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#1
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
Long story (background in thread "Newbie: 3 lots of CPU temp in
SpeedFan? 2 of them are overheating ..." from last week) but in short I have an over heating problem, I've done some tests, and today I realised that the CPU heat sink is not getting warm at all but by contrast the much smaller motherboard heat sink does warm up. So the question I have is, what possible scenarios could stop the CPU heat transferring to the heat sink? I've pulled it off of the CPU to check that there is the usual 'grey' solution there and there is. Any help much appreciated on this one. I originally thought there was a problem with the heat sink and fan but to fair the fan is keeping cool a heat sink that is not even getting warm in the first place, hence my problem with the computer just switching off. So I need to figure out why the CPU can't transfer its heat to the heat sink. FYI I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 CPU. Thanks |
#2
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
On 8 Dec 2006 16:55:44 -0800, "Dundonald"
wrote: Long story (background in thread "Newbie: 3 lots of CPU temp in SpeedFan? 2 of them are overheating ..." from last week) but in short I have an over heating problem, I've done some tests, and today I realised that the CPU heat sink is not getting warm at all but by contrast the much smaller motherboard heat sink does warm up. So the question I have is, what possible scenarios could stop the CPU heat transferring to the heat sink? I've pulled it off of the CPU to check that there is the usual 'grey' solution there and there is. Any help much appreciated on this one. I originally thought there was a problem with the heat sink and fan but to fair the fan is keeping cool a heat sink that is not even getting warm in the first place, hence my problem with the computer just switching off. So I need to figure out why the CPU can't transfer its heat to the heat sink. FYI I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 CPU. Thanks When the system is idling, the CPU will run cool enough that the heatsink will not feel hot. You would have to put the system under good load, perhaps run Prime95's Torture Test to heat it up and then feel it, or even better to check a software, hardware monitor report or note the temps reported in the bios health or hardware monitor page. If when you took the 'sink off, it looked as though there was reasonable contact between it and CPU from the impression left by the thermal interface material, it should have been good enough to warm the heatsink if the CPU were overheating. In other words I doubt it was overheating at all, but you have disconnected this post from the prior thread so I don't have that information to refer to. When the system switches off can you immediately turn it back on with the power switch or is more necessary first, for example needing to unplug it from AC power for a few moments? |
#3
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring itsheat to heat sink?
Dundonald wrote:
Long story (background in thread "Newbie: 3 lots of CPU temp in SpeedFan? 2 of them are overheating ..." from last week) but in short I have an over heating problem, I've done some tests, and today I realised that the CPU heat sink is not getting warm at all but by contrast the much smaller motherboard heat sink does warm up. So the question I have is, what possible scenarios could stop the CPU heat transferring to the heat sink? I've pulled it off of the CPU to check that there is the usual 'grey' solution there and there is. Any help much appreciated on this one. I originally thought there was a problem with the heat sink and fan but to fair the fan is keeping cool a heat sink that is not even getting warm in the first place, hence my problem with the computer just switching off. So I need to figure out why the CPU can't transfer its heat to the heat sink. FYI I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 CPU. Thanks When a heatsink that is adequately connected to a heat source is cool, the the heatsink system is working properly. Heat runs only from hot to cool. What is this "motherboard heatsink"? You did not gang up a secondary heat sink to the main heat sink, did you? If you could accomplish something like this then it is no wonder your CPU is shutting down. Secondly, SpeedFan is not infallible. Q |
#4
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
Dundonald wrote: Long story (background in thread "Newbie: 3 lots of CPU temp in SpeedFan? 2 of them are overheating ..." from last week) but in short I have an over heating problem, I've done some tests, and today I realised that the CPU heat sink is not getting warm at all but by contrast the much smaller motherboard heat sink does warm up. So the question I have is, what possible scenarios could stop the CPU heat transferring to the heat sink? Lack of paste. (apparently not your situation). Heatsink on crooked/backward. Broken mounts/mounts not seated. Diagnostic software lying. I've pulled it off of the CPU to check that there is the usual 'grey' solution there and there is. Any help much appreciated on this one. I originally thought there was a problem with the heat sink and fan but to fair the fan is keeping cool a heat sink that is not even getting warm in the first place, hence my problem with the computer just switching off. So I need to figure out why the CPU can't transfer its heat to the heat sink. FYI I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 CPU. Thanks |
