Yet another heat issue

Alright, so... I've got an overheating CPU problem {I bet you haven't
seen one of those for a while!}.

So, a quick rundown... replaced my old and grindy heatsink with a new
one... except when the CPU runs at full capacity, the temperature
gradually creeps up, and keeps creeping up indefinitely {or until the
CPU starts screaming in pre-shutdown agony}.

Stuff that might bear mentioning;
The fan only has three connector pins instead of four. However, since it
came with the heatsink itself, I assumed it shouldn't be a problem.

The specs on the box say that it should go up to ~3K RPM, but SpeedFan
never reported it going more than 2K-ish.

Once the CPU eases off, the temperature quickly drops back into fifties
and gradually down into upper thirties.

There's a consistent layer of thermal paste across the chip. There's a
bit of horizontal wiggle room with the heatsink in place, but it seems
to fit snugly against the chip anyway.

Pictures and crap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120246.jpg and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120248.jpg

Any ideas? This constant game of "I'm not touching youuuuu!" is starting
to get on my nerves.

"Quinch" wrote in message ...
Alright, so... I've got an overheating CPU problem {I bet you haven't seen one of those for a while!}.

So, a quick rundown... replaced my old and grindy heatsink with a new one... except when the CPU runs at full
capacity, the temperature gradually creeps up, and keeps creeping up indefinitely {or until the CPU starts screaming
in pre-shutdown agony}.

Stuff that might bear mentioning;
The fan only has three connector pins instead of four. However, since it came with the heatsink itself, I assumed it
shouldn't be a problem.

The specs on the box say that it should go up to ~3K RPM, but SpeedFan never reported it going more than 2K-ish.

Once the CPU eases off, the temperature quickly drops back into fifties and gradually down into upper thirties.

There's a consistent layer of thermal paste across the chip. There's a bit of horizontal wiggle room with the heatsink
in place, but it seems to fit snugly against the chip anyway.

Pictures and crap: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120246.jpg and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120248.jpg

Any ideas? This constant game of "I'm not touching youuuuu!" is starting to get on my nerves.

If that second picture is of the paste that's on the CPU, you're using way too much. It looks like it's been applied
with a paint roller. It should be a very thin layer, almost thin to the point of being able to read the printing on the
CPU through it. I use an old credit card or similar to smear mine, making sure to clean up any excess from around the
edges.

Once you have the heatsink locked in place, it's not touching those caps showing in the first picture, are they. You
don't mention what CPU you have, but from the looks of the first pic, that heatsink doesn't seem to have much height to
it. My last Athlon 64x2 2.5GHz had one that was a good 1.5" high, and the one that came with my current Phenom IIx2
3.2GHz (with 4 cores unlocked) is almost 2" high.

I'm beginning to see a connection here between Gigabyte MB's, AMD CPU's, and overheating. Since I've been using AMD's
for over a decade now on Asus MB's with no overheating problems, I think I'll stay away from Gigabyte :-)
--
SC Tom

SC Tom wrote:

"Quinch" wrote in message
...
Alright, so... I've got an overheating CPU problem {I bet you haven't
seen one of those for a while!}.

So, a quick rundown... replaced my old and grindy heatsink with a new
one... except when the CPU runs at full capacity, the temperature
gradually creeps up, and keeps creeping up indefinitely {or until the
CPU starts screaming in pre-shutdown agony}.

Stuff that might bear mentioning;
The fan only has three connector pins instead of four. However, since
it came with the heatsink itself, I assumed it shouldn't be a problem.

The specs on the box say that it should go up to ~3K RPM, but SpeedFan
never reported it going more than 2K-ish.

Once the CPU eases off, the temperature quickly drops back into
fifties and gradually down into upper thirties.

There's a consistent layer of thermal paste across the chip. There's a
bit of horizontal wiggle room with the heatsink in place, but it seems
to fit snugly against the chip anyway.

