Computer overheating and shutting down

[Rostropovich]

Okay, so, my friend has bought a new PC last year and he didn't have any serious problems until a few months back when his CPU fan started being far too loud and the computer overall started overheating. The problem became especially apparent when playing video games for a prolonged period of time and always culminates with the PC shutting down by itself.

We are now trying to find a solution for that problem but we're not completely sure what we should do and would be very grateful for some help and advice.

The computer's specs are:
ASUS M5A97 R2.0 motherboard
AMD FX8320 CPU with a stock fan
AMD Sapphire R9 270X graphics card
2x4GB Kingston HyperX memory
Cooler Master Silencio 550 case

 

[Dunlop0078]

What are cpu temps when gaming? It sounds like its overheating and triggering thermal shutdown to save itself.

 

[Rostropovich]

The temperature starts at 38 degrees Celsius and starts slowly rising to well beyond 80 and sometimes 90 degrees, according to SpeedFan.

 

[Dunlop0078]

The temperature starts at 38 degrees Celsius and starts slowly rising to well beyond 80 and sometimes 90 degrees, according to SpeedFan.

Well there's your problem. Im not sure if speedfan is measuring cpu package temp or cpu socket temp but either way that is FAR too hot for that cpu, AMD recommends that cpu not exceed 62c. You could damage or already have damaged that cpu running it at those temps.

A few possibilities first would be the cooler is not mounted properly however those AM3+ coolers are very easy to mount so im not sure how that would have happened but I would check anyways. Or you didn't use enough or no thermal paste at all. Or the cooler is absolutely caked with dust and is impeding airflow.

 

[Rostropovich]

Guessed as much. But the thing is, we've cleaned the fan and mounted it again properly, and reapplied thermal paste. The temperature dropped for a few degrees but it still rises when playing games. The PC case has two 120mm fans and they're working properly, we've also been thinking to replace the stock fan with something better like the Cooler Master TX3 Evo fan or some such.