Need some help with a strange heat issue

[Matt]

I've just built my new system but I'm having strange heat issues. I can go
into the bios to pc health section and about every three seconds the CPU
heat monitor goes up a degree and after around 5 minutes it exceeds the
maximum safe temp and the system shuts down. I'm using the stock CPU fan but
I've removed it, cleaned the stock thermal paste and replaced it with some
arctic silver I had laying around but that doesn't seem to help (it
overheated with the stock thermal paste as well). I've got great air flow
through the tower and only a video card (which is well below the CPU) 2 hard
drives and a DVD/RW, nothing is overclocked, I upgraded to the latest BIOS,
the only BIOS changes I've made are to activate the RAID... I just can't
figure out what is causing this heat issue.

GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 (F4 BIOS)
AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor
FD8120FRGUBOX
KingstonKHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 x2
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB x2 (RAID 0)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
LiteOn iHAS424 - DVD±RW
Thermaltake Toughpower 750W

 

[Matt]

To my mind, the most likely culprit is that the heat sink is not making
good contact with the processor, or the heat is not being effectively
evacuated from the heat sink.

Q1) What is the clearance like on the heatsink when it's locked into
place?

It appears to be a solid lock, when I pulled the heatsink off the first time
the thermal paste was evenly distriputed across the cpu and there didn't
seem to be any missing points of contact. The heatsink mount is relatively
basic and I don't see any way to adjust the lock or alter the clearance in
any way.

Q2) Is the CPU fan spinning at a reasonable rate when the system is in
operation?

It is definitely spinning, though I may try running an adapter so I can plug
it directly into the power supply instead of the motherboard.

Q3) Does pointing a box fan, set on a high setting, into the open chassis,
slow the rate of overheating?

I have not tried this, but I will give it a shot as soon as I get a chance.

 

[goldtech]

Hi,

You probably know this but,

When you are attaching the heat sink and fan unit to the cpu are you
making contact between the two units and then repositioning it?

Are you lifting the heat sink off the thermal compound (arctic silver)
and then putting on again as you reposition it?

You have to get the technique good enough so that you push the heat
sink with the white gook on the cpu one time only - no lifting to
reposition because it forms gaps and holes in the contact/seal. That
is, you're allowed one and ONLY one squish to the thermal compound.
You maybe can slide a little after making the seal but you should not
break and remake the seal.

I assume you have a good case fan too.

 

[Flasherly]

I've just built my new system but I'm having strange heat issues. I can go
into the bios to pc health section and about every three seconds the CPU
heat monitor goes up a degree and after around 5 minutes it exceeds the
maximum safe temp and the system shuts down. I'm using the stock CPU fan but
I've removed it, cleaned the stock thermal paste and replaced it with some
arctic silver I had laying around but that doesn't seem to help (it
overheated with the stock thermal paste as well). I've got great air flow
through the tower and only a video card (which is well below the CPU) 2 hard
drives and a DVD/RW, nothing is overclocked, I upgraded to the latest BIOS,
the only BIOS changes I've made are to activate the RAID... I just can't
figure out what is causing this heat issue.

GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 (F4 BIOS)
AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor
FD8120FRGUBOX
KingstonKHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 x2
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB x2 (RAID 0)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
LiteOn iHAS424 - DVD±RW
Thermaltake Toughpower 750W

Octal core, eh, for bleedin' edges and burnt fingers.

What I think I've noticed, at least -with some- and in the BIOS
section, is CPUs can tend to get hotter than once implemented with,
conceivably, runtime settings. Once I'm out and into the OS, IOW, the
temperatures drop. Of course if feasibly handy, I'll go over stock
cooling, anyday, with usually a well regarded heatwick/pipe setup.

Short of water cooling, though, I really wouldn't know what air
coolers are up to in the octal ranges. Last sys I did drop a little
money into, however, I didn't cut corners when looking over getting
the best CPU cooler I could find. Sort of like a hamster wheel, or
squirrel-cage fan as it's known, that sits inside the heatsink's
fins. Reversed Zalman-ized type of dohickey for back in "them days."
Still works good enough for a 125watt 478/775 Pentium, I'll bet, if
can I figure up the makeshift socket adapters.

 

[Mark]

To my mind, the most likely culprit is that the heat sink is not making
good contact with the processor, or the heat is not being effectively
evacuated from the heat sink.

Have you felt the heatsink to see if it is getting hot? If not then
you have your answer.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

I can go into the bios to pc health section and about every three seconds the CPU
heat monitor goes up a degree and after around 5 minutes it exceeds the
maximum safe temp and the system shuts down.

1 degree C or 1 degree F? Because you're either saying the temp
increases to about 170F (76C) or to about 121C (250F). The former
could be too hot, but it might actually be tolerable and any
overtemperature alarm or shutdown could be set too low (but I don't
think so)

I've got great air flow through the tower

Great air flow means the case temperature is only a couple of degrees
C above room temp. OK air flow means the interior isn't more than
about 10-15C above it.

If the fan is temperature controlled, check the BIOS for the setup of
the fan control. There may be choices for max cooling vs. quiet or
the exact temperatures for speed-up and slow-down.

Remove the side panel of the case and blow a desk fan into it. If the
temperature drops a lot, then the air flow was lousy, and you should
check for something blocking the CPU heatsink/fan or another fan
fighting the CPU fan (the former could be spinning the wrong way).
OTOH the CPU temp may not drop much if there's bad contact between the
heatsink and CPU.

And when in doubt, take actual temperature.

GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 (F4 BIOS)
AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz

 

[Mark]

Hi,

You probably know this but,

When you are attaching the heat sink and fan unit to the cpu are you
making contact between the two units and then repositioning it?

Are you lifting the heat sink off the thermal compound (arctic silver)
and then putting on again as you reposition it?

You have to get the technique good enough so that you push the heat
sink with the white gook on the cpu one time only - no lifting to
reposition because it forms gaps and holes in the contact/seal. That
is, you're allowed one and ONLY one squish to the thermal compound.
You maybe can slide a little after making the seal but you should not
break and remake the seal.

Personally I don't think removing it and replacing it a couple of
times makes a lot of difference if you have already applied the paste
correctly. I've never had any troubles. OTOH the OP's CPU is going
to produce a *lot* of heat so this situation may be more critical.

Also don't put too *much* paste on. It's only needed to fill the
minute imperfections in the surfaces of the cooler and CPU. Too much
grease can act as an insulator.

See
<http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/How-To-Correctly-Apply-Thermal-Grease/274/2>
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

 

[John]

Personally I don't think removing it and replacing it a couple of
times makes a lot of difference if you have already applied the paste
correctly. I've never had any troubles. OTOH the OP's CPU is going
to produce a *lot* of heat so this situation may be more critical.

Also don't put too *much* paste on. It's only needed to fill the
minute imperfections in the surfaces of the cooler and CPU. Too much
grease can act as an insulator.

See
<http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/How-To-Correctly-Apply-Thermal-Grease/274/2>
--

Well I called in a few favors and got my hands on another FX-8120 from a
friend of a friend of a friend and it installed and ran just fine without
any heat issues at all so I'm going to assume I just had a faulty CPU and
begin the wonderful task of RMA'ing it. Thanks for all the suggestions and
help!