Hello,
I got an Intel 3.0 CPU with standart heatsink.
For unknown reason the CPU gets overheated at some point at goes up to 65 degrees. When i turn the PC on, it wont go over 45, and as the time goes by. it suddently goes over 60 and won't go under it.

i tried putting new goo on the CPU and the heatsink, added another fan, and nothing seems to work.

I got an MSI 865PE-N2 mobo and i noticed that the chipset heatsink is very hot. Its located near the CPU. Perhaps it affects it?

Also after restart the temp resets back to normal

What could be the reason for that?

Thanks ahead.

Is the heatsink for the CPU itself hot to the touch?

What programs are you using to monitor the temperatures?

Are you using a standard case or a small case?
Small cases have less air flow than bigger ones and result in hotter temperatures.

Pretty much agree with evngugg.

Sounds like airflow is not great in your PC case.

Since you say when you 1st use it, seems to run cool, then after time its at a high temp.

Heat will build up eventually, and if there are no case fans, or if where the fans are obstructed, then it can't push hot air out.

The Heatsink, is warm, yes.
I use Speedfan to monitor

As for the Case, i got Chenbro Xpider, and it comes with 120mm fan.

Perhaps. you are right and airflow is the problem. any tips on how to fix it

Hmmm.. not sure.

Does it have a front fan?

If this is the case, which did a review on it (David Stellmack August 4, 2003):



The Lazy Days of Summer Case Review

Seems like the front of it is cluddered. Perhaps getting a side fan kit may help? I saw another case, with the side on, that didn't have no fan on the side.

Little hard to recommend, anything except also to try to get better airflow from the front some how, without drilling the side case somewhere.

Sorry,i got Xpider 2, here it is.
In the back, you can see the 120 mm. The place where u see the Chenbro triangle logo, is an air openning. I tried removing the filter it had on it, to get more air out. I also go an additional fan near it.[/img]

Psh, just go watercooling. No need to worry about internal airflow there.

Or you could just bust out with a dremel and go medievel on your case. Get a 25cm fan and all your problems solve.

The cheap and easy solution: Take off the side panel.

If you've already replaced the thermal paste and added a new fan to the system then just take the side off. Either that or it's something more sinister.

Many motherboards control the CPU fan speed on their own and rev up the fan in response to the CPU load. More load = more heat = faster fan. Pretty simple.

There are a couple of things that you need to look at. Has it always done this or is this something new? When did it start?

Check your BIOS - probably the HW Monitor/ PC Health section - to see what fan options are enabled or disabled. Change them around to see what effect it has.

When it comes to thermal grease - less is more. Ensure that you put just a thin coating on the CPU - perhaps just the thickness of a sheet of paper.

Does your system slow right down when the CPU gets hot? This could indicate that your CPU is near 100% load, causing the system to become nearly unresponsive. An application or service hang can cause this kind of behaviour, spyware and malware included. If this is the case, press ctrl+alt+del to bring up Task Manager. Check your CPU utilization in % and if it's high, look at the various processes to see which process is eating up all of the CPU cycles. That's the program that is causing the problem.

If the latter suggestion is the cause of the problem, you can Google the process name to see what you can do about fixing it.

I don't think you mentioned system slowdown. Does it automatically scale back cuz it gets so hot, or are you just worried about the heat?

You can only add so many fans on there now due to the number of mounts. Using a dremel to add a new fan mount might help a lot, but if you don't have a dremel, kinda hard to do. A better HSF might only help somewhat, but case air itself also matter...

If you want to go low tech and cheap, take the side panel off. Otherwise, get a bay mounted fan, a pci exhaust fan, or dremel a new one.

I did put a thin layer of the paste.
i also tried removing the side panel.
I am not sure when it started. I'v been noticed several gliches for some time now. and i just decided to check out the temp, to see if the heat is what causing it. and as far as i see, it could be the problem.

THe pc wont restart it self once overheated, but its quiet obvious that its not healthy for the CPU to get overheated like this.

Yes, the pc does slow down, once the heat goes up. I dont have any spyware, or viruses.

I can always buy water cooling, more fans and what not. But i still would like to know what can be causing this, and try to solve it without much investment, if possible. As far as i know, the normal temp for p4 3.0 is around 40-50 degrees, and i am going way over it.

I will however, try to play with the fan options in BIOS, and post the results.

Since you did mention that you have the standard or stock HSF, maybe perhaps might want to invest in a 3rd party HSF?

Especially one that pushes air out the rear exhaust fan? (would depend on the CPU socket type)

Also, another quick question, what are your room temps?

not sure, but its not hot at all. I doubt it affects it at any way. I understood the solution, however i still dont know what the problem is. I mean i know for a fact thats not how its supposted to be. perhaps i should turn to the store i bought the HW from and confront them about this or something

No, not really sure if you understand what I was asking.

You said you could always buy watercooling, but for it to be most effective, you will need to spend around $120-150 bucks for decent WC system.

What I was thinking in terms of a 3rd party HSF, was to help the airflow for the rear 120mm fan. Something like Arctic Cooling for example:

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 4 ACFZ4 80mm

That HSF is for the 478 socket, which is $19.99 US. I don't know where you live, so hard to say what products are available to you. That particular HSF, when mounted, should push air to the rear fan.

Room temp on the other hand will also affect you HSF cooling ability. 80F+ will not allow your cooler to be effective to bring temps down, especially on load.

Now in your 1st post, I re-read what you said:

When you say "after restart" does it go back to 45C? If it does, did you check your CPU usage when it was 60C+ using taskmanager? Cause it also makes sense you may have something running in the background. My stock HSF did hit over 60C when the CPU was full load. Though now I use a different HSF.

So when you restart the PC, that task it was performing was stopped, and needs to restart (depending on what task was) to get the CPU usage up to 99-100 percent. I would start to check for spyware or check your startup programs. It might be a certain update programs like windows auto update, or if you have some other anti-virus program.

It does go back to 40 after restart. I seriously doubt that there is some program overloading it. However i havent checked the CPU used once it get hot, i will, and ill post the results. I am sure how ever its no the proccess i know of. I also seriously doubt it spyware/malware/virus, since i am checking for those on daily basis, and keep my programs up to date.

Intels Thermal firmware should slow the processor down automagically. Does your system power off on its own? If so your processor is therm tripping and I would take it back to the reseller for another.

I just noticed thta once the CPU get overheated, the programs begin seriously gliching. everything is slowing down, and i cant open the task manager. Task manager problem usually relates to some sort of virus. Its its quiet possible.

Try running throttle watch.

Throttle Watch

When you say slowdown, that can be a sign of throttling.

But if the CPU is at full usage because of another program, will keep other programs from opening like normal, which I mean snappy.

Hitting alt+ctrl+del should bring up the taskmanger in a second, on Home XP.

The thing is, that the task manager does open, but as a tray icon and i cannot maximize it

If you hit alt+ctrl+del when it is in the icon tray, it should come right back up.

Or you should be able to alt+tab select it that way.

Other then that, you might need to reboot, bring taskmanager up, and leave it up, rather then minimize to the icon tray.