Pictures and crap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120246.jpg and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120248.jpg

Any ideas? This constant game of "I'm not touching youuuuu!" is
starting to get on my nerves.

If that second picture is of the paste that's on the CPU, you're using
way too much. It looks like it's been applied with a paint roller. It
should be a very thin layer, almost thin to the point of being able to
read the printing on the CPU through it. I use an old credit card or
similar to smear mine, making sure to clean up any excess from around
the edges.

Once you have the heatsink locked in place, it's not touching those caps
showing in the first picture, are they. You don't mention what CPU you
have, but from the looks of the first pic, that heatsink doesn't seem to
have much height to it. My last Athlon 64x2 2.5GHz had one that was a
good 1.5" high, and the one that came with my current Phenom IIx2 3.2GHz
(with 4 cores unlocked) is almost 2" high.

I'm beginning to see a connection here between Gigabyte MB's, AMD CPU's,
and overheating. Since I've been using AMD's for over a decade now on
Asus MB's with no overheating problems, I think I'll stay away from
Gigabyte :-)

Alright, I'll try cleaning it off a bit, see if a thinner layer will
help. What do you mean about the caps, though? Also, the heatsink specs
are http://www.spire-corp.com/main/produ...sp?ProdID=1140 , the
CPU is a fairly oldish Athlon x2 dual core at 2.1Ghz.

"Quinch" wrote in message ...
SC Tom wrote:

"Quinch" wrote in message
...
Alright, so... I've got an overheating CPU problem {I bet you haven't
seen one of those for a while!}.

So, a quick rundown... replaced my old and grindy heatsink with a new
one... except when the CPU runs at full capacity, the temperature
gradually creeps up, and keeps creeping up indefinitely {or until the
CPU starts screaming in pre-shutdown agony}.

Stuff that might bear mentioning;
The fan only has three connector pins instead of four. However, since
it came with the heatsink itself, I assumed it shouldn't be a problem.

The specs on the box say that it should go up to ~3K RPM, but SpeedFan
never reported it going more than 2K-ish.

Once the CPU eases off, the temperature quickly drops back into
fifties and gradually down into upper thirties.

There's a consistent layer of thermal paste across the chip. There's a
bit of horizontal wiggle room with the heatsink in place, but it seems
to fit snugly against the chip anyway.

Pictures and crap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120246.jpg and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120248.jpg

Any ideas? This constant game of "I'm not touching youuuuu!" is
starting to get on my nerves.

If that second picture is of the paste that's on the CPU, you're using
way too much. It looks like it's been applied with a paint roller. It
should be a very thin layer, almost thin to the point of being able to
read the printing on the CPU through it. I use an old credit card or
similar to smear mine, making sure to clean up any excess from around
the edges.

Once you have the heatsink locked in place, it's not touching those caps
showing in the first picture, are they. You don't mention what CPU you
have, but from the looks of the first pic, that heatsink doesn't seem to
have much height to it. My last Athlon 64x2 2.5GHz had one that was a
good 1.5" high, and the one that came with my current Phenom IIx2 3.2GHz
(with 4 cores unlocked) is almost 2" high.

I'm beginning to see a connection here between Gigabyte MB's, AMD CPU's,
and overheating. Since I've been using AMD's for over a decade now on
Asus MB's with no overheating problems, I think I'll stay away from
Gigabyte :-)

Alright, I'll try cleaning it off a bit, see if a thinner layer will help. What do you mean about the caps, though?
Also, the heatsink specs are http://www.spire-corp.com/main/produ...sp?ProdID=1140 , the CPU is a fairly
oldish Athlon x2 dual core at 2.1Ghz.

caps=capacitors (those black and silver items above your CPU socket)

That should be enough heatsink for it since IIRC, most of the x2's were ~65W. Do you have any case fans pulling air in,
or are the CPU and power supply fans it? If you leave the side off the case for more airflow, does the problem still
occur? If not, then you need better flow through the case when the side is on. If it does still occur, there MTL is
still a problem with the heatsink and/or fan. Will that new fan fit on the fins of your old heatsink? If so, you could
swap that and see if the overheating goes away. The fan should be blowing down, through the heatsink.
--
SC Tom

SC Tom wrote:

"Quinch" wrote in message
...
SC Tom wrote:

"Quinch" wrote in message
...
Alright, so... I've got an overheating CPU problem {I bet you haven't
seen one of those for a while!}.

