PC keeps shutting down, CPU temps up to 120! What should I do?

maxgnr

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Apr 10, 2012
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Hi there, Im hoping you guys can help me decide how to solve this issue i've been having with pc. Basically my PC would sometimes shut down on me and from time to time it won't even load my OS forcing me to reinstall it.

I was suspecting that the piece of crap Asus motherboard that I've got might be causing the problem, but last week my stock PSU burnt out so I thought maybe THAT was the problem. So, I decided to buy a decent one just to be safe. After installing the new PSU I started monitoring the temperatures on my PC and I found out that my CPU temps were going insanely high when playing games or streaming media to my gaming console.

Here's the screenshot of Aida64,off the freaking chart!
CPU cooling fan rpm is a constant 3392
System specs:
CPU: DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2500 MHz (12.5 x 200) 4800+
Mobo: Asus M2A-VM HDMI
Ram: 2GB
GPU: GeForce 210, 512mb
OS: W7 Ultimate 64

I know I should update almost everything inside the case but money is tight right now so I need to pinpoint what's causing the problem to replace that 1st.

Anyway, thanks for reading! :)
 
Solution
1. are the instake/exhaust fans blocked by a wall or carpet?
2. are they full of dust?
3. Is the fan on your CPU heatsink spinning (actually look, don't take the reading for gospel)? Is it full of dust?

If all of those aren't the issue, the next step is to reapply thermal paste to your CPU heatsink. You can get a tube at radio shack or a local PC parts dealer for $5-10.

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head that would cause temps like that.

goodguy713

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Oct 23, 2009
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check to make sure the fan is running on your cpu cooler .. aslo have you reseated or checked it to make sure that it is correctly locked into place you may need to take the cooler off and re-apply thermal paste
 
1. are the instake/exhaust fans blocked by a wall or carpet?
2. are they full of dust?
3. Is the fan on your CPU heatsink spinning (actually look, don't take the reading for gospel)? Is it full of dust?

If all of those aren't the issue, the next step is to reapply thermal paste to your CPU heatsink. You can get a tube at radio shack or a local PC parts dealer for $5-10.

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head that would cause temps like that.
 
Solution

goodguy713

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Oct 23, 2009
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by the way watch out for that geforce 210 i had one catch fire in a computer before.. not one of mine but when it burned out there was a lot of smoke .. lol lucky it didnt take the rest of the computer with it..
 

maxgnr

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Apr 10, 2012
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Thanks for the replies, I haven't done a cleanup in a while so I'm going to give that a shot. Tomorrow I'm buying the thermal paste and I might look for a better cooler. I'll report the results. Thanks for your advice :)
 

maxgnr

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Apr 10, 2012
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Hey guys, quick update! I did a full cleanup and the heat sink indeed had a lot of dust on it. I couldn't reapply thermal paste cause I went to four different stores and none of them had it and couldnt point me to a store that did. Btw, I checked and the thermal paste on my cpu was virtually non-existant.

After the cleanup my PC would shut down seconds after I hit the power button, I double checked all the cables and tried one last time and it worked. The problem was that when I checked the temperaturas it was heating really fast even with almost no tasks running it was getting to 90ºC and then went down to 45ºC. screenshot Do you guys think this has got to do with the thermal paste? I'll keep looking for it during the day.

Laugh123: I used Aida64's trial version
 

kramerdk

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Mar 25, 2012
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Ya, don't turn the PC back on until you get some thermal paste on the CPU. If you took the HSF off the CPU and then didn't put any back, you've basically got a lot of air in between the two and the CPU is super-heating.

Get some TP, clean the CPU and HSF and apply the new grease.
 

maxgnr

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Apr 10, 2012
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10,510
Ok guys, found some thermal paste, read some guides and watched some videos on how to apply it and after putting my PC on the same scenarios that would make it shut down two days ago, the temperatures are back to normal. 30-35ºC and around 65 under a lot of stress.

Thanks for your input and advice. With your help it turned out to be really easy to fix this :)