Complicated Hestink issue

[marcop313]

ok i dont know if im posting this in the right category but here goes.
I have a heatsink that is wearing out (Foxconn) so i bought a new one off of ebay :http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Pentium-4-socket-478-CPU-heat-sink-fan-clips-paste_W0QQitemZ250482702072QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a51eeb6f8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Waited 4 days and it came in. I then installed it and the computer ran fine till it went through 2 seconds of windows and then shut down. i started it back up and then it did some beep where it was one higher pitch then a lower pitch twice. The Bios loaded up and said the CPU overheated but before I could press f4 to continue it shuts down again! so i assumed its the heatsink thats defective. send it back exchanged it and tried it. Same exact thing! so i put back the old foxconn to see if it works. Haha it did so that was puzzling. Found another (Name brand-Masscool) and tried that. it did the same thing and shut off. so my sudden curiosity was to put back the foxconn and it STILL worked. I have a Intel Desktop D875PBZ with a socket 478 3.0 ghz HT northwood processor, 2gb memory, with nvidia bfg geforce 5500 graphics card (PCI), a sound blaster live sb0410 (PCI), two case fans and a 580watt power supply. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Newf]

Thermal paste.
Did you clean off the cpu and the heatsink mating surface with alcohol and apply fresh paste to them?

 

[marcop313]

I just reapplied the grease and it worked. its been on for a half hour and nothing has happened so far. i guess i never put enough 'cuz this time i put extra and it worked. i'll see how it works for the next couple of days. In the mean time... THANK YOU!

 

[marcop313]

IT WORKS thank you so much and now i have my computer running again . i guess it was from not putting enough thermal grease.

 

[ampedal]

you should only need to use a small ammount.

I typically wipe down the chip and heatsink with isopropyl alcohol wipes.

Then I do 4 very small beads in the corners, and 1 in the middle. Then I use a single edge razor and gently smooth the beads to cover the surface, increasing pressure as I go along.

Giving the chip surface a thin but even coating has been most effective for me - I have been using Arctic silver 5 for the past few years but have recently switched to arctic silver ceramique with similar results (testing to see its endurance). Although, I still recommend AS5 as the tried and true thermal compound.