CPU Overheat out of box?

[mindphlux]

Hey, I recently bought a new motherboard and athlon xp 1800 cpu. upon installing it, with the heatsink that came with the retail box, I find my idle tempature is around 68c!! I know athlons run hot, but not this hot... so I went and bought a larger high performance copper heatsink rated to 2100+, and installed it, but my tempatures are still 64c idle. I've properly mounted the heatsink over the processsor, put thin, thick, medium sized, and super-sized amounts of thermal paste on (I've remounted this thing about 19 times in hopes of the problem dissapearing). the motherboard I have (a abit nvidia based one) has a tempature diode under the processor that I've pressed up, down, put paste on, everything, in hopes that the readout was inaccurate....... but all this to no avail...

I've been working with computers for about 6 years now doing hardware repairs, so I wouldn't think it'd be anything stupid, but I really can't think of what this problem could be caused by@#%!@

someone have any ideas??

 

[HonestJhon]

take the mobo out of the case, and put it on the anti static foam that it was on in the packaging.
then lay it on a table, and look at it eye level...
see if the heatsink is on flat.
if it is not, then you know what happens...something similar to this.
and also, make sure it is on the right way..i know you have been working on computers a long time, and have taken this thing off and put it on a million times, but some people have done that, but been putting it on wrong.
the clip needs to be pressing on top of the core...if you didnt know...and to help people who read this.
i hope MAYBE i helped you...[shrugs cause he cant figure anything out more than that]

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[mindphlux]

well, doing these didn't solve my problem, though the clip being in the center of the core is a good tip. though I have been doing this a long time, I just discovered in the last week that the clip doesn't apply pressure evenly across the heatsink...

thanks for the input...

 

[cakecake]

Make sure the clip for the socket is tight enough. It varies from mainboard to mainboard, but my old GA-7VRX didn't cut it. That thing was on so loose. But my new A7S333 has the tightest clamp ever, so I was in luck. Plus I had the thinnest layer of AS III Known To Man so now with just a 3500RPM fan I can cool my 1800+ at 40 celsius, 44 load.

Make sure you also have it attached the right way. If you look at the bottom of your heatsink about 70% of it is on a lower plateau than the rest of the surface. Make sure this is matched up with the socket's own plateaus! Someone else had this problem and had to go to a computer shop just to figure it out. :redface:

This little cathode light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!