Phenom 945 (x4) idle at 48-56C, used to idle at 38C

[Falsepuppet]

Before we begin, here's my rig:
Phenom 945 (x4)
8 gig Samsung DDR2
MSI 790GD70 mobo (AM2+)
Radeon 5770 x1
Cooler Master HAF 932 case ( I have plenty of airflow)

Ram never idles above 17%
CPU never idles above 3% (with all background programs ie. steam, zune, CCC, logitech LCD manager, AVG scans etc.)

I do not OC. Well... except for my GPU.

BUT, I have noticed in resource manager that my HDD is writing quite a bit of things, and its really taking a long time for it to do it.

So what could cause a decent idle temperature to skyrocket into a very unacceptable range like 56C?
Can thermal paste go bad in a year's time?

 

[JDFan]

HAve you cleaned out the fans on the inside of your case lately (esp. if you have pets cat and dog hair can quickly clog the Heatsink fins causing the teps to increase) - What temp is the room the system is in (during the summer idle temps can go pretty high if you are in a hot environment with little AC) - You mention OCing the GPU - the 5xxx series cards will normally underclock themselves when idle to (157/300Mhz. helping to keep the inside of the system case cooler - (but OCing even a little will stop the card from doing this and cause the GPU to idle much higher ( 400/1275 Mhz.) raising the GPU idle temp which also adds quite a bit more heat inside the case effecting other components)

 

[Falsepuppet]

I have cleaned out my CPU heatsink and fan with an airduster.
Dont have any pets except for a parrot, and i would notice a big green feather in my sink
Your right about the GPU being 157/300Mhz, JDFan.
However, when I'm idle, I reset my CCC to "normal" settings as I dont like to put unneccasary strain on my parts.
I am using AMD Overdrive to get all of this info, but BIOS is backing up this info.
I have 1.35v going to all 4 cores (normal)
The HAF 932 has PLENTY of airflow, and I have another fan resting on top of my graphics card that forces hot air out an "exhaust" fan.
As for room ambeint, its only about 72F in there (about 20C)
Thanks for the replies! Im sure we can find out whats wrong.

 

[brendz155]

new thermal paste / grease pad

or clean case out

 

[Falsepuppet]

Can thermal paste go bad in a year's time?
I don't leave my computer on all the time, actually for probably 16 hours of the day its off. last summer it was idle at 38C, but now, its having issues, especally with IE.
Google chrome lets me at least keep my insane 48C temps, but a 10C change in a year is a little extreme right? Its past its cook in period so it should be cooler.
And since its an AM2+ socket, I dont want to have to tear my rig apart just to find out my paste was fine. (very tedious process removing a cpu heatsink from an AM2+ requires removing the MoBo from case to access the back of MoBo)

 

[Falsepuppet]

To follow up:
Is there a certain type of aftermarket cpu fan/heatsink that is really reliable for the Am2+ socket?
Ive read some pretty nasty reviews on cpu fans on newegg, even though a lot of those sound like user errors.
Has anyone had really good performance with their aftermarket cpu fan/heatsink?
(Must fit AM2+ socket.)

 

[Falsepuppet]

The 932 should have a hole in the Motherboard tray so you could remove the heatsink without taking everthing apart. Though are you using the stock fan? Those are simply clipped on.

BTW, did you update the BIOS lately? Is CnQ on? Is the heatsink becoming loose? Did you add new case fans lately?

Thanks for the fast direct responses Timop,
As for BIOS, no I havent yet, can that be done through MSI (or anyother Mobo supplier?) or do I need to be able to read the left side of BIOS? becuase mine only has one native resolution (720x480) and it doesnt expand on to my 1368x786 (16:9) I guess i need that update

I can no longer find CnQ on my comp.
My Mobo has the capability, I just havent found it, is it a physical dial like my forced OC is?
Or is it a software, similar to the way CCC would manipulate fans?

I have rearranged fans once I started noticing it become hotter and hotter.
And I have added 1 fan to direct air away from my cd drive area (top of case, behind faceplate.)

That leaves me with checking the secure-ness of the heatsink.
Once I do that I'll have more info.

Thanks everyone for helping out.

 

[Falsepuppet]

Best answer selected by falsepuppet.

 

[Falsepuppet]

The 932 should have a hole in the Motherboard tray so you could remove the heatsink without taking everthing apart. Though are you using the stock fan? Those are simply clipped on.

BTW, did you update the BIOS lately? Is CnQ on? Is the heatsink becoming loose? Did you add new case fans lately?

I don't know how you called it, but the heatsink was the problem.
Kudos to you good sir.
Ive never heard of a CPU heatsink coming loose before. But it doesnt have dampeners, so I guess I can understand it becoming loose with all of the 120mm fans the HAF 932 has.

Thank you Timop

 

[Falsepuppet]

Heres my final stats on AMD overdrive:
Freq: 3000Mhz
Multi: x15
Volt: 1.35
Temp: 36.6

Thanks a lot! Who know that a small problem like a heatsink slipping could cause such high temps?

 

[Falsepuppet]

Yeah, over clocking CPU has never been a priority of mine, since non of my games can ever get past 40% CPU usage (according to logitech LCD manager on G15)
I read a case of some OCers getting their 965s up near 7Ghz with liquid helium. Is that possible? And how would that even be useful? There would be data loss in the higher freq range. Multi core is better than higher freq IMO. but since I can AMD overdrive more cores, looks like im s*** out of luck. Oh well. We'll all look back on x6 core 10 years from now and laugh.