#5
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
"Dundonald" wrote in message
ups.com... Long story (background in thread "Newbie: 3 lots of CPU temp in SpeedFan? 2 of them are overheating ..." from last week) but in short I have an over heating problem, I've done some tests, and today I realised that the CPU heat sink is not getting warm at all but by contrast the much smaller motherboard heat sink does warm up. So the question I have is, what possible scenarios could stop the CPU heat transferring to the heat sink? I've pulled it off of the CPU to check that there is the usual 'grey' solution there and there is. Any help much appreciated on this one. I originally thought there was a problem with the heat sink and fan but to fair the fan is keeping cool a heat sink that is not even getting warm in the first place, hence my problem with the computer just switching off. So I need to figure out why the CPU can't transfer its heat to the heat sink. FYI I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 CPU. You have too much thermal paste. It is NOT a replacement for metal-to-metal contact. It simply has a faster thermal transfer rate than *air*. You want only enough to fill the microscopic pits in the mating materials. It should be translucent when you put it on (i.e., thin enough that it looks translucent). Lapping helps to better mate the surfaces but rare few users bother and even fewer know how to do it. Could be cheap paste - if it is paste. Remove it and apply fresh paste. If it is a pad instead of paste, you just ruined the pad by removing the heatsink so you will need to remove it and use another pad (but paste is better provided you know how to apply it). Could be you did not put the heatsink onto the CPU so that it is flat. Even if you gob on the paste, it won't help it the heatsink is on at a angle so that one side of the CPU isn't even touching the heatsink (and, as mentioned, paste is not a substitute for metal). Could be you didn't select the correct sensor in Speedfan (i.e., whatever is selected for the CPU really isn't the CPU's sensor). Could be Speedfan won't work with your motherboard; i.e., it doesn't have the lookup table for that setup or it is using the wrong table, a defect that also occurs in Motherboard Monitor (MBM). Have you tried the monitor software from the maker of your motherboard? When you look at Speedfan and then reboot but go into BIOS, do the temperatures listed in the BIOS match what Speedfan said? When specifying temperatures (in your other post), be sure to specify F (Fahrenheit) or Celsius (C). At 40 F, you are very VERY low in temp. At 40 C, you are a long way aways from overheating and that is considered a very good temperature for an AMD (Intels run cooler). The AMD is rated to 80 C although some setups seem sensitive starting around 70 C (but also check the BIOS settings to see what is set for max or shutdown temperature). I have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ that is overclocked (by upping the FSB from 166 to 200) because the Barton can handle that so mine is the equivalent of a 3200+ (same as yours). I have Speedfan configured to reduce the fan speed until the "Desired" temperature is 60 C (i.e., when the fans should come up in speed which increases noise) and warn at 65 C. The BIOS is set to shutdown at 72 C. Stop listening to all those folks that are overclocking and who are trying to minimize their temperatures. They lower their temps so they can overclock more (and probably also have to up their voltages, too). Are you overclocking? I've been overclocking my AMD for several years and letting it go to 60 C (usually runs at 45-50 C) and the system has been very stable. I did lap the heatsink and I did use better paste (but not silver Artic since it is a wasted expense except to extreme overclockers) along with replacing the standard heatsink and fan with bigger units. Even if I had not been able to overclock the Barton, I would still not worry about the CPU running at 50 to 60 C. The AMDs are rated to 80 C (some to 85 C). If your AMD system is shutting down after only reaching 50 C when you run your video software, the problem is with your video software, not with the CPU temperature. |
#6
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
Joel wrote: "Dundonald" wrote: Long story (background in thread "Newbie: 3 lots of CPU temp in SpeedFan? 2 of them are overheating ..." from last week) but in short I have an over heating problem, I've done some tests, and today I realised that the CPU heat sink is not getting warm at all but by contrast the much smaller motherboard heat sink does warm up. So the question I have is, what possible scenarios could stop the CPU heat transferring to the heat sink? I've pulled it off of the CPU to check that there is the usual 'grey' solution there and there is. Any help much appreciated on this one. I originally thought there was a problem with the heat sink and fan but to fair the fan is keeping cool a heat sink that is not even getting warm in the first place, hence my problem with the computer just switching off. So I need to figure out why the CPU can't transfer its heat to the heat sink. FYI I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 CPU. Thanks You may want to pay a visit to site like www.newegg.com and spend few minutes to read all the end-users feedbacks about the CASE FAN section. Or just do a quick SEARCH on Case Fan then read the feedbacks. |
#7
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