So, a quick rundown... replaced my old and grindy heatsink with a new
one... except when the CPU runs at full capacity, the temperature
gradually creeps up, and keeps creeping up indefinitely {or until the
CPU starts screaming in pre-shutdown agony}.

Stuff that might bear mentioning;
The fan only has three connector pins instead of four. However, since
it came with the heatsink itself, I assumed it shouldn't be a problem.

The specs on the box say that it should go up to ~3K RPM, but SpeedFan
never reported it going more than 2K-ish.

Once the CPU eases off, the temperature quickly drops back into
fifties and gradually down into upper thirties.

There's a consistent layer of thermal paste across the chip. There's a
bit of horizontal wiggle room with the heatsink in place, but it seems
to fit snugly against the chip anyway.

Pictures and crap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120246.jpg and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120248.jpg

Any ideas? This constant game of "I'm not touching youuuuu!" is
starting to get on my nerves.

If that second picture is of the paste that's on the CPU, you're using
way too much. It looks like it's been applied with a paint roller. It
should be a very thin layer, almost thin to the point of being able to
read the printing on the CPU through it. I use an old credit card or
similar to smear mine, making sure to clean up any excess from around
the edges.

Once you have the heatsink locked in place, it's not touching those caps
showing in the first picture, are they. You don't mention what CPU you
have, but from the looks of the first pic, that heatsink doesn't seem to
have much height to it. My last Athlon 64x2 2.5GHz had one that was a
good 1.5" high, and the one that came with my current Phenom IIx2 3.2GHz
(with 4 cores unlocked) is almost 2" high.

I'm beginning to see a connection here between Gigabyte MB's, AMD CPU's,
and overheating. Since I've been using AMD's for over a decade now on
Asus MB's with no overheating problems, I think I'll stay away from
Gigabyte :-)

Alright, I'll try cleaning it off a bit, see if a thinner layer will
help. What do you mean about the caps, though? Also, the heatsink
specs are
http://www.spire-corp.com/main/produ...sp?ProdID=1140 , the
CPU is a fairly oldish Athlon x2 dual core at 2.1Ghz.

caps=capacitors (those black and silver items above your CPU socket)

Oh, good heavens no. The first picture is the heatsink already in place.

That should be enough heatsink for it since IIRC, most of the x2's were
~65W. Do you have any case fans pulling air in, or are the CPU and power
supply fans it? If you leave the side off the case for more airflow,
does the problem still occur? If not, then you need better flow through
the case when the side is on. If it does still occur, there MTL is still
a problem with the heatsink and/or fan. Will that new fan fit on the
fins of your old heatsink? If so, you could swap that and see if the
overheating goes away. The fan should be blowing down, through the
heatsink.

The problem occurs with both the cover on and off. The case and CPU fans
share the same motherboard pins, but the problem still occurs if I
unplug the case fan. The old heatsink is too small for the new fan; I've
considered replacing it with the old heatsink/fan assembly {I replaced
it because of increasing noise rather than performance problems, but the
latter usually followed the other} but... let's say that it occurred to
me that I don't know how electrically conductive that oil I spritzed
into it when the idea first came to me is. And yes, the fan is blowing
in the right direction.

Quinch wrote:
SC Tom wrote:

"Quinch" wrote in message
...
SC Tom wrote:

"Quinch" wrote in message
...
Alright, so... I've got an overheating CPU problem {I bet you haven't
seen one of those for a while!}.

