CPU keeps overheating, no idea why!

Brumboy

Brumboy

Brumboy

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11 Jan 2011
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Lately the CPU has been overheating randomly.

It'll hover around 68-70 degrees doing normal tasks then if I run a virus scan/play a game it will heat up to 85+ degrees which causes the computer to blue screen/restart.

Then when it does restart it fails to load Windows due to the high temperature so I have to literally leave the computer off for 10 minutes or so to completely cool down so it will boot up properly. It boots up normally around 62 degrees anything more and it'll reach 70+ degrees before Windows loads and I get the "CPU high temperature" etc

I don't understand why this is happening because according to HWMonitor and AI Suite II the CPU fan is running at around 2100 RPM and Power Fan at 1500RPM.

Anyone have any theories or know why this is happening? I didn't build my computer so I'm not exactly confident to just open it up, and even if I did I wouldn't know what to do, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
What cooler are you using? Might be worth cleaning the dust out and re-seating it with some fresh thermal paste and go from there.
 
andy_mk3 said:
What cooler are you using? Might be worth cleaning the dust out and re-seating it with some fresh thermal paste and go from there.
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The stock Intel cooler that came with the i5 2500k, it's been perfectly fine up until now (bought the computer January 2011).

Cleaning the dust between the CPU cooler & CPU? Is it just a case of unscrewing the CPU cooler, dusting then screwing it back in?

I don't think I have any thermal paste though.
 
Buy a can of compressed air, you can get it in supermarkets usually I believe, that's the safest way to blast any dust out, no need to remove anything to clean it.

I'd say it would be a good idea to upgrade your cooling a bit though, especially if you're running at 4GHz.
 
So I literally just use the compressed air around the CPU cooler fans, I won't need to unscrew the CPU cooler/apply thermal paste then?

I'm not running it at 4GHz anymore, it's running at the stock 3.7GHz, just hope the CPU isn't damaged from the increased temperature.
 
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Blow out dust from all case fans to keep good airflow, not just the CPU cooler. Graphics card may also be very dusty including its fan. That may account for overheating when gaming, though I'm not sure about the virus scan part. A better cooler and decent thermal paste such as Arctic Cooling MX-2 or MX-4 would be much better too, or even just the thermal paste with the stock cooler would be an improvement.
 
Check the CPU voltage in CPUZ. It shouldn't be much higher at 1.3v for 4.0GHz if at all. Your overheating is either the auto-voltage is using way too high volts, or your CPU cooler not seating properly.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I opened the case and cleaned all the dust (there was quite a bit), I then found out that the cables from the CPU cooler got stuck in the fan so the fan wasn't even spinning even though the computer reported it running!

So now the CPU is at 35 degrees and around 45 degrees on load.

BUT now the USB devices don't seem to be working very well. The keyboard doesn't work, it works for a brief period of time when I switch it to another USB socket.

Any idea why this is happening? as soon as one problem is fixed another arises!!!
 
Logitech Cordless Desktop® EX 110.

I'm using a wired USB keyboard at the moment which is working fine but I cannot get the Logitech to work at all.

I've tried shutting down/restarting, I've uninstalled the drivers/reinstalled and it doesn't work.

The keyboard does show up in device manager but that's about it.
 
Wireless :o

If the wired is working, then it might be something to do with the wireless adapter. Have you tried the keyboard in a USB 2.0 slot?
 
Orcvader said:
Wireless :o

If the wired is working, then it might be something to do with the wireless adapter. Have you tried the keyboard in a USB 2.0 slot?
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Yeah I've been swapping it around in all the different USB 2.0 slots. I've deleted the drivers and reinstalled, Windows searches for drivers and installs them (driver is from 2006 though), then after it's completed installing it doesn't work still.

Justintime said:
Not used that one, but is there a connect button on the keyboard or receiver?
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Yeah there is, I've tried a few times and it does connect (the flashing icon on the receiver stops and turns green).
 
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