CPU over-heating when HD is accessing and on YouTube but not playing HD videos?!?

[DavidSWP]

Hi,

I've not been here for a few year (got married) but used to post quite a lot. Not sure if anyone remembers me. Any I have an overheating problem.

I'm trying to decide on which new components I need to buy to fix it The specification is:

Windows 7
Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Gigiabyte S-Series GA-MA770-DS3/S3 rev 2 motherboard
4 gb DDR memory (corsair but can't remember exact spec)
1 tb samsung hdd, blu ray player
Geforce 9800 GT (BFG)


The CPU is overheating and the computer is shutting down automatically mainly when playing YouTube videos (CPU is at about 25% in these cases) but not when playing full HD videos in VLC media player (when it is at 40-50% load and doesn't get much hotter). It's also often shutting down when installing software (doing lots of disk accessing) and when I tried to play Skyrim.

I set the bios to give an audible warning when the CPU temp reached 70c and its definately a CPU overheating problem because it starts giving the warning intermitently and then constant and then shuts down. The heatsink on the CPU is too hot to touch with my fingers at this time. The rest of inside of the case is cool and the same with the side off.

The heatsink and fan is something I got from PC World after I started having problems like this with the stock cooler. I can't remember what the make and model was but I thought it would do the job because I am not overclocking and the rest of the case is cool. One weird thing is that the part of this heatsink base which makes contact with the CPU die does not completely cover it. I thought this was extremely odd (said it supported socket AM2 and AM2+) but it did perform better than the stock cooler for a while and I had temps of about 40% idle and no shutting down. I am assuming that because the heatsink is red hot (fan is running) that heat transfer is not a problem so I am assuming its a problem with the CPU, motherboard or PSU. I just don't know what to replace. Does anyone have any advice?

Regards,

Dave WP

 

[Daichin]

Install speedfan/coretemp/hwmonitor and monitor the temperature so you know exactly what temperatures you are reaching.
EDIT (only posted half of the post, lol),
Is the fan on your heatsink spinning up faster under load?

I haven't heard of any issues with the motherboard or PSU or CPU causing heat issues to be honest.

It might be worth reseating your heatsink.

 

[DavidSWP]

Hi,

Its set to shut down at 90c. Bios says 75c after restarting. I had speedfan installed a few weeks ago and it was getting up to 85c then. I've read plenty of things about fauty CPUs causing overheating problems and about PSUs too (supplying incorrect voltage - though I think its rarely that). I never head about a motherboard causing it but I'm assuming it can.

Its just weird that installing sotware would do it and watching HD video wouldn't - maybe part of the CPU concerned with certain types of data transfer is faulty.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Daichin]

Pretty sure the motherboard handles the CPU voltage.

Try installing hwmonitor and take a look at the cpu voltage and temperature.

The maximum operating temperature (core) for your processor is 63 degrees C, so bear that in mind. It could have quite possibly been operating at much too high a temperature and become damaged.

 

[DavidSWP]

Pretty sure the motherboard handles the CPU voltage.

Try installing hwmonitor and take a look at the cpu voltage and temperature.

The maximum operating temperature (core) for your processor is 63 degrees C, so bear that in mind. It could have quite possibly been operating at much too high a temperature and become damaged.

Hi,

HWMonitor gave:

Voltages:
CPU VCORE min:1.09 V max: 1.42 V

Temperatures:
Core #1 min: 46C max: 90C
Core #2 min: 45C max: 102C

So I guess its not shutting down at 90C like I said. This was while installing MS Office 2007 and the CPU was between 40 and 80% usage.

 

[Tealc]

Heatsinks should not get hot unless they are passive ones and even then within reason. Slightly warm maybe but never hot.

What cooler is it by the way? If you have no idea maybe take some pics, and especially of this not fitting the die properly. Strange you say die though as most modern CPUs have heat spreaders. Is it just terminology or has the IHS been removed?


Some inconsistencies here though. If the cooler were not making contact it would not get hot. If the fan is working it should cool down he heatsink. A bit strange that it isnt. Is the heatsink full of dust? If its a top down cooler you might need to remove the fan to see. If there's a full layer of dust insulating the heatsink from air it will get hot.

 

[DavidSWP]

Heatsinks should not get hot unless they are passive ones and even then within reason. Slightly warm maybe but never hot.

What cooler is it by the way? If you have no idea maybe take some pics, and especially of this not fitting the die properly. Strange you say die though as most modern CPUs have heat spreaders. Is it just terminology or has the IHS been removed?


Some inconsistencies here though. If the cooler were not making contact it would not get hot. If the fan is working it should cool down he heatsink. A bit strange that it isnt. Is the heatsink full of dust? If its a top down cooler you might need to remove the fan to see. If there's a full layer of dust insulating the heatsink from air it will get hot.

Hi,

This is the cooler:

http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/detail?sArticle=4.?

Yes sorry, just a terminology thing, I didn't know that was a heat spreader. What I should have said is that it doesn't cover the heat spreader.

It is not very dusty. I threw out the stock cooler because it was dusty and I couldn't blast the dust out with canned air. This one only has a modest springling of dust at most and between the fins aren't clogged up.

I just tried to undervolt the CPU in the BIOS but the computer either blue screened or wouldn't even start. So I set the CPU voltage to 'Normal' rather than 'auto' and this time I was able to install MS office, but the CPU cores still reached 85C.

I am thinking of buying a Phenom 4 or 6 core processor to replace this and a new cooler, possibly the ZALMAN CNPS 9900 MAX Processor cooler but I don't fancy replacing these only to find out its a PSU or motherboard problem and possible break the new CPU.

 

[Tealc]

Well not a wonderful cooler to be fair but should be ample for your AMD 6000+ I would have thought. It's not ultra critical that it doesn't fully cover the IHS as the major heat producing sites are more central.

This is very odd you know. It's not clogged up but is getting very hot. That suggests the cooler can't cope with the amount of heat watts that it needs to dissipate. After a bit of research the 6000+ either has a 125W TDP or 89W TDP which is pretty high but still the AC freezer 7 should cope with it.

What speed is the fan running at when it's showing these high temperatures? I would have thought that at stock clocks you'd not experience thermal cut-out even if the fan were running slow.

When you boot from cold what temperatures does the BIOS show the CPU to be running at?

I'm not sure but maybe there's something wrong with your CPU that is causing it to create extra heat for some reason. If you incorrectly wire an IC it will often heat up very quickly, so maybe similar things happen with CPUs if something internally goes wrong with it.

 

[DavidSWP]

Well not a wonderful cooler to be fair but should be ample for your AMD 6000+ I would have thought. It's not ultra critical that it doesn't fully cover the IHS as the major heat producing sites are more central.

This is very odd you know. It's not clogged up but is getting very hot. That suggests the cooler can't cope with the amount of heat watts that it needs to dissipate. After a bit of research the 6000+ either has a 125W TDP or 89W TDP which is pretty high but still the AC freezer 7 should cope with it.

What speed is the fan running at when it's showing these high temperatures? I would have thought that at stock clocks you'd not experience thermal cut-out even if the fan were running slow.

When you boot from cold what temperatures does the BIOS show the CPU to be running at?

I'm not sure but maybe there's something wrong with your CPU that is causing it to create extra heat for some reason. If you incorrectly wire an IC it will often heat up very quickly, so maybe similar things happen with CPUs if something internally goes wrong with it.

The fan is running at 1300 rpm. Boot from cold the CPU is at 45C

 

[Tealc]

Well that sounds normalish to me. My Athlon used to run pretty warm do I assume that 45 is fine.

So I can't add anything further, at least not with what you've given to go on.