Help athlon 64 2800+ overheating

[bhk5013]

Hello,
It's been several years since I've been on this forum. So long in fact that I cant remember my username. Anyways here is my problem. I've recently turned back on a computer that I left at my parents house several years ago that has seen minimal use in 2 years or so. My cpu (athlon 64 2800+) is running extremely hot (idling around 60-65 c). Before I turned the computer back on I made sure to clean out any dust that was inside the casing and made sure all fans were running properly.
Specs are:
athlon 64 2800+
msi k8n-fsr neo
ati 9800 pro

I can't figure out why it is running so hot. When the computer was in daily use idle temp used to be around 28-32 c. The motherboard is reading around 30 c so I don't believe it''s a airflow problem considering nothing has been changed inside. I tried turning off cool n quiet and it made no difference. Can anyone possibly tell me why this is happening? I did update to service pack 2 for xp pro but i don't think that could of caused this.
I checked in bios and the temp was about the same so it's not the program I'm using. I thought it could be a sensor problem but the heatsink is hot to the touch.

any suggestions?

 

[dokk2]

put in new TIM,arctic silver 5 or equivalent..???..

 

[cliffro]

put in new TIM,arctic silver 5 or equivalent..???..

^+1

 

[doomsdaydave11]

Maybe the computer was moved a few times while you were gone, and the cooler was rattled loose. I would reseat the whole thing and put on some fresh Arctic Silver 5.

Remember to clean both the HSF and CPU with isopropyl alchohol, so no debris is left.

I'm almost certain that would fix the problem. Good luck.

 

[bhk5013]

thanks for the replies. I reset the heatsink and it seems to be alittle better (45-50 c) right now. Not sure if it's cause the computer was off for a few minutes or if resetting the heatsink worked. I will go out and get some new thermal paste when I have a chance.
Is there a better a cpu for socket 754 that I can get? I know that the computer is very old by today's standards but times are hard and a lack of money has forced me to revert back to this pc for the time being. Maybe a cpu that I can overclock better?

 

[bhk5013]

oh and another thing, cpu temperature seems to get higher when my external harddrive is connected. Can this happen?

 

[bhk5013]

wow, shortlived. After plugging in external harddrive temperature went up from 45-50 c to 55-60 c. I don't get it.
the voltage readings seem fine.

 

[nukemaster]

Remember to turn on Cool'n'Quiet it should reduce the temps to the mid 30's.

Get the cool n quiet driver

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/AMD_Processor_Driver_1320053.zip

Set you power management to minimal power management.

Also male sure it is on in the bios and any fan speed control under hardware monitor is turned OFF.

The temps going up with the external drive may be just the cpu working harder to run it and even virus scan it as many virus scanners scan on the fly.

 

[bhk5013]

hello,
I enable cool n quiet and it did not help. I do not have any virus scan installed and turning off the external harddrive makes the temp drop by 5-10 degrees. The cpu has no load when the drive in attached so I don't get why it raises the cpu temperature. It is connected by usb but draws it's power from a powercord and not the computer itself.

 

[nukemaster]

get cpu-z and see if the cpu speed and voltage are in fact dropping.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Should be ~1.6ghz @ load and ~1.0ghz at idle

 

[bhk5013]

no, the cpu speed and voltage are not changing. I enable cool n quiet in bios and ran the driver you suggested and still no change.

 

[bhk5013]

update so far. I flashed the bios to the latest version. Now bios is reading cpu temp at around 40c which seems good to me. Coretemp in windows however is reading it at around 60c.

 

[nukemaster]

You have to go under power settings and enable minimal power management

Set the power settings under display(right click properties or go into the control panel) -> Screen Saver -> Power to Minimal Power Management.

Here are 2 A64's i have with CnQ on and temps

Lappy idle(on batteries it basically runs like a A64 2800)

Idle

Load on bed with vents covered over 50 the 2nd fan kicks on and drops it. on a table it never has to go on.

A64 3200+ in an Antec Sonata case. Idle. with a pic of the power management option

 

[bhk5013]

thank you.
I enabled cool n quiet and it seems to help with the temperature problem. The only thing is that the computer seems to have slight freezes. Is that normal?

 

[nukemaster]

no, it should not do that. could there be a program that does not like the cpu frequency changes? Is your bios up to date.

 

[bhk5013]

okay, I think i have figured out the problem. This is pretty strange, but after some googling I have found other people with similar problems. There seems to be a problem with the usb driver in sp 2 that can cause a spike in cpu temperatures. I didnt believe this could be the cause but after alittle trial and error I connected the usb mouse to a usb-ps2 connector, and reconnected the usb external harddrive. Right now the cpu temp is holding steady in the 40s. A little higher than it should be, but I think that's understandable without reseating the heatsink with some new thermal paste. Has anyone ever heard of something like this? It seems pretty rediculous to me, but as long as my computer isn't crashing I'm happy. After connecting the harddrive before I would immediately see a increase in cpu temp and I haven't yet so far.

 

[cliffro]

considering USB uses the CPU to accomplish its tasks, I can easily see a borked driver doing that. using way more CPU Time and thus causing the CPU to heat up

 

[nukemaster]

Strange, my system in the pictures (3200+) has a USB mouse,keyboard,ups(APC),MCE remote and DVD burner.

Lappy has been used with an external 500GB hard drive without heat issues.

I will give them both a try with my 1000GB external to see if there is any difference.

Maybe it was a problem that needed a bios fix?

 

[bhk5013]

i thought that could be the case so I updated the bios and it didn't make a difference. I updated the chipset drivers too but that didn't make a difference neither. I used this fix I found searching for a answer:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=175466&cid=14588517
I'm not so sure that it made a difference thought.