So, a quick rundown... replaced my old and grindy heatsink with a new
one... except when the CPU runs at full capacity, the temperature
gradually creeps up, and keeps creeping up indefinitely {or until the
CPU starts screaming in pre-shutdown agony}.

Stuff that might bear mentioning;
The fan only has three connector pins instead of four. However, since
it came with the heatsink itself, I assumed it shouldn't be a problem.

The specs on the box say that it should go up to ~3K RPM, but SpeedFan
never reported it going more than 2K-ish.

Once the CPU eases off, the temperature quickly drops back into
fifties and gradually down into upper thirties.

There's a consistent layer of thermal paste across the chip. There's a
bit of horizontal wiggle room with the heatsink in place, but it seems
to fit snugly against the chip anyway.

Pictures and crap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120246.jpg and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120248.jpg

Any ideas? This constant game of "I'm not touching youuuuu!" is
starting to get on my nerves.

If that second picture is of the paste that's on the CPU, you're using
way too much. It looks like it's been applied with a paint roller. It
should be a very thin layer, almost thin to the point of being able to
read the printing on the CPU through it. I use an old credit card or
similar to smear mine, making sure to clean up any excess from around
the edges.

Once you have the heatsink locked in place, it's not touching those
caps
showing in the first picture, are they. You don't mention what CPU you
have, but from the looks of the first pic, that heatsink doesn't
seem to
have much height to it. My last Athlon 64x2 2.5GHz had one that was a
good 1.5" high, and the one that came with my current Phenom IIx2
3.2GHz
(with 4 cores unlocked) is almost 2" high.

I'm beginning to see a connection here between Gigabyte MB's, AMD
CPU's,
and overheating. Since I've been using AMD's for over a decade now on
Asus MB's with no overheating problems, I think I'll stay away from
Gigabyte :-)

Alright, I'll try cleaning it off a bit, see if a thinner layer will
help. What do you mean about the caps, though? Also, the heatsink
specs are
http://www.spire-corp.com/main/produ...sp?ProdID=1140 , the
CPU is a fairly oldish Athlon x2 dual core at 2.1Ghz.

caps=capacitors (those black and silver items above your CPU socket)

Oh, good heavens no. The first picture is the heatsink already in place.

That should be enough heatsink for it since IIRC, most of the x2's were
~65W. Do you have any case fans pulling air in, or are the CPU and power
supply fans it? If you leave the side off the case for more airflow,
does the problem still occur? If not, then you need better flow through
the case when the side is on. If it does still occur, there MTL is still
a problem with the heatsink and/or fan. Will that new fan fit on the
fins of your old heatsink? If so, you could swap that and see if the
overheating goes away. The fan should be blowing down, through the
heatsink.

The problem occurs with both the cover on and off. The case and CPU fans
share the same motherboard pins, but the problem still occurs if I
unplug the case fan. The old heatsink is too small for the new fan; I've
considered replacing it with the old heatsink/fan assembly {I replaced
it because of increasing noise rather than performance problems, but the
latter usually followed the other} but... let's say that it occurred to
me that I don't know how electrically conductive that oil I spritzed
into it when the idea first came to me is. And yes, the fan is blowing
in the right direction.

Something that just occurred to me - the heatsink clips in to place
rather easily, without much pressure needed. Could that be the problem?
There are little "rungs" on each side of the clip, should I try to move
each side by a step so as to put more pressure with the clipped sink, or
would that risk punching the CPU through the motherboard?

"Quinch" wrote in message
...
Quinch wrote:
snipped for brevity

Something that just occurred to me - the heatsink clips in to place rather
easily, without much pressure needed. Could that be the problem? There are
little "rungs" on each side of the clip, should I try to move each side by
a step so as to put more pressure with the clipped sink, or would that
risk punching the CPU through the motherboard?

