Excessive CPU temps on new built PC.

[Tesoni]

Running off of a GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 Motherboard with Intel Core i5-3570K and an EVGA GTX 680, 16gb RAM, in a COOLER MASTER HAF 932 case with 850 watt PSU my CPU is running 90-100+ C imediatly after startup. I had no issues at all until it overheated the first time while I was playing Guild Wars 2. Now it overheats and shuts down almost instantly. Any ideas what might be causing this and how to fix it?

 

[burgessanthony]

thermal paste issue maybe, or incorrect seating of cooler. are you overclocking it with the stock cooler, or do you have an aftermarket cooler?

if stock, replace with aftermarket. clean all old paste off, put rice-grain size of new paste, place cooler carefull making sure properly pushed down, then try again

 

[Tesoni]

cleaned off a bunch of paste and reseated the cooler. Not sure what was the issue, but is now running no higher than 70, and should be workable until I can aquire some alcohol and find my tube of paste.

 

[azathoth]

The issue was improper application of the thermal paste, and/or improper installation of the heatsink.

 

[Tesoni]

Best answer selected by Tesoni.