AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Overheating

[chadsvb]

I have a HP Pavilion a 1483w. The Athlon 64 X2 4200 is Socket 939.

My computer has been turning off. I went into the BIOS and the CPU temps are crazy! Just looking at the temp in BIOS, it got up to 70C! It will start off at around 45C and slowly work it's way it to 70C. If I load Windows, it goes up to the mid 90C range and cuts off completely.

I'm using the stock HS and Fan. I've got some thermal paste, which i have applied (after completely removing the old thermal strip that was on it). I turned it on for a couple of minutes to let it get warm, then turned it off so the thermal paste could set up good. No luck. Same temps.

Anybody got a solution on this? I've seen several people on forums with this problem, but none of the threads were complete (people posted their question, got a reply and never came back...).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chad

 

[Nik_I]

either your chip is bad, or the heatsink isn't on properly. thirdly, make sure the heatsink isnt full of dust so that it can actually cool the cpu. a simple solution would be to get a new heatsink. the stock amd one isn't very good.

 

[rodney_ws]

Those are obscenely high temps for that CPU and I'm surprised it makes up to the 90s. I was under the impression that the X2s had a much lower temperature ceiling... like mid 70s. Since you said it slowly builds back up, be sure to check the airflow in your case... are you using the tower in an enclosed desk? I had a computer desk once that was completely enclosed (it had a door that I had to leave open)

Like Nik_I said... obviously you want to make sure the CPU heatsink is properly fitted to the socket.

 

[IH8U]

Another good idea would be to go to the local BB, CC, or even WalMart and pick up a can of air (spray duster) and blow all the dust out of the case.


As a side note, put your PC on the desk after cleaning it out, and DO NOT smoke near the PC!

If you want to go the route of a new HSF, I recommend this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186010
$13 and still better than the stock cooler

 

[swat9uk]

im runing the adm 6000+ d/c and i had a big problem with the heat ,even though i was useing the recomended heatsink and fan at the time ,in the end to cure my problem i whent out and brought evo blue akasa ,it is big then with a 120 fan rear of case pushing pulling that heat out , as well as the main one on the evo and my temp are stable now under full load , they say the cpu compound can take a long time to set the longer its on the lower the temp will go eventuarly ,some people prep the heatsink first with a light grade of wet and dry give it a key , some might agree some might disagree on that , some other things you could check out is the bios if you have that cool and quite option that will raise and lower the temp the evo is a good option with support for 939 am2 sockets but you have to take out the hole board to fit the mounting brackets under it
good luck

 

[dokk2]

there is obviously an air flow problem,i just sold my 4200 with original hsf and never had a problem with it,
,, it was even over clocked a little,most psu's on amd [off the shelf] mobo's have a fan on the bottom of the psu right above the cpu and most off the shelf cases have the option to install another exhaust fan opposite the cpu,

you just need to find a way to install another fan somewhere to help with the exhaust [out that is]...

 

[mstrpig3000]

i am having an overheat issue with the same processor, athlon 64x2 4600 manchester on an asus a8n-sli mobo. it has a zalman cnps 7700 heatsink/fan, which should be more then enough to cool it (i've remounted it twice,once with the entire cpu thinly covered with arctic silver, and another time with a ball of arctic silver the size of a small pea in the center of the cpu, both methods i was sworn by pros was the "only" way of applying it!). it's not overclocked. and there's a gig and a half of ram. i reduced it to 1 gig and saw they were placed in the correct sockets. i set the mobo's bios to default, and tried a recommended setting as well.
in all cases, it idles at 40-50 celsius, and gets to 65 - 72 with hardly any load at all. the recomended v core voltage is 1.35v-1.4v (according to wikapedea). according to the pc probe it's vcore voltage ranges from 1.32 (mostly) and occassionally hits 1.26v to 1.34v. i've been told that should'nt be enough to cause the overheat. i too cannot afford to spend too much more sorting this out. i'm wondering if it could be a setting i have to make on the mobo(ram timing settings), if the v-core is the problem.
i would so apreciate help with this, i can't afford to go through much more money, and i have to make my living with this thing. thank you so much.