Vanguard wrote: snip my post Thanks very much for all of the posts and help so far. snip Could be you didn't select the correct sensor in Speedfan (i.e., whatever is selected for the CPU really isn't the CPU's sensor). Could be Speedfan won't work with your motherboard; i.e., it doesn't have the lookup table for that setup or it is using the wrong table, a defect that also occurs in Motherboard Monitor (MBM). Have you tried the monitor software from the maker of your motherboard? When you look at Speedfan and then reboot but go into BIOS, do the temperatures listed in the BIOS match what Speedfan said? Temp reported in speedfan is similar to the CPU temp reported in the BIOS. When specifying temperatures (in your other post), be sure to specify F (Fahrenheit) or Celsius (C). Temperatures specified are in Celsius. At 40 F, you are very VERY low in temp. At 40 C, you are a long way aways from overheating and that is considered a very good temperature for an AMD (Intels run cooler). The AMD is rated to 80 C although some setups seem sensitive starting around 70 C (but also check the BIOS settings to see what is set for max or shutdown temperature). I've checked every option in the BIOS and there doesn't appear to be a max or shutdown temperature. Are there hidden menus? I have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ that is overclocked (by upping the FSB from 166 to 200) because the Barton can handle that so mine is the equivalent of a 3200+ (same as yours). I have Speedfan configured to reduce the fan speed until the "Desired" temperature is 60 C (i.e., when the fans should come up in speed which increases noise) and warn at 65 C. The BIOS is set to shutdown at 72 C. Stop listening to all those folks that are overclocking and who are trying to minimize their temperatures. They lower their temps so they can overclock more (and probably also have to up their voltages, too). Are you overclocking? No overclocking here, just the bog standard clock speeds of 10 x 200. I've been overclocking my AMD for several years and letting it go to 60 C (usually runs at 45-50 C) and the system has been very stable. I did lap the heatsink and I did use better paste (but not silver Artic since it is a wasted expense except to extreme overclockers) along with replacing the standard heatsink and fan with bigger units. Even if I had not been able to overclock the Barton, I would still not worry about the CPU running at 50 to 60 C. The AMDs are rated to 80 C (some to 85 C). If your AMD system is shutting down after only reaching 50 C when you run your video software, the problem is with your video software, not with the CPU temperature. The problem has been recreated by other software that puts load on CPU such as the Prime95 torture test. I ran that, and once again the computer switched off during the first test being performed during the Prime95 torture test. I noticed that the temperature reported in speedfan was at 53 Celcius when the computer switched off. When I started the computer up again and went in to BIOS the CPU temp was reported as 51 degrees Celcius so not far off. Also, as the computer started to boot up, it kept switching off before windows XP had a chance to finish loading. This will happen again and again until I give the computer a chance to cool down. I guess the point here is that the temp is not always exactly 60 degrees C when the computer switches off. I know I can go out and replace the stock fan and heatsink but I don't want to do that unless I know the exact cause of the problem - I don't want to shy over it. Another update: I did another test also, again starting from cold boot up, where I disabled the CPUs fan (by removing the power cable from the motherboard). I wanted to perform this test because as I describe in the OP when I feel the heat sink it doesn't even feel warm. I booted the PC up and almost straight away after XP had loaded the computer switched itself off. So I guess some heat must be transferring from the CPU to the heatsink, or at least the fan is helping the CPU a little bit, but I can't understand why even during this test that the heatsink just didn't feel warm at all. |
#8
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
Dundonald wrote:
Vanguard wrote: snip my post Thanks very much for all of the posts and help so far. snip Could be you didn't select the correct sensor in Speedfan (i.e., whatever is selected for the CPU really isn't the CPU's sensor). Could be Speedfan won't work with your motherboard; i.e., it doesn't have the lookup table for that setup or it is using the wrong table, a defect that also occurs in Motherboard Monitor (MBM). Have you tried the monitor software from the maker of your motherboard? When you look at Speedfan and then reboot but go into BIOS, do the temperatures listed in the BIOS match what Speedfan said? Temp reported in speedfan is similar to the CPU temp reported in the BIOS. When specifying temperatures (in your other post), be sure to specify F (Fahrenheit) or Celsius (C). Temperatures specified are in Celsius. At 40 F, you are very VERY low in temp. At 40 C, you are a long way aways from overheating and that is considered a very good temperature for an AMD (Intels run cooler). The AMD is rated to 80 C although some setups seem sensitive starting around 70 C (but also check the BIOS settings to see what is set for max or shutdown temperature). I've checked every option in the BIOS and there doesn't appear to be a max or shutdown temperature. Are there hidden menus? I have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ that is overclocked (by upping the FSB from 166 to 200) because the Barton can handle