Most of the ones I've had that used the center spring clip were pretty hard
to clip. The one I have now clips on one side, and has a lever on the other
side that pulls it down tight onto the CPU. (Click on the picture here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835200042 and you'll
see what I'm talking about.) As long as the CPU is seated properly and you
don't rock the heatsink, you should have no problem by making it one notch
tighter.
--
SC Tom

SC Tom wrote:

"Quinch" wrote in message
...
Quinch wrote:
snipped for brevity

Something that just occurred to me - the heatsink clips in to place
rather easily, without much pressure needed. Could that be the
problem? There are little "rungs" on each side of the clip, should I
try to move each side by a step so as to put more pressure with the
clipped sink, or would that risk punching the CPU through the
motherboard?

Most of the ones I've had that used the center spring clip were pretty
hard to clip. The one I have now clips on one side, and has a lever on
the other side that pulls it down tight onto the CPU. (Click on the
picture here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835200042 and
you'll see what I'm talking about.) As long as the CPU is seated
properly and you don't rock the heatsink, you should have no problem by
making it one notch tighter.
Yep, the old one used the same mechanism, which reminded me of the
possible pressure problem. Pretty sure I'll need to dismount the
heatsink to do it, though. Either way, wish me luck.

Quinch wrote:


Something that just occurred to me - the heatsink clips in to place
rather easily, without much pressure needed. Could that be the problem?
There are little "rungs" on each side of the clip, should I try to move
each side by a step so as to put more pressure with the clipped sink, or
would that risk punching the CPU through the motherboard?

Are there reviews available for whatever brand of heatsink/cooler
you're using ? Did anyone else notice that it fits loosely ?

The brand on the fan looks like "Spire", so perhaps it's something
from here ? Some of the coolers have different power ratings than
the others.

http://www.spire-corp.com/main/produ...p?ct=3&cat1=19

It should be a snug fit, but not so tight that when you work the
levers or clips, it causes pain. I've had coolers on Intel systems,
where something would have snapped, before I got them closed. I
used an after-market cooler and it fit, no problem at all.
Sometimes, there is a mechanical tolerance issue, and some part
of the cooler or motherboard stack, just doesn't have the right
dimensions.

And a bad fitting can happen, if you're mixing "mobile" parts
with "desktop" parts, as some of those have different height
dimensions.

Some motherboards have a backing plate under the CPU, to control
flexure. And the topic of flexure is addressed by Intel, in
some of their design documents (I doubt I could find the
appropriate slide deck in my docs collection though).
On the plus side, the motherboard is made of fiberglass,
and is pretty strong. On the minus side, you can snap the
solder balls on BGA devices, if you get carried away with flexure.

Paul

In article , Quinch wrote:
Alright, so... I've got an overheating CPU problem {I bet you haven't
seen one of those for a while!}.

So, a quick rundown... replaced my old and grindy heatsink with a new
one... except when the CPU runs at full capacity, the temperature
gradually creeps up, and keeps creeping up indefinitely {or until the
CPU starts screaming in pre-shutdown agony}.

Stuff that might bear mentioning;
The fan only has three connector pins instead of four. However, since it
came with the heatsink itself, I assumed it shouldn't be a problem.

The specs on the box say that it should go up to ~3K RPM, but SpeedFan
never reported it going more than 2K-ish.

Once the CPU eases off, the temperature quickly drops back into fifties
and gradually down into upper thirties.

There's a consistent layer of thermal paste across the chip. There's a
bit of horizontal wiggle room with the heatsink in place, but it seems
to fit snugly against the chip anyway.

Pictures and crap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120246.jpg and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h/PB120248.jpg

Any ideas? This constant game of "I'm not touching youuuuu!" is starting
to get on my nerves.
That looks like a little too much compound on the cpu. The idea is not to make
a barrier between the cpu and heatsink but to basically fill in the
microscopic gaps between the cpu and heatsink. Take at least half of of that
compound and reattach. The cpu and heatcink IMHO are not even touching
properly.