My e8400 is running extremely hot

[spacedementia87]

I have a HTPC that has an e8400 in it. It sometimes randomly switched off, most often whilst watching high-def films. So I checked the temps by running real temp.

And at idle it was saying around 70C. I couldn't believe this so decided to run the calibration, but of course the PC just shuts off after running it for a minute or two, i guess as the temperature gets too high.

What could be the problem?

I am only using the stock cooler but surely it isn't THAT bad, it works fine on my desktop that has the same CPU.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sid_nag17]

try reseating it with a new layer of thermal paste and clear all the dust and sort the the cables of your system.

also check your bios for voltages

 

[spacedementia87]

Yeah, I was going to try that today.

Going to go out and get some more paste to reseat it.

I have sorted the cables as much as I can I think. I will try some more, but obviously being a HTPC it is fairly cramped.

I was wondering if it could be a faulty temperature sensor. is that common?

 

[sid_nag17]

i would ruke out the faulty temp sensor since your comp is shutting down when you are running any cpu intensive apps. try coretemp or hwmonitor or everest to see whether your temps are okay and check your bios for overvolting.

 

[10tacle]

I agree. Download and run HWmonitor. I use that regularly when benchmarking. But 70C in a HTPC that's most likely not even working hard is insane. My 8400 being overvolted to 1.45 for short term OCCT overclock stress testing didn't even hit 70C on air (with good airflow).

 

[spacedementia87]

Ok I went out to maplins and bought some new paste to reseat it and while i was there picked up a new HSF. only £13 but is a fair amount bigger with a bigger fan. Just seated that, and will let you know the results in a bit. Saying I need to run the BIOS because I have changed the CPU. So need to steal the keyboard from this computer before I can do anything!

 

[spacedementia87]

OK, this is much better.

idle at ~30C

running prime95 now. odd thing is though realtemp seems to say i am running at 2GHz

I'll need to check the BIOS again.

 

[cjl]

That's because at idle, you should be running at 2GHz. It helps save power and produce less heat.

 

[spacedementia87]

But it wasn't actually kicking up under load.

Turned out my multiplier was set at 6 for some reason.

 

[sid_nag17]

thats the power saving feature!!

so how did you get such high temps?

 

[AKM880]

Maybe the stock Intel cooler wasn't seated properly...(pushpins)