Hi guys,
The kids' PC has been running like a dog for a few weeks now, which I suspected was the CPU self-throttling due to heat. I finally got around to cracking the case open today and...
It was so thick with dust the HSF (Arctic Cooling Alpine 7) had no vents/fins clear at all, and the fan was bogged down in thick dust 
The tower sits on a hardwood floor in the thoroughfare between the front door and dining room, so it tends to accumulate crud very quickly.
I removed the HSF, disassembled it completely, and gave it a damn good clean out before wiping the base with isopropyl alcohol. I cleared the case, fans, PSU etc and then put the HSF back on the CPU using some thermal grease. It's a Celeron D 352 3.2 Ghz BTW (yeah sucky I know).
Temps before the clean were hitting 75+ degrees idle (ouch) and the PC was understandably running like a legless midget
The first time I booted I didn't get much past POST before the mobo beeped twice and shut down. I checked the bios on next boot and it said "The PC was shutdown due to a CPU overheating event" (or similar). This is/was the first time I'd ever fitted a HSF so I figured I'd fit it wrong or it hadn't fully seated or whatever.
Cue HSF re-removal, a second thorough clean with isopropyl alcohol, new grease spread as evenly as possible, and the fan getting re-seated. Now it boots fine and has survived several Prime stability tests no problem. The HSF is also much, much quieter lol The temps are still quite high though, so I'm worried I've messed up fitting the HSF or something. I only used a small amount of grease and spread it out as evenly as I could before (finally) getting the cooler to click into place.
Under 100% load after a few mins the "remote" (actually CPU, speedfan mixes them up) hits 68 degrees and stays there. The second it gets to 69 degrees it goes back to 68, and so on. I know that's high, but given the weather, the general hot location of the case etc, is this acceptable? Or did I make a boo-boo?
Bearing in mind before I removed the HSF at all temps were into the late 70s, this is an improvement = I did it right, right? Given that the case/ambient temps are into the 50s a 15 degree climb under 100% load isn't that bad is it? (EDIT: BTW, it boots and runs like greased lightning again now - no more cruddy slow performance).
I'm hoping with a few days to 'cure' the temps should come down a bit more.
Thanks in advance for any help/guidance/ridicule at the mess I gone done made
The kids' PC has been running like a dog for a few weeks now, which I suspected was the CPU self-throttling due to heat. I finally got around to cracking the case open today and...
It was so thick with dust the HSF (Arctic Cooling Alpine 7) had no vents/fins clear at all, and the fan was bogged down in thick dust The tower sits on a hardwood floor in the thoroughfare between the front door and dining room, so it tends to accumulate crud very quickly.I removed the HSF, disassembled it completely, and gave it a damn good clean out before wiping the base with isopropyl alcohol. I cleared the case, fans, PSU etc and then put the HSF back on the CPU using some thermal grease. It's a Celeron D 352 3.2 Ghz BTW (yeah sucky I know).
Temps before the clean were hitting 75+ degrees idle (ouch) and the PC was understandably running like a legless midget
The first time I booted I didn't get much past POST before the mobo beeped twice and shut down. I checked the bios on next boot and it said "The PC was shutdown due to a CPU overheating event" (or similar). This is/was the first time I'd ever fitted a HSF so I figured I'd fit it wrong or it hadn't fully seated or whatever.Cue HSF re-removal, a second thorough clean with isopropyl alcohol, new grease spread as evenly as possible, and the fan getting re-seated. Now it boots fine and has survived several Prime stability tests no problem. The HSF is also much, much quieter lol The temps are still quite high though, so I'm worried I've messed up fitting the HSF or something. I only used a small amount of grease and spread it out as evenly as I could before (finally) getting the cooler to click into place.
Under 100% load after a few mins the "remote" (actually CPU, speedfan mixes them up) hits 68 degrees and stays there. The second it gets to 69 degrees it goes back to 68, and so on. I know that's high, but given the weather, the general hot location of the case etc, is this acceptable? Or did I make a boo-boo?
Bearing in mind before I removed the HSF at all temps were into the late 70s, this is an improvement = I did it right, right? Given that the case/ambient temps are into the 50s a 15 degree climb under 100% load isn't that bad is it? (EDIT: BTW, it boots and runs like greased lightning again now - no more cruddy slow performance).
I'm hoping with a few days to 'cure' the temps should come down a bit more.
Thanks in advance for any help/guidance/ridicule at the mess I gone done made
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