that so mine is the equivalent of a 3200+ (same as yours). I have Speedfan configured to reduce the fan speed until the "Desired" temperature is 60 C (i.e., when the fans should come up in speed which increases noise) and warn at 65 C. The BIOS is set to shutdown at 72 C. Stop listening to all those folks that are overclocking and who are trying to minimize their temperatures. They lower their temps so they can overclock more (and probably also have to up their voltages, too). Are you overclocking? No overclocking here, just the bog standard clock speeds of 10 x 200. I've been overclocking my AMD for several years and letting it go to 60 C (usually runs at 45-50 C) and the system has been very stable. I did lap the heatsink and I did use better paste (but not silver Artic since it is a wasted expense except to extreme overclockers) along with replacing the standard heatsink and fan with bigger units. Even if I had not been able to overclock the Barton, I would still not worry about the CPU running at 50 to 60 C. The AMDs are rated to 80 C (some to 85 C). If your AMD system is shutting down after only reaching 50 C when you run your video software, the problem is with your video software, not with the CPU temperature. The problem has been recreated by other software that puts load on CPU such as the Prime95 torture test. I ran that, and once again the computer switched off during the first test being performed during the Prime95 torture test. I noticed that the temperature reported in speedfan was at 53 Celcius when the computer switched off. When I started the computer up again and went in to BIOS the CPU temp was reported as 51 degrees Celcius so not far off. Also, as the computer started to boot up, it kept switching off before windows XP had a chance to finish loading. This will happen again and again until I give the computer a chance to cool down. I guess the point here is that the temp is not always exactly 60 degrees C when the computer switches off. I know I can go out and replace the stock fan and heatsink but I don't want to do that unless I know the exact cause of the problem - I don't want to shy over it. Another update: I did another test also, again starting from cold boot up, where I disabled the CPUs fan (by removing the power cable from the motherboard). I wanted to perform this test because as I describe in the OP when I feel the heat sink it doesn't even feel warm. I booted the PC up and almost straight away after XP had loaded the computer switched itself off. So I guess some heat must be transferring from the CPU to the heatsink, or at least the fan is helping the CPU a little bit, but I can't understand why even during this test that the heatsink just didn't feel warm at all. That last is pretty convincing evidence that the heatsink isnt properly mounted on the cpu. Some can be put on backwards and dont work properly that way. Backwards in the sense of 180 degrees off where they should be. |
#9
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
Joel wrote: "Dundonald" wrote: Joel wrote: "Dundonald" wrote: Long story (background in thread "Newbie: 3 lots of CPU temp in SpeedFan? 2 of them are overheating ..." from last week) but in short I have an over heating problem, I've done some tests, and today I realised that the CPU heat sink is not getting warm at all but by contrast the much smaller motherboard heat sink does warm up. So the question I have is, what possible scenarios could stop the CPU heat transferring to the heat sink? I've pulled it off of the CPU to check that there is the usual 'grey' solution there and there is. Any help much appreciated on this one. I originally thought there was a problem with the heat sink and fan but to fair the fan is keeping cool a heat sink that is not even getting warm in the first place, hence my problem with the computer just switching off. So I need to figure out why the CPU can't transfer its heat to the heat sink. FYI I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 CPU. Thanks You may want to pay a visit to site like www.newegg.com and spend few minutes to read all the end-users feedbacks about the CASE FAN section. Or just do a quick SEARCH on Case Fan then read the feedbacks. ..and if you want to make sure that the heat doesn't stay cool (or to test it out). - Put a small drop of super-glue to your finger, and stick the finger to the Heat-sink. IOW, to make you can feel the heat, and make sure the system is running (I just make sure you'll have a well roasted finger) bg - And if you can't feel anything then like I said, go back to the site I mentioned above and do some searching. They have not Case Fan, but CPU fan, heat-sink, heat-sink paste, and lot of end-users feedbacks. Many different sizes and different prices THanks JOel. |
#10
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CPU heat sink staying cool - why isn't the CPU transferring its heat to heat sink?
Rod Speed wrote: That last is pretty convincing evidence that the heatsink isnt properly mounted on the cpu. Some can be put on backwards and dont work properly that way. Backwards in the sense of 180 degrees off where they should be. Rod, thanks for the post. I didn't realise that a heat sink could be put on the wrong way. I'll try spinning the heat sink and fan 180 degrees back around see if that makes any difference. Out of interest, how can it make a difference, I haven't checked in detail but is the top of the CPU and the base of the heat sink not flat so in either way around they should both perform the same? |
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