Chipset at 86c!!!!

I'm working on a desktop tower PC (Vista Home Premium, Intel 670 3.80ghz, 1gb DDR2, Intel 945 chipset) and it has been working perfectly for months. It hadn't been turned on in about 2-3 weeks until today. A friend had a Radeon X1650Pro with a locked up fan on it and he gave it to me to swap out the fan, which I did. So I opened up this PC, removed the current PCIe video (also an X1650) and popped in this one to be sure the new fan was working. Well, the PC powered on but there was a real loud pop. And I mean LOUD. It sounded like if you broke a bubble on some big-bubbled bubble wrap, but a lot louder. So I immediately pulled the power cord. I checked everything for blown capacitors, burnt chips, etc. I checked the video card too. Everything looked OK and there was no smoke or any type of burnt smell. So, I very warily plugged the power back in and hit the power button. It started up and so far everything seems to be normal, but I decided to run HWMonitor just to see what everything was doing. Then I saw the chipset was at 86c! That's 187f!!! If you touch the chipset heatsink, it almost immediately burns your finger. I checked all the voltages too and if anything, they're a bit low: the +2.5v is at 1.49v and the -5v jumps all over the place from -3.78v to over -12v. Other than these things, everything is more or less normal. So, was that loud pop something that regulates chipset voltage? Why would low voltage cause a chipset to get so hot? Are the two even related? I almost think that the pop wasn't even in the PC... that maybe it was a co-worker making some other noise (she has her iPod headphones on and can't hear anything and she just made another loud pop type sound; a different pop, but still a pop )

 

wow thats definately hot. You may want to look at the bottom of the motherboard for any scorch marks. Maybe a loose screw in case touched backside?

 

Replace heatsink with active cooling.

Who knows what the noise was. That is just a bit hot for a 'puter.:-D

E

 

Yeah, it is definitely way too hot. I wish I would have checked it before the >pop< just so I could know if they were related or if maybe the chipset has always run that hot. I did triple check the temp: I used HWmonitor, Everest Ultimate, and PCwizard, and they reported the exact same numbers, so I know the readings were accurate.

Yup... now I just have to order a new chipset fan/heatsink set.... I used my last one on my friend's video card!

 

I installed an active chipset heatsink with a fan; I cleaned the chip and applied new thermal snot. It is still at 86c! Every so often it dips to 84c. I'm pretty sure the readings are correct 'cuz the heatsink is VERY hot to the touch. The mobo is no longer under warranty, so, does anyone have any ideas?? Should I just live with it and hope for the best? I was going to run some stress tests to see if the PC will be stable under a load but I'm having a helluva time finding a benchmark to run with Vista :banghead I downloaded PCVantage and installed it; it said I was required to get a trial serial number before I could run it. So I tried to get a serial number and it wanted me to download it again from their site. So I removed it and I'll be trying 3dMark06....