AMD Phenom II X4 955 Overheating

Hey MajorGeeks! I'm confused on this one. I'm running a rather old AMD Phenom II X4 955, as said in the title. It still works for my gaming needs, but I'll need to upgrade soon. Either way, it's just recently started over heating. I'm not sure why - it's none of the normal causes. I have auxiliary fans, which are working. I also have a decent heat-sink, it's not great but it's fine. Yet just idling I'm at 76 degrees after booting up the computer. I'll just list the things I've tried and haven't worked:

- Cleaning up the computer from dust and the like

- Cleaning all the fans thoroughly

- Taking off the heatsink, cleaning it (it was indeed messy there) and replacing it. I did take off the previous thermal paste properly, and I'm pretty sure I re-applied it and put the heatsink back on. The thermal paste I used was Cooler Master (only one in the shop I went to, HTK-002, http://www.coolermaster.com/service/support/model/HTK-002/ - though it does say it's discontinued?)

The only thing that's working at the moment is taking the side of the case off and using a house fan. I'm not sure what could be the cause - should I try different thermal paste? Thanks guys!

 

I don't think Cooler Master discontinued that product because it's defective in some way, probably just came out with a different line and decided not to sell that one anymore. If you're really concerned you should email their customer support.

You should only apply thermal paste in the amount of the size of a grain of rice. You don't want too much because it's just there to fill the tiny gaps and crevices between the heat sink and the CPU.

I have the same CPU and mines at 50c. 76c is hot, but I'm fairly certain that's within tolerance range. How do you know this is something new? What was it before? What's the temp when you put the house fan to it?

Have you checked process explorer for something that's running that shouldn't be? That you think wasn't running before? Do you get any lock ups?

 

I wasn't thinking it was defective, more just confused as to why it was still being sold. It still works fine, so thats alright. As to the amount of thermal paste, I'm pretty sure it was fine - it was about the size of an uncooked pea. Thats what I'd been told, but not much size difference really. I can re-apply if needs be.

The tollerance range is max of 80 degrees (listed t.j. max is 80 at least), but when I game it easily hits 80 and overheats and crashes. Thats how I knew it was new - I monitor my temperature quite regularly, and it was previously listed as a maximum of about 65 degrees whilst gaming. I don't get any lock-ups or problems when not gaming however. I have checked my process explorer, nothing new - it's not due to increased load, as load levels have stayed the same whilst gaming. Thanks for your help!

 

76°C may be within tolerance but that does not mean the CPU will be stable at that temp - only safe from damage. But running at that temp for long periods of time could increase aging of the CPU and surrounding parts.

A pea size blob of TIM (thermal interface material) may be too much. As hedron correctly noted, you only want to fill in the microscopic pits and valleys in the mating surfaces. Any excess is in the way of the most efficient transfer of heat, which occurs best with direct metal to metal contact.

Even cheap, low-tech, plain ol' silicone compound is good enough for most computing tasks, assuming the case is doing its job of providing an adequate supply and flow of cool air. There typically is only a few degrees difference between basic and advanced TIM. So even if you changed to the most advanced and managed to squeeze 10°C off your temps (which is not likely, with all else being equal) the resulting temps of 66° - 70° would be on the high side (in my book, the goal is to stay under 60°C).

Does the CPU fan spin at full speed?

And what are your temps then? If you get adequate cooling blasting a desk fan into the open side panel, then that suggests your case cooling may be inadequate. Make sure your fans are oriented to create a front-to-back flow through the case. Check your cable management to minimize impacting that flow.

If overclocking, stop - at least until this is resolved.

 

CPU fan is spinning at full speed as far as I can tell - anywhere in particular I should be looking? Not something I've had to check before, sorry about that! It's definitely the same noise level as before, so I don't think it's fan speed. If I should apply less than a pea I can, it won't take long to reapply it. Should I try that?

And yeah, I was thinking it may be air flow. The fans should be fine, but my cables from the relatively new PSU I put in are pretty big, and the 560 Ti that I upgraded to is large. I've been having it run a bit hotter since I used the new PSU and the 560 Ti, but haven't been overheating completely till recently, so something must have changed, not sure what. I do go back to proper temperatures when using my old GTS 250, so it is partly to do with the air flow, now I think about it. Don't know why it's suddenly gotten worse, no cables have moved or anything. Thanks so much for your help!

 

I think since you had these heat issues before you applied the new layer of TIM that the new layer is not the problem.

You can check fan speeds with Speedfan or maybe from within your BIOS Setup Menu. That said, it is hard to say what is right as all fans are different. But if under 1000RPM when the temps are high, I would be suspicious.

A PSU should have nothing to do with heat, assuming the PSU fan is exhausting the PSU's heat out the back.

That's odd. The 560ti is a double wide card. That means it "should" be exhausting the GPU's heat out the back of the case. Is it?

 

Yeah, but it did help when I had heating issues previously (they weren't as bad, it was getting to about 70 when gaming. I re-applied the thermal paste and it went back down to about 60, which I was fine with) so I figured I might as well try it now.

As to the fan speed, I did download Speedfan to see what they were running at, but all of them are listed at 0 RPM, which is obviously not true. Could that be signifying an issue? If it were a BIOS issue I could try a BIOS update? Haven't done one on this desktop in... 3 years? So probably have one available.

I know the PSU won't cause heat directly, but the cables were very lightly insulated on the old PSU. The new PSU has extremely thick, insulated cables which would cause a much larger disruption to airflow, that's what I was suggesting.

The 560 Ti doesn't feel like it has much air coming out the back, if that's what you're meaning. But I have an empty slot below, where air can come out, so it could be coming out there instead. What I was suggesting with the 560Ti is that it's a much longer card than my 250, and takes up a lot more of the horizontal space, nearly all of it. There's about 7cm to the right of the card before the start of the HDD bay, and that might disrupt airflow? Thanks so much for your quick replies and help!

 

People report they see 10° difference all the time but typically, when you press them for the fact, they say they also cleaned the heatsink, moved cables around, cleaned the case vents or more. 10°C is big drop.

Speed fan not reporting any fan speeds could be due to several reasons, the most common being the fans don't have speed sensors or the fans are connected directly to the PSU instead of through a motherboard fan header.

I don't recommend updating the BIOS unless the update addresses a problem you specifically are having, or the new updates supports a new CPU not supported in the old.

Yes, bigger cables can block air flow. So tying them up and out of the way is important. And a larger graphics card could cause a problem but typically the CPU sits higher (in towers anyway) than the CPU. And if the cards heat is being pushed out the back of the card, I don't see the card interfering with case air flow.

What fans do you have in your case? Does the case support more or larger fans? And I ask again, what are your temps when blasting the desk fan in there.

 

Yeah, I definitely cleaned the whole computer up to get the 10 degrees drop. Did the same thing this time and got nothing, so I must've put on a bit too much. 10 degrees would be nice, but wouldn't solve it this time. As to the fan speeds, they are directly plugged into the PSU, just checked. I'm pretty sure they haven't changed

I have some tied up and out of the way, but not others, so I really should do that. It's only the one that really is doing it, so I'll get around to that tomorrow (it's 12:30AM here in Singapore). The CPU is higher than the graphics card, but not entirely sure how the air flow works. I've got the PSU fan at the back of the case, as always. Then I have another dedicated fan (as in not for any component, just to cool) - about 7 or 8cm wide - in the back of the case. With the side of the case on, I have another 2 smaller fans (about 5cm wide) at the bottom of the side opposite the motherboard. It doesn't seem to support any more fans, but I guess holes could be made if needed

As to my temperature, with the case off I'm hitting about 55 degrees just browsing the internet. Checking gaming temps now. Thanks again!
EDIT: Gaming temps are about 65 degrees!

 

Well, that's why Speedfan shows 0RPM.

Well, 65 is still a bit high for me. But if stable, then perhaps fine.

The PSU fan should not be counted as part of case cooling. While it does draw cool air in, its purpose is to keep the PSU cool.

8cm (or 80mm as the fan industry labels them) is not big for case fans these days. And side panel fans can sometimes be counterproductive as they can disrupt the front-to-back flow with too much turbulence. I only use side panel fans if they have a tunnel or tube to channel the air directly to the GPU or CPU (depending on placement in the side panel).

If no front fan pulling cool air in, or support for larger fans, I would probably recommend you get a new case, rather than drill holes for more or larger fans. For one, you need to remove everything out of the case before drilling anyway to ensure no metal filings fall on the electronics.

I like Antec cases. Something like this Three Hundred would be good. It includes a 140mm blowhole (top) fan and a 120mm fan, and will support two more 120mm fans in front. Plus it has removable, washable air filters, which I really like.

 

One of the side fans does have a tube directly to the CPU, I realised I forgot to write that. Still, they're pretty tiny fans. Thanks for the case suggestion, I'll have a look at it. Can't order from newegg though, wish I could.

Also, the fans may be a part of it but they can't be all of it? The case has been working fine for ~3 years, even after replacing some of the hardware in there. Something else must have changed for it to start overheating now? Thanks for your help.

 

Yeah, knew Newegg would not work - just pointing out a good case.

I agree. But you have also made some component changes over the years. And certainly games have become more demanding in recent years too. And there could be a device/component that is starting to fail, drawing too much current, thus creating more heat. Not something easy to troubleshoot.

 

Yeah, thanks for your help! I'll need to upgrade my CPU soon anyway, it's getting a bit out dated. So I'll probably take a look at that case for a new system, keeping this 560 Ti and the RAM. Thanks again!

 

Well, you can only upgrade your CPU to one supported by that motherboard. And you can only use that RAM on motherboards that support that RAM. So, do your homework before plunking down your cash.