 

[mstrpig3000]

by the way, the case fans are top notch and placed correctly, 120mm fan in the front sucking cool air in and 80mm on the side pulling warm air out,(both noctua), -cheers

 

[markofealing]

I have the same problem with a Athlon 64 x2 4200 socket 939. Tried Arctic Silver 5 with a stock AMD heatsink temp climbed at 1 deg per every few seconds viewing via the HW monitor in the BIOS.

Replaced heatsink, used an Arctic Freezer 64 heatsink, plus Arctic MX-2 paste, no difference.

Replaced CPU, problem solved. Faulty CPU.

Believe CPU had previously overheated by me using standard heatsink paste, after that it was downhill and the speed of overheating got worse.

Assume the mechanical thermal adhesion between the CPU and the underside of the cpu chip heat spreader (case) has failed.

Can this heat spreader be removed and the thermal adhesive replaced?

 

[erpp]

The temp climb rate does not look normal.
But there is a factor I just found out about, by chance, yesterday: If your CPU supports AMD Cool & Quiet, it must first be enabled in the BIOS (it must also be supported by the motherboard). But this is not enough - you must also select the option "minimal power management" in:
"Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options".
I believe CPU fan control must also be enabled in the BIOS power tab.
The only place I have seen this written was in an ASUS motherboard manual. We also have a Gigabyte, and there is no mention of it. Of course, if you Google "Cool & quiet" + "minimal power management", you get 10000+ results - but this is working backwards, after you already know about it. My other Google searches trying to lower idle temps did not lead me to it.

As to the stock heatsink and fan: I have obtained decent results with the stock heatsinks for AMD Athlon XPs 2500+ & 2600+ (for the latter I bought 2 or 3 modestly priced HSFs that brought no improvement), and also for AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (this is a 125 W CPU, it used to get to about 65 C after about 30 min of ORTHOS - 100% CPU usage; it now idles at 31-34 C vs. 40+ C before, and seems to stay stable in the 50+ Cs for about 10 minutes of ORTHOS - did not let it go further, for room temp about 30 C; after I discovered the "minimal power management" thing, of course; I did put in a 5000 RPM fan - stock was about 3000 RPM). I had built this system in january 2008 and it had idled at 40+ C, till yesterday. Good results also for Athlon 64 X2 4800+, it does not idle as cool as the 6000+, but still is at 38-41 C, and stable in the low 50s for the first few minutes of ORTHOS), for 30 C room temp. I did put the 6000+ stock CPU fan on it. Haven´t even changed the thermal paste. In short, fairly decent results with stock heatsinks, and modest fan changes. I do not overclock. Both PC cases are well ventilated.

For the little I have seen of the CPUs themselves, it doesn´t look like the heat spreader could be removed - but I am no expert.

If anyone doesn't know about the "minimal power management" setting, I would say this should be the starting point for any high idle temp issue.
Also, I don't think that Cool & Quiet works at the BIOS level

Excuse if these comment do not address your case directly, but I was surprised about how difficult it was for me to find out how to activate Cool & Quiet, despite it being such a basic feature in AMD processors. Good luck.

 

[erpp]

If your PC has been in use for a while and CPU overheats, you might want to take off the CPU fan to make sure that the heatsink is not clogged with lint - this is probably more likely if the floors have carpet.

One of my neighbors had a pentium IV PC that used to overheat and shut down, and this was the reason (where did all the lint come from, I do not know) - it used to happen about every 6 months or less. I also know someone whose power supply blew because the grill at the front was completely covered by a mat of accumulated lint.

For the Athlon 64 X2s, the fan are held on the heatsink by a plastic frame with attaches to it by means of little plastic tabs - it took several close looks to find out where they were. There are no screws. Pentium IV system was similar.

 

[hipsterical]

ditto, lately my temps were high but yesterday it hit over 75 C° and it was because of a layer of dust heaped up between CPU fan and heatsink. good that my machine sits in a very cold room... after the cure and adding a chassis fan just to pimp things up, temps dropped from 35-75 to 9-55 C° but even under heavy load it rarely makes it above 50 C° . definitely, this is not a dirt-tolerant cpu. oh, mine is an Athlon 64x2 6000+ (Brisbane) with stock fan/heatsink .

 

[size]

try over clocking the CPU fan to full speed or 100% and disable smart fan