# is 170 degrees to hot for a cpu cause its kinda worrying me



## joshkp3 (Jun 22, 2005)

the program i used said my cpu was running at 170 degrees, that seems just a little to hot  

i got an amd athlon at 950 mhz not over clocked but had been overclocked at some point. with a coolermaster heatsink. why is my processor so hot is this somthing to worry about or am i just over reacting


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Good Evening joshkp3, if it were a V8 engine it sounds like it has a bad "death rattle".
I work in Celcius degrees but 170F sounds outside reasonability, in meltdown kind of area.

Are you sure your heat sink is properly fitted and the fan is running properly.
Definitely needs inspecting to see if heat transfer compound and everything is correct.

See what others think.
qldit.


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## joshkp3 (Jun 22, 2005)

i checked the heat sink its on well. is there anything else that could be causing these high temperatures other than the cpu cause theres no reason it should be that hot. i gotta pretty weak power supply in it could that be the cause somehow, i dont know what to do i dont want my computer fryed


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Youcould give this everest program a try, stick it in a folder on your desktop and operate it from there.
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/...s_Utilities/Lavalys_EVEREST_Home_Edition.html
Cut and paste the sensors page here, someone will make comments.
With a bit of luck it will show Temperatures and voltages.
You can leave it open and it will indicate and update the figures in more or less real time, so it will give an idea of what is happening with temps and things when the machine is stressed.
qldit.


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Is the processor correctly set with proper speed and settings or has something been done to it to overclock it. Like unlocking it?
I actually hate seeing things overclocked because of the stress it creates within the silicon fabric.
But others have different ideas. 
With directly coupled transistor systems the upstream circuits can really cause downstream problems if malfunctions happen.
Heat and extremes of the thermal operational envelope cycling really do damage these things. 

The secret for long life is maintaining sensible thermal limits.
I have a couple of these Athlon processors here that have actually cracked the chip from overheat and cooking. The M/B's were also cooked. Smelly dead processors.
qldit.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

76C is way past where the processor should be running, so you do have a problem. If the MB temperatures are more reasonable, i.e. less than 40C (104F), then you have a processor cooling issue. If the MB is higher, you may have a case cooling issue.

I'd start by taking the case cover off and seeing if things cool down. You also should check the BIOS settings to make sure the "overclocking" isn't still in place, higher voltages to the processor will result in overheating.


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## joshkp3 (Jun 22, 2005)

my motherboard sensor temperature is around 32 degrees f.(cold in my room) left window fan on all night)

strange, i used 2 differant heatsinks and both the same temps. one a Aopen and the other a coolermaster i dont know the models 

i think the people who had this computer before me heavily overclocked it because the chip well sorta looks burnt looking.


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## Rumpo-Stiltskin (May 9, 2006)

qldit said:


> ...... With directly coupled transistor systems the upstream circuits can really cause downstream problems if malfunctions happen.
> Heat and extremes of the thermal operational envelope cycling really do damage these things.
> 
> The secret for long life is maintaining sensible thermal limits.
> ...


Now he's getting all technical on us!! 

I also got through a LOT of Athlons back in the day (just as many motherboards too I seem to remember).
Really fought to keep the heat anywhere near under control with those damned things, but learned an awful lot from the experience.
Worst processors ever IMHO.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I'm guessing that the temperature sensor may be indicating a false temperature. If you've properly installed the heatsinks, there's no way it should get that hot. Since you had two bites at the apple, you'd think you'd luck out at least once.

At this point, I'd look real closely at the clamps and associated HS mounting brackets. See if something is coming loose from the MB or is not aligned correctly. I had a P4 MB that had the bracket coming loose from the MB, and it wouldn't allow proper cooling of the processor. Fixed that, and all was well.


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## WarC (Dec 26, 2001)

Removing the processor and blowing out the dust between the fins of the heatsink might help. Then I would remount the processor on the heatsink with new thermal paste to be safe. Make sure to clean both surfaces with 90 percent isopropyl alcohol. 

Silver thermal stuff really works wonders in this area. I've lost as much as 10-15 celsius under idle and load on videocards and processors I've used it on. (Arctic Silver 5)

The drawback to that is its harder to apply than regular paste, and you have to be careful with it because it is conductive. Keep that isopropyl alcohol handy!  

The first generation Athlons normally run hot but 76c is still too dangerous. Have you checked if there is a temperature status area in your BIOS? That is usually pretty accurate.


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## joshkp3 (Jun 22, 2005)

im just gonna get athlon xp


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Rumpo-Stiltskin said:


> Now he's getting all technical on us!!
> 
> I also got through a LOT of Athlons back in the day (just as many motherboards too I seem to remember).
> Really fought to keep the heat anywhere near under control with those damned things, but learned an awful lot from the experience.
> Worst processors ever IMHO.


Good Morning Rumpo, yes when you have been assocated with semiconductors since their original introduction and seen the different circuit design trends and malfunction effects, it is kind of mind boggling when suddenly they are arranged in circuits with multi million semi-conductor arrays.

In that the different type wafers of silicon are all exposed to thermal as well as electrical stress it is amazing to appreciate they remain in that laminated state with their differing molecular status and it's integrity.
With early days failures it was common to find separation when an autopsy was done.

By comparison, the new era devices and circuit techniques are pretty amazing, (if you know what I mean) so thermal and other stress consideration obviously becomes more important.

Our chaps originally found changes in molecular state at the barriers, where device thermal and electrical runaway had happened (if the device still functioned afterwards) which allowed erratic gating and poor operation. 
Although that was in the days of simple transistors of varying types I suspect this kind of effect may involve some of these hot running, sluggish performing processors that did not previously exhibit that problem.

I am interested to see how the new generation component reliability is going to go.
I do feel a lot more consideration needs to be given to mounting orientation design and protection against stressing. 
It seems so silly to have processors mounted vertically and video cards with heatsinks on the bottom sides, it is thermal-conductive physically silly.

Even a jet engine running horizontally has a hotter exhaust at the top area by a couple of degrees, so heat does tend to congrerate upwards rather rapidly.

So a vertically mounted device is under some degree of physical thermal stress even with no activity simply by orientation.

It seems that it often happens where processors, especially AMD types apear to run hotter with age, regardless of the cooling, this is just my observation with some of the gamers machines. 
This may be due to the greater complexity of the games, but even asking the owners to run older games still appears hotter, even with newer fans etc.
Most of these gaming machines have AMD processors which probably helps to explain Intels not showing the problem so much.

I found this kind of personal experience interesting when applied to Josh's circumstance.
Purely circumstantial, but interesting.
It would be interesting to drop a new processor in that board and do a comparison.
But I am probably wrong as usual..(LOL!!)

Cheers, qldit.


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