lose some of its ability to transport heat. There's also the possibility that the heatsink has been knocked a bit out of place, leaving a tiny gap of air between it and the CPU. Air is a really poor thermal conductor.

And if a CPU is overheated, several things could happen. If the computer has a feature that protects against overheating (and this feature is turned on, it isn't always), the PC should shut down and not restart. However, if the overheating leads to instability within the CPUs circuitry, you would lose system stability, which could lead to a number of strange things. blue-screens, system-freezes and restarts are all possible outcomes. Less extreme outcomes are also possible, such as programs/games crashing, or temporary system-freezes for a few seconds at a time.

Keep in mind that if you do get a bluescreen, some computers are set up to almost instantly restart after showing the error message. This leads to the bluescreen just appearing as a short blue flash before the system restarts. Alternatively, if your monitor is slow at changing display modes, the PC could restart faster than the monitor was able to change to the new display mode that the bluescreen would be using.

Shlup
01-13-2011, 04:55 AM
Yes, I have blown it out.

I'll take it off and check the thermal paste and stuff.

o_O
01-13-2011, 05:24 AM
Just be aware that the object of thermal paste isn't to have a thick layer of it between the CPU and heatsink. You should have it spread thickly enough that it'll hold the CPU in place, but aside from that, the more thinly the better. A section of heatsink physically touching the CPU is better than a section of heatsink with thermal paste in between it and the CPU.

Thermal paste is meant to fill the little gaps.

rubah
01-13-2011, 06:02 AM
uhhh, core 2 duo should be able to handle 91C. i know this because my old MBP had a core duo and got up that high when intsensephotoshopping/defragging

but yes, that's really bad for a desktop computer or a laptop that is not a mac. do whatever ståle or mike say

Jiro
01-13-2011, 06:22 AM
Yes, I have blown it out.

I'll take it off and check the thermal paste and stuff.

This was almost a candidate for OOC quotes

kotora
01-13-2011, 09:33 AM
uhhh, core 2 duo should be able to handle 91C. i know this because my old MBP had a core duo and got up that high when intsensephotoshopping/defragging

but yes, that's really bad for a desktop computer or a laptop that is not a mac. do whatever ståle or mike say

macs use the exact same mobile core 2 duos as other laptops. That was their whole point of switching over to using intel processors.

also at 91C you should be able to smell your burning processor on a desktop computer

Mirage
01-13-2011, 01:42 PM
naw man, it's not like they catch fire at less than a few hundred degrees

kotora
01-13-2011, 01:44 PM
When I overclocked my CPU before I got my new cooling system I could definitely smell it

Mirage
01-13-2011, 09:02 PM
might have been burned dust, but idk lol. seems unlikely at sub-100 degrees.

rubah
01-13-2011, 09:09 PM
macs use the exact same mobile core 2 duos as other laptops. That was their whole point of switching over to using intel processors.


Yes, I assumed they were the same, but for some reason, my mobo doesn't make me reboot at 91C. or 101C!

kotora
01-13-2011, 09:28 PM
laptop CPUs are designed to operate under higher temperatures because obviously you can't fit a big cooling fan into them. The E6600 in Shlups computer is (might soon be a "was") a desktop CPU.

Baloki
01-17-2011, 12:12 AM
macs use the exact same mobile core 2 duos as other laptops. That was their whole point of switching over to using intel processors.


Yes, I assumed they were the same, but for some reason, my mobo doesn't make me reboot at 91C. or 101C!

The reboot value will be set in the bios. Sometimes there's no limit set depending on the motherboard manufacturer.

kotora
01-17-2011, 01:08 AM
except Macbooks use EFI instead of the BIOS for that

Mirage
01-17-2011, 05:25 AM
Doesn't matter. Strictly speaking, tons of PCs aren't really using "BIOS" either, but no one cares about what it's really called.

Also, i've been meaning to ask for a while now, exacly how hot is Shlup's sweet arse?

NorthernChaosGod
01-17-2011, 06:32 AM
Also, i've been meaning to ask for a while now, exacly how hot is Shlup's sweet arse?

Quite hot. :jokey:

kotora
01-17-2011, 11:15 AM
Doesn't matter. Strictly speaking, tons of PCs aren't really using "BIOS" either, but no one cares about what it's really called.

