Need help - Temps out of control after reapplying paste

FlyingPig

FlyingPig

FlyingPig

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10 Jul 2011
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Hi,

You may remember my thread from last month about some cooling issues on my rig.
It took me a while to get to it, but I've finally reapplied the thermal paste. Unfortunately, it seems that I've only made the problem worse and CPU temperatures are higher than ever. I've only got Chrome open at the moment and it's sitting at 80C :rolleyes: The blend test in Prime95 takes it to high 90's.

I read a lot of instructions and watched videos on how to remove and reapply thermal paste, but obviously I messed it up somewhere. I'm using Arctic Silver 5 on an i5 2500K CPU, and a Corsair H60 (v1) cooler. I tried to remove some dust with some compressed air but hardly anything came out of it and I can see through the radiator, and feel the air coming out, so it seems to work OK from what I can see.

Which means it must be the thermal paste. Below are some pictures. I tried 3 times. First time was following the AS5 instructions, using the vertical line method and "priming" the heatsink. I'm pretty sure I used too much, a rookie mistake I guess:

first.jpg

first2.jpg


Cleaned it all off with 99% Isoproyl and reapplied, this time using the pea method:

2015-03-06%2015.20.19%20%28Medium%29.jpg

2015-03-06%2015.20.09%20%28Medium%29.jpg


It seemed better this time but probably needed a bit more, so cleaned it all off again, also the edges that had some paste residue left, and reapplied, this time leaving the heatsink "clean" and using a vertical line again on the CPU. Temperatures are still high.

Any ideas? This is all very frustrating but I hope I can fix it myself somehow.
 
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I used coffee filters to clean it with, but then this was my first time doing this so who knows what I did wrong. Seemed easy enough on Youtube videos. I was careful when seating the heatsink.

Question: I'm thinking of buying a normal air cooler like the Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-RT&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2666) and to just take out that 4 year old AIO Corsair H60 cooler. Good plan?
Who knows there is a leak there somewhere as there is indeed blue around the edge of the heatsink, though I can't see any spills on the motherboard. I'd need to have a look at how the air would have to be pushed out of my rig then as the AIO is coupled to that radiator at the back (and is on at 100% all the time now, making a lot of noise in an attempt to cool it down).
 
I may try it again later on today, but I'm not sure what to do differently. I contacted OcUK again as this rig was built by them, so let's see what they say. I might try to get in touch with Corsair too as it could be the AIO cooler, version 1 of the H60 was a bit dodgy apparently (but out of warranty). Then again, even when I took off the heatsink last month to have a look and put it back on, the temperatures never reached 90C when simply browsing the web, so the variable here is me removing the original paste and putting on the Arctic Silver 5 paste.
As a sidenote: am I damaging my 2500K chip while still using this computer for office stuff? (temps around 70-95). From what I can see it should be able to handle it until I find a solution.
 
Hmmm, you may be on to something. I didn't realise they were supposed to spin that fast. Here's what my HWMON is saying:

h60rpm.PNG


It's that 1800rpm, right? That should be higher then?
 
Pc-guy, so are you saying you think what I had in the first picture was fine?
Temperatures before were also high, though nowhere near as high, and I got reboots when gaming for longer sessions, which was the whole reason for me ordering and reapplying the thermal paste. See
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18653970 for the original thread.

In the meantime I've actually taken the radiator and fan off completely and removed all the dust. Not that there was much. Doesn't really seem to make much difference, but I'm glad I did it as I understand this cooler better now and at least I know what to do when installing a new one -- doesn't seem like too big of a big deal.

2015-03-07%2012.40.10%20%28Medium%29.jpg


Speaking of which, I think I might just order a basic air cooler and see how I get on with it. Am I correct in assuming that all I need to order is something like the Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler and that I can reuse the big Corsair fan that pushes the air out of the case? (and leaving that whole radiator out then)

Don't know much about coolers at all but this one seems like a new kid on the block that is good value, and even if it doesn't make a difference for me it won't have broken the bank. Any other suggestions?
 
Been reading up a bit on the Corsair forums and one issue might be the pump not having enough power, with some people suggesting to plug it straight into a MOLEX connector on the PSU. The way it has been running all these years was that it was plugged into the SYS FAN 4. I then plugged it onto the SYS FAN 3 right next to it, and it went from 1800rpm to around 1780 in HWMON. Then I plugged it into the SYS FAN 1 (a more awkward position in terms of wiring) and something interesting happened:
h60-2.PNG


5000rpm? So all is well with the pump after all then? Still high temps, so put it back in SYS FAN 4 for now.

Checked my BIOS and disabled Smart fan control, no difference, and it's all set to 100% from what I can see.

So, still nothing we can say for sure then?

@deFiniLogGy, this H60 is almost 5 years old now, so yeah, maybe it is simply giving up the ghost. Thermal paste was completely removed from the block but as per Arctic Silver I primed the surface with a very thin layer, and on my third attempt didn't put anything on the heat sink, just the small pea on the CPU. I might just do it one last time and really clean everything thoroughly, though I should probably just order an air cooler.
 
Almost 4 years actually, got my rig end of July 2011. Time flies!
I never monitored the temperatures until a few months ago. Yes, that was stupid but I had no idea at the time.
Could have evaporated though I heard the liquid moving about when I cleaned the radiator.
Anyway, I've just ordered a 20 pound Raijintek air cooler so hopefully that can sort things out.
One question I have is, when removing the h60 aio cooler, I take it I also remove the radiator that came with it, but I can reuse the 120mm Corsair fan that came with it? Or would it be prudent to order a new one? (as silent as possible, though that all depends on how often it has to go to 100% I guess, so that Corsair one may be just fine?)
 
Indeed, I meant as an exhaust. The main thing is to get the temperatures down and then I'll start worrying about noise.
Ocuk got back to me and I'm a bit puzzled by their reply as it was them who built the pc. Either way I've got some reading up to do about removing the AIO and installing the air cooler, not sure if I'll have to remove the backplate or not, whether that means I need to take the motherboard out, etc.

Their suggestion :

It may be worth trying to attach washers along with the cooler, so in order, place cooler on pegs, place washers then screw down.

This can help give more thread to the actual screw because there is less room for the screw. Also I would check to see if the back plate of the cooler is in on the correct orientation, the back plates for those coolers are tricky and sometimes can be put on wrong.

As seen here http://www.pureoverclock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/341.jpg
There are 2 screws in the back of your motherboard, on the backing plate you should have 2 cut outs for these screws, if the back plate isnt on in this exact way it will not be making correct contact, at all.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for all your input.
The air cooler has been shipped, might take a few days before it gets to this island!
In the meantime I reset everything to default in my BIOS and the voltages with just Google Chrome and HWMonitor open are lower, around 1V, but still getting temperatures of 95C. I'll just wait until I take out that H60 cooler and replace it with the new one, fingers crossed that's the solution. If not I might just throw 500 quid at this and upgrade my CPU and motherboard, though I was hoping to stretch it another few years (could do with a smaller case though).
 
Well then...

newcooler.PNG


:) New cooler installed without too much trouble, dare I say I'm proud of myself!

Need to have a look at air flow and case fan but so far so good, temperatures are better than I've ever seen on my rig.
 
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