Question CPU Cores Overheating, Please Send Help

Solid_Snake3

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Hey all,

I'm having an issue with my i7-4790k overheating. I have a CM Hyper 212 EVO that I've used for the past 5 or 6 years of me having my build, and recently it's been getting too hot, specifically cores 0 and 1 (first two cores). It could be as small as a game installer running that could cause my temps to be high.
On idle, my temps hover around 34C-42C, which I feel like is too high, especