Hot weather - CPU temp issues?

[Wedge]

Phew what a scorcher!

I just checked my CPU temp and it is 75-77C, much higher than last time I checked (it was 58-60 a few months ago).

Is this likely to be due to the weather? Is it running too hot to be safe?

Any steps I can take to cool it down?

I have a good akasa cooler with variable speed set to maximum - I could put a bit more heat paste on if it would help.

Cheers

Edit - I have just rebooted and it is showing 69C now - maybe 77 was a faulty reading - but it's a bit too high to run safely isn't it?

[Fire 'n' Forget]

Just checked my Temp and its running at 58c, put coolerxp on and it dropped to 54c. I thought mine was a bit hot too but looking on the net my Athlon 2800+ runs pretty hot anyway compared to Intel chips. I even took the case cover off to see if it made much difference, it didnt !

To answer your question, were you doing anything graphics intensive before you checked your temp? or have you overclocked ? my machine goes up another 10c when playing HL2. Applying more heat paste wont cool it anymore, if your still worried you will have to upgrade your cooling options.

[Wedge]

Thanks - I think that reading was a bit faulty it's showing 66C now.

I'd only just booted it at that point. This is an AMD3000+. Haven't overclocked it. Wasn't running anything CPU intensive at the time.

Haven't played HL2 in a while, got stuck at some bit I can't remember where! Obviously too hot to continue now!

ps As a general 'rule of thumb', what temp should you not exceed?

coolerxp - is that a software application I can download?

Thanks for your response

[JamesT73J]

Dependant on your motherboard, you may have a utility you can install that provides temperature/rpm measurement on the following:

A) CPU
B) Motherboard
C) Powerfan rpm (if connected to the motherboard sensor, not typically the case)
D) Chassis fan rpm (as with C.)

There's usually cutoff presets in accordance with whatever CPU you're using that are pretty sensible. Likewise it will monitor the fan in case there's any failures there.

Although 70-75 Celcius sounds high, it should still be comfortably within the limits of the CPU (the AMD 1700 I'm using here has a thermal cutout at 86 degrees). However, it's good practice not to expose the components to more heat than necessary. This will prolongue their life and reduce the possibility of failure.

If you've got removable sides to your PC case, take one side off to stop the restricted air inside being sealed and acting as an insulator, thereby trapping the heat in. If your motherboard has a 'Qfan' or anykind of reactive fan control (i.e sets fan speed to maintain a given temp), switch it off, so that the fan runs at max speed constantly. Little noisier but allows for more efficient cooling during transient CPU temperature periods, i.e. if you've just fired up HL2 and the processor has more work to do suddenly:cool: ).

None of the above is strictly necessary as modern gear copes pretty well with warm rooms, but the bits inside will thank you.

[Wedge]

Thanks James - I am using 'Motherboard Monitor 5' which I downloaded a while ago to check the CPU temp.

When I installed the cooler I decided to use the switch on the back instead of the auto-detector, and it was already turned up to maximum.

I'll try taking one of the sides off, I have a PCI fan as well that I'm not using.

Anyway it's down to 66C now so looks OK.

[Daysleeper]

Try here for some hot CPU advice

Toms Hardware - Thermal Death (http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030210/barton-11.html)

[mcdhu]

Had a look at search for this, but no easy answer. Is there an easy to use programme I could download free to have a look at the operating temps of my machine for interest only. As far as I can tell, it's fine, but would like to see.

Dell Dimension 4600, Intel(R) Pentium (R)4 Cpu 3.06 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce Fx5200, XP Home SP2
Cheers,
mcdhu

[Lost_luggage34]

There are a few around, this is the last one I tried ;

Everest (http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=1)

Seems to agree with the Intel monitoring s/w which came with my motherboard.

Alternatively ;

PC Wizard 2005 (http://www.cpuid.org/pcw.php)

[mcdhu]

..........thanks for those -but how do you get into the Intel monitoring s/w?

Cheers,
mcdhu

[Lost_luggage34]

Mine came along on the Intel CD with the motherboard as it's a genuine Intel motherboard.

If you also have an Intel motherboard you can download a later version from the Intel website but it doesn't work with Windows 2000 Pro - tells me it's not a genuine Intel board ! (Intel say that's a registry problem, but it isn't because it behaves the same way on a clean install).

I haven't seen many other motherboard manufacturers provide similar although you can see some temperatures, fan speeds, set temperature alerts etc. within BIOS.

At the end of the day each package is only interrogating the odd sensor or two on the motherboard and/or within the CPU.

Hope that helps.

[rotorcraig]

Wedge what motherboard are you using?

Mine is an ASUS and so comes with an "ASUS Probe" utility that allows this stuff to be monitored. Also available on a BIOS page as someone mentioned earlier.

Pretty damn hot in the office this evening, but everything appears to be running at 48C :D

RC

[Fire 'n' Forget]

I have an MSI-6712 motherboard and it came with PC Alert 4 CD which has all the monitoring functions voltage/temps/cpu speed/mem speed etc. However it also had CoolerXP on it which was a programme that cools your cpu.

Basically its a low priority task that issues a HALT instruction to the CPU and reduces its activity and consequently power consumption. (the CPU is always burning cycles even when it doesnt seem like it).

Because the application is a low priority task, it gets bumped whenever another program requests CPU cycles. Theoretically, such a program should have no effect on system performance except during CPU 'idling'

a similar system monitoring programme for intel boards is

Intel boards (http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm)

[Earl]

Running an ASUS P5S800 motherboard here in KSA.
After reading the above post I checked and was shocked to find my CPU at 90C.
Went into the program that came with the motherboard and found that you can increase CPU fan speed which is factory set at 600 rpm
I increased the speed to 3000 rpm dropping the temp to 60C.
This also with removing one side of the case.
Max speed is 6000 rpm.
When I built this thing I forgot to add the paste between the CPU and fan.
Will add this tomorrow and it should lower the temp quite a bit.

[Jinkster]

How do I check the temp on my CPU?

[maxell]

Jinkster

I use a prog called MBM5 try a google for it you need to know what motherboard you have installed in your computer

max

[Daysleeper]

After reading the above post I checked and was shocked to find my CPU at 90C.

:oh:

good grief your not supposed to be able to fry eggs on them!


:}

[maxell]

I hope that was under load and not at idle, take the cover off and have a look if the CPU heat sink vanes are blocked with dust. I’ve had to remove the fan and clean the vanes with a brush on more than one computer, if they are clear you may want to look at getting some cooling paste between the CPU and heat sink