Unknown overheating problem

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Man At Arms

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Jun 7, 2017
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510
For some reason my PC keeps shutting down due my CPU to overheating and nothing I have tried works.

For cooling I use a Cooler Master Hyper 212 with a 120mm fan on either side of the heat-sink (both moving air the same direction). Furthermore there is another 120mm fan attached to the back of the case and 2 more drawing in air from the front. I have re applied the thermal paste (Thermaltake TG-7) twice already and tried different fan configurations in the case, with one drawing air from the top. According to Core Temp, it runs at 15-25 C, during idle, but then shoots up to 65-85 during not very demanding games, and then shuts down at 90. I have moved around my PC, lowered the ambient temperature, taken the side panel off and removed any dust found. Nothing I've tried works.

I have not messed around with the BIOS and do not overclock, this is my first build and I have not figured out the concept of overclocking yet. I'm not sure if it's a power thing or some default setting in the BIOS that I don't know about.
I've asked many of my friends who have all built their own rig and they aren't sure either.

Specs:
CPU - AMD FX 6350
Graphics - ASUS Strix Gaming GTX 1060 6gb
Power - EVGA bronze cert 500 B
Motherboard - ASUS M5 A97 R2.0
Drives - (1) 1tb 7200 rpm + (1) 120gb SSD
RAM - 16gb DDR3 / (4) 4gb

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that are given.
 
Solution
G
Use AMD Overdrive to check the thermal margins (distance to throttle) at full load. They would have to be very low to cause a system shutdown. http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM3+/M5A97_R2.0/E8046_M5A97_R2.pdf Refer to section 3.6.4 to understand how you can set the CPU fan profile to Manual and then check/adjust the CPU Upper Temperature. It may not help, but you should check all BIOS settings to make sure they are correct. If the thermal margins are fine (10°C or higher at full load), then there may be an issue with your motherboard.
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GhislainG

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Jul 16, 2008
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Use AMD Overdrive to check the thermal margins (distance to throttle) at full load. They would have to be very low to cause a system shutdown. http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM3+/M5A97_R2.0/E8046_M5A97_R2.pdf Refer to section 3.6.4 to understand how you can set the CPU fan profile to Manual and then check/adjust the CPU Upper Temperature. It may not help, but you should check all BIOS settings to make sure they are correct. If the thermal margins are fine (10°C or higher at full load), then there may be an issue with your motherboard.
 
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Solution
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Man At Arms

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Jun 7, 2017
6
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510


Thank you. I did as instructed but the settings all seemed to be correct.

-CPU upper temp: [70]
-CPU lower temp: [20]
-CPU fan max duty cycle %: [100]
-CPU fan min duty cycle % : [30]

Should I change anything or is it supposed to be like that?
Thanks again.

 
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Man At Arms

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Jun 7, 2017
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Well I used prime95 to stress test it. The first test the CPU, under full load, shot up to about 77 degrees C within about 45 seconds. The second test it shot up to about 66 within about 30 seconds and froze. The third is the same as the first. I had to stop the tests to avoid my PC shutting down.

This CPU stress testing is new to me so I'm not entirely sure if I'm doing it right. Before I got the Hyper 212 I was just using the AMD stock heat-sink. I heard that AMD heat-sinks were not the best so I got the one mentioned above. I didn't have any over heating problems withe the stock one although it was very noisy.

Also two more things I should mention: the case and CPU fans don't seem to be pulling a lot of air and the thermal paste I bought was very difficult to apply. It was very solid, almost dry rather than gooey. I have ordered some new Arctic Silver thermal paste and larger case fans.

Thanks again.
 
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GhislainG

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Jul 16, 2008
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Your thermal margins are negative and that shouldn't happen with a Hyper 212; you need to address that issue. How much thermal paste did you apply? What is your ambient temperature?

The frequency is higher because the reference clock is set to 216.67 MHz instead of the expected 200 MHz; was it changed in the BIOS?
 
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Man At Arms

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Jun 7, 2017
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I applied enough thermal paste and and spread it evenly over the CPU. When I first started having these issues I replaced the thermal paste as I had applied to much. After cleaning it off with alcohol pads, I applied enough to cover it but not so much that it came out the sides. It fixed the problem for a while but then it started overheating again.

As I had stated before the thermal paste (Thermaltake TG-7) ,I was using, was somewhat dry. It was kind of like applying wood filler. Since then I have got some Arctic Silver paste and I will try with that. Its more gooey than dry. I'll let you know if it makes a difference.

As for the reference clock I haven't touched it as well as anything else in the BIOS. I'll set it to 200 though.



 
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GhislainG

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Jul 16, 2008
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The size of a cooked grain of rice is enough; the purpose is to fill the voids between the cooler and the CPU, not to isolate them. You can spread it, but if you do so you should see the CPU though the very thin layer. If you apply enough paste to completely hide the CPU after spreading it, then you probably applied too much.
 
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Man At Arms

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Jun 7, 2017
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510


I think it was a combination of bad thermal paste and a pre-set overclock setting that I didn't know about.

My CPU was running at 4.2 GHz instead of the standard 3.9. I changed the setting that you pointed out and now it is much more stable.

Secondly, I applied new arctic silver thermal paste and combined with the overclock setting it now maintains a temperature of 63-66 degrees when running at full load. I ran prime95 for about 30 minutes to check this and it would not go above 66 degrees at 100%. Even running at 4.2 GHz with the new thermal paste it still went over 75 degrees but it took about 3 minutes instead of 45 seconds. And it did not get to 90, which is when it shuts down.

Thanks again for your help.
 
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