Also, i've been meaning to ask for a while now, exacly how hot is Shlup's sweet arse?

simple deduction would suggest it's 91C

Shlup
01-17-2011, 11:11 PM
After replacing the power supply, mother board, and video card... it works. I think. I've said this before.

kotora
01-18-2011, 01:32 AM
wait why did you replace all that?

Mirage
01-18-2011, 02:03 AM
Yeah, that seems to be a bit of overkill. It is very unlikely that more than one component would need replacement. What did you do with the heat sink?

Peegee
01-18-2011, 05:00 AM
just bc a pc will run at 91*C (and yours won't) doesn't mean it's safe/okay. That's bloody hot

There was one time when my heatsink fan didn't run - either it was unplugged or burned out i forget, but I kept getting reboots. frequent reboots = too hot

but you fixed it yay. ps since i can't make my own thread i'll just derail this one a bit:

I bought a new video card but it requires an 8 pin pci-e connector. my power supply does not have one but it does have a 6 pin, and the video card thankfully came with a 6 pin connector. Now I know 2 6 pin doesn't work (tried it), so i am going to try a 6=>8 pin connector tomorrow.

the question is - I only have one ide power cable to plug into the 6 pin adaptor - is that okay and also would the 6->8 pin adaptor work? is there a way around it?

Mirage
01-18-2011, 01:52 PM
No, that's not ok.

Are you sure your PSU can even power the video card you bought?

Peegee
01-18-2011, 03:27 PM
No, that's not ok.

Are you sure your PSU can even power the video card you bought?

*shrug*
I'm just considering a cheaper solution ^_^
I can get another PSU that has an 8 pin pci-e adaptor

Mirage
01-18-2011, 04:26 PM
No i mean, even if you could get enough cables to give the card proper power, do you know if the PSU you've got can deliver enough amperage on the 12V rails? My PSU can deliver 31 amps there, what can yours deliver?

kotora
01-18-2011, 04:38 PM
isn't it more of an issue of watts?


I thought azns were supposed to be good with numbers anyway

Mirage
01-18-2011, 04:48 PM
Doesn't matter if a PSU can deliver 5000 watt if it can't deliver more than 10 amps on the 12V, the voltage the video cards need. Watt is voltage*current, so the wattage your PSU can deliver to the video card is entirely dependent on how many amps it can push down the 12V.

Ideally, a good PSU should be able to push most of its rated wattage to the 12V rail(s), and second most important, the 3.3V, where the CPU gets its power. These are the two most power hungry components in the PC.

PSUs made with powerful video cards in mind also sometimes have several 12V rails. My relatively weak PSU (in terms of wattage (450W)) can still power most new cards because it's got two 12Vs, one that can deliver 15 A and another that can deliver 16 A. It's also able to let almost all the total power be directed to those two rails. A 500W PSU with just 8 or 10 A on 12V would be destroyed if trying to run video cards my PSU has no real problems with. Not that 500W PSUs would ever be configured like that in this day and age.

Peegee
01-18-2011, 10:36 PM
Hey that was more informative than I was expecting. Thanks!
edit: yes - new PSU fixed the issue <3

Peegee
01-22-2011, 10:11 PM
@Mandee - did your cpu cool down a bit? Maybe get a different heatsink?

I have a question - am I going crazy or did a computer upgrade lower my performance?

http://i53.:bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou:/avn9u1.png
(#1 and #3 for comparison)

I can't figure out how this is possible. I am running 6 gigs of ram instead of 8 (when I moved the ram, I got a DIMM(s) checksum error) - would it account for that much performance drop?

Mirage
01-22-2011, 11:16 PM
Maybe you messed up a dial/triple channel setup, lowering RAM bandwidth by a lot, that's the only thing I can think of.

Except maybe a driver issue. Or a specific bug when running that 7 year old benchmark on a new CPU :p.

Peegee
01-23-2011, 12:44 AM
None of those. You know what it was? The board doesn't support that particular processor if it's 125W (I specifically asked too)

It's a good thing I'm an idiot who bought two processors. I plugged in the 95W version and CPU-Z is making me giddy!

now to sell the 125W. U want AMD Phenom II X4 945 125W?

Mirage
01-23-2011, 12:51 AM
You sure you can't find a way around it, like with a BIOS upgrade?

Peegee
01-23-2011, 01:56 AM
You sure you can't find a way around it, like with a BIOS upgrade?

the manufacturer's site specifically states only the 95W version is compatible.

I'm shocked it even booted (well that's a half lie - it would boot but obv the item is incompatible so and hence the behaviour)