Overheating!

I was doing some video encoding today and my CPU alarm went off. I checked the temperature and it was 80篊



I have a Q6600 and a GeminII Cooler with two 120mm fans on it. I idle at about 46篊 per core, but when I push the CPU the temperature shoots up.



I'm guessing there's something wrong with my heatsink mount. Anyone else have any other ideas?

Surprise was seen when an old Socket A cpu saw 85C when the fan on the cooler quit. There was no alarm set then. On the new build now in use the fan on the Zalman 9700 was found stuck when SpeedFan initially reported 107C for a cpu temp! !

The heat from that fan motor was thrown away from the board alright when you could feel the heat coming up off of it while the system saw a fast shutdown. Later the cpu saw 23C for an idle temp during the breakin period. Check to make sure the fan is spinning. You may have to reappy the thermal paste if nothing else is found wrong.

Ok, I am going to ask some dumb questions, but just double checking:
You used thermal compound correct?
The fan on the heatsink is plugged in and works?
The heatsink is securely mounted (no play)?

What's dumb about that? "oh no I forgot the AS-5! !". You simply have to recheck everything and definitely look at the fans on the hsf to see if those are running. A good copper sink will take off a lot of heat so you won't end up seeing as high as 80C unless you were running an older P4 cpu.

Yup I used AS5
Yes both fans are working
As for the heatsink correctly mounted, that's what I'm thinking about right now. However I want to exhaust all other possibilities before remounting it, as I would have to remove my motherboard and everything else on it.

Ok this is getting really annoying. I CANNOT find a way to cool this processor down. I've reseated the heatsink, reapplied thermal paste, but the load temperature always shoots through the roof! I idle at about 48ºC and load at like 80ºC! What is wrong with my computer?!

Are you going strictly by the hardware monitor or using a Windows app as well? When upgrading an old Socket A case here when I had assumed the overheated cpu there was spent(second battery on board may have been weak loss of cmos info?) the noard and cpu alike were running warm with the board seeing hogher temps of 46-48C idle with the 3500+ seeing 44-46C just sitting.

How to cool a board resulting in seeing lowered cpu temps as well? The old case now back in use for 98SE only((last board found with 98 drivers) only saw a rear and top 80mm pair of case fans. Remember tha cpu ran stock most of the time. How about there? The new with a 140mm front intake and 120 rear accompanied two 120s added on the side cover to the 48C drop sharply to 31C! The cpu was then seen at 33C for an idle temp.

For the longest time before the Core 2 Duos and Q series showed up Intel models always ran warmer then AMD like the P4s. The quad core model with a larger wattage rating for output will tend to be warmer. The Socket A's original case lacked front or side vents allowing for cooler air to be drawn in. Adding a fan or two there may be the thing to look at.

Once the board was cooled down from the increase in air flow the cpu and other temps also dropped. Hopefully all you will need is extra cooling to compensate there. One reason why so many go for gaming cases even if they don't game is that extra cooling seen in them over other compact styled mid towers.

Ok I just fixed it. Turns out I was using a defective heatsink. I switched back to Intel's stock cooler and now I idle at about 38 and load at 50.

@PC Eyes: Thanks for the help, I was using both bios and pz wizard 08, which checked out to be pretty accurate, at least the core temps were.

I think Motordude cought that one a little better mentioning checking the heat sink. I stay away from Scythe for that reason for sure after seeing a fan quit shortly after installing one on the old build mentioned before. Are you ocing at all?

Besides seeing a quad running a little warmer then a dual core and the initial breakin time for the pad on the stock hsf you should that load temp drop down somewhat. When going to grab a new 3rd party cooler many are going with the Artic Freezer 7 Pro if not spending more on a Zalman. At least you are now seeing reasonable temps.

Did the heatsink have heatpipes? If so if those are completely sealed and some air gets in it then they loose their heat conductive properties.