Crazy CPU temperatures?

[xii4obear]

So, using a few different CPU monitoring programs, they all tell me my processor's temperature at minimum is 88 degrees and 99 at max.
They're in Celsius. I'm not very well versed at this, but won't my silicon technically be almost hot enough to boil pure water?

 

[AdrianPerry]

What monitoring programs are you using?

I suggest trying HWMONITOR and if you could post a link to a screen shot of the temps its showing.

88 degree's is far too high really, and 99 is reaching the "blow up" point. Do you have a heatsink/fan properly attached to the CPU?

Temps should be more like, 30 degree's idle, 65 degree's max load (as a rough guideline).

 

[xii4obear]

I'm using HWMONITOR!

So I haven't really cared about my rig's wellbeing much since I built it, and the lurking around the Tomshardware forums made me curious about it.
Installed, looked, almost had a seizure.

Strangely, nothing out of the ordinary is happening.
Still runs nice and smooth.

 

[AdrianPerry]

Well your obviously looking at the right thing because I'm seeing 99 degree's too across your CPU cores!

I think you will probably have to put it down to a faulty sensor or something. What CPU are you using? What cooler are you using? Is/was thermal paste applied when you built it?

 

[13thmonkey]

can you run coretemp, and see if you can get full clockspeed whilst its at those temps. There's a really really remote possibility that it is at those temps and it throttling. But if it can run at full speed at those temps then the cpu doesn't believe there is a problem. I say core temp as it'll shpw speed and temp at the same time.

 

[xii4obear]

I'm using the stock cooler and yes, thermal paste was applied.
And sure, will run core temp now.

 

[may1]

It says that the CPU is i7 860.

Possible faults include:
Bad CPU chip, or faulty sensor on MB
Bad cooling

For bad cooling, see if the temp goes down when you install a brand new compatible cooler.

For bad cpu chip or sensors, run prime 95 and see how the temp changes.

 

[13thmonkey]

It says that the CPU is i7 860.

Possible faults include:
Bad CPU chip, or faulty sensor on MB
Bad cooling

For bad cooling, see if the temp goes down when you install a brand new compatible cooler.

For bad cpu chip or sensors, run prime 95 and see how the temp changes.

Easier than that for bad cooling.

start machine, start hwmonitor, let it settle down, CPU's heat up very quickly, so you won't see it being cool. Put it in standby (not hibernate). Let everything cool down. bring it out of standby, you should now be able to watch the CPU temps rise.
If it is bad reading then they'll start high and stay high, if it is a bad cooling solution then they'll start low and get high.

 

[xii4obear]

Under load whilst running a benchmark.

Under load whilst running prime 95

 

[13thmonkey]

Is there a bios update for you mobo, read the change logs between your bios and the latest and see if it has been addressed? If the chip believed it had a problem then it would have throttled back I believe.

 

[xii4obear]

Going to try out the troubleshooting steps as stated by 13thmonkey.
How long should I wait for it to cool?
Currently in an air conditioned room.

 

[13thmonkey]

you can get your bios revision from cpu-z

 

[13thmonkey]

Going to try out the troubleshooting steps as stated by 13thmonkey.
How long should I wait for it to cool?
Currently in an air conditioned room.

10-15mins should be enough to get a bit of a delta. I'd be really surprised if you have an actual cooling problem, so I wouldn't be too concerned, the magic smoke would have escaped a long time ago if you know what I mean.

 

[xii4obear]

It's lower.
What.
Really worried now D:

 

[xii4obear]

I have kinda a theory.
Maybe the degrees are in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius.
If they're in Fahrenheit, it'll match up pretty nicely with my ambient room temperature of 20 degrees Celsius.
Just theorycrafting though, any suggestions?

 

[13thmonkey]

OK, some people wil say that teh tsock cooler is rubbish, its not rubbish, its good enough for the job, which is to get rid of 95W of heat from the CPU, whilst maintaining an acceptable temp.

Can you open your box and try to wiggle each of the four legs that secure the cooler to the board, they are called push pins, and they have been known to creep loose a little, and they are a royal pain in the backside to fit, it requires a lot of force, they should all be rock solid. Be careful as the heatsink may be hot, if its badly fitted it probably won't be though, so if you do happen to touch it, let us know how much it hurt

I duobt you have an F to C issue as 66F is only 18-19C it wouldn't have cooled by that much and that is nearly below ambient.

 

[xii4obear]

Sure, will do it soon.
Thanks loads
I'll report back when I've completed this quest.
FUS ROH DAH!

 

[xii4obear]

Uh another question.
I put my computer under load for quite long using prime 95,
shouldn't it have crashed and rebooted if the idle temperature is already so close to the TJMAX?

 

[13thmonkey]

thats why I wanted to see speed at load, they have the ability to slow down so that they don't create as much heat.
If your cooler is hot then its a bad reading... as there is thermal contact between chip and cooler, and therefore the cooler is just applying physics.
is fus roh dah the shout for arrgh its hot?

 

[xii4obear]

:O the only thing I can relate to hot would be yol, and that's fire.
shutting down now.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Open the case while running your benchmark. It should be pretty obvious to figure out whether that 100C reading is real or not.

 

[13thmonkey]

Open the case while running your benchmark. It should be pretty obvious to figure out whether that 100C reading is real or not.

For system temp yes, but the CPU is going to hidden under the heatsink, if the heatsink is badly connected to the cpu then that 100C will remain hidden.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Hm, that's true. Then open the other side if you have a CPU cutout in the mobo tray try and hover your hand about the rear of the CPU slot :lol:

 

[rndmavis]

My advise is to touch the CPU under load. If you incurr a second degree skin burn, then your CPU should be okay, other than your skin. But a third degree burn usually means your going to brick something. It is also hard to type with third degree burns so maybe use a toe and your forehead to test he burn results. ---- of course this is not to be taken seriously

On a serious note, if you really are hitting those crazy high temps, you need to figure out the problem. Sounds liek some good advise has been given so just start at the easiest ways to troubleshoot thru trial and error and keep the thread updated with your changes and attempts.

 

[rndmavis]

Something that came to mind is that you will need to make sure that you haven't manually set the CPU fan control to a low %. You'll want it set to automatic FAN speed thru your bios. This may have been suggested, but I didn't see it during my skim thru.

Another thing, make sure you have your CPU fan plugged into the CPU fan input on your mobo. Maybe your mobo is not increasing the fan spead to the correct one. It should be a 3 pin plug.