CPU temp has suddenly doubled

md99 · 19 Oct 2008 at 00:27

I've got an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16ghz cpu which has been running in my new rig for a little over a fortnight. Everything was quite literally cool until just tonight when I noticed through various hardware monitors that its temp has doubled. It ran an almost constant 16-19 degrees since fitting it but now I am getting temps of 39 degrees (Riva Tuner v2.11) 32 degrees (BIOS) and 31 degrees (Speedfan & Asus PC Probe 2).

Everything else remains unchanged and normal, my graphic card, hard drives, motherboard etc.

The only noteworthy things I've done with my PC today were installing Tomb Raider Legend (it was after playing this I noticed the temp was up) and charging my wireless 360 pad from one of the PC's USB ports.

What could the problem be?

BarKeep · 19 Oct 2008 at 00:43

Either you live in a fridge or your monitor programs were giving silly results. 32 C is fine. What are your core temps at idle and full load?

AntiHeroUK · 19 Oct 2008 at 00:43

I doubt the 16-19 degrees were accurate in the first place, as in most cases that would be below room temperature which on air is impossible. The 32/31 degrees in your BIOS and speedfan are likely the most accurate but try downloading CoreTemp or RealTemp and post your temperatures.

The temperatures as they stand are perfectly fine on what I am assuming is the CPU cooler that came with the processor. Nothing to worry about.

Also I see you mention the temperature had risen after playing tomb raider. I assume you know that whilst playing a game your CPU is put under load thus increasing the temperature?

konam4 · 19 Oct 2008 at 00:46

16-19 are far too low so they'd be incorrect. 32 isn't far from the lowest you'll get it really.

md99 · 19 Oct 2008 at 00:51

BarKeep said:
Either you live in a fridge or your monitor programs were giving silly results. 32 C is fine. What are your core temps at idle and full load?

Well, my case is an Antec 900 and I've got a third party cooler attached to the cpu. Since putting this PC together the cpu temp as I said has been running a constant 16-19 degrees according to several monitors. They would be the idle temps and under load, mid thirties. My PC is now idle and has been for the past half hour and the temp is reading 34 (source: Real Temp).

I acknowledge that they are perfectly reasonable temperatures but why this very sudden jump in figures? And if this new temp is correct, why have all my monitors been giving pretty much the same incorrect figure for the last two weeks or so?

konam4 · 19 Oct 2008 at 00:55

Are they hard thermometers in the case?

EDIT: Are they also saying 34 or are they still giving incorrect figures?

md99 · 19 Oct 2008 at 01:03

konam4 said:
Are they hard thermometers in the case?

EDIT: Are they also saying 34 or are they still giving incorrect figures?

Do you mean actual physical PC thermometers? If so, no.

Here is what is currently going on in an idle state..

zzzJonny · 19 Oct 2008 at 02:19

I'm not sure why, but your current temps aren't bad.

md99 · 19 Oct 2008 at 10:19

Well, here is what is happening under the hood this morning.

As you can see, they are pretty erratic results. The temp figure in BIOS states 21.5 degrees. Just which one do I go with?

I've had a peek inside the case and all the fans are working, the CPU cooler is pretty much welded to the cpu and I've even felt the mainboard in the effected area and it's fine.

md99 · 19 Oct 2008 at 10:37

And here we are after a frantic ten minute fire fight on a maxed out version of FEAR running at 1680 x 1050.

BIOS temp reading has raised a paltry 2 degrees whilst Speedfan shows slightly increased figures too.

Asus Probe, Riva Tuner and Real Temp don't show any increase and remain in a zombie like state.

I apologize for the image links but I've just spent almost €1000 on this PC and after having serious temp problems in the past my alarm bell has well and truly been rang.

RJC · 19 Oct 2008 at 10:57

Run prime or Orthos for couple of hrs and see what the temps do.
Speedfan and the Asus monitor could be taking the temps from the heat spreader or socket.
You are also running with speedstep enabled, which helps reduce power ect.
The max recommended temperature of the cpu is around 72c.

BarKeep · 19 Oct 2008 at 11:03

Is there a BIOS update for your motherboard?

What happens when you run Test Sensors in Real Temp?

fobose · 19 Oct 2008 at 11:52

My "CPU" temp is 18c in Everest Ultimate, however the "Core" temps are 30c each, so perhaps you were mistaken with this?

md99 · 19 Oct 2008 at 12:11

fobose said:
My "CPU" temp is 18c in Everest Ultimate, however the "Core" temps are 30c each, so perhaps you were mistaken with this?

Maybe you are correct. Just found this posted on a lot of various boards elsewhere...

The "CPU" temp is measured by the Motherboard sensor chip, and is the external temp of the CPU socket. Whereas the "Core" temp's are measured by the CPU using an on-die thermal diode, hence they're the internal temp of each CPU core. On Intel processors core temp's are usually at least 10°C-15°C higher than the "CPU" temperature.

Same thing as you've typed, yes?

BarKeep & RJC, thanks for the suggestions but it seems as if the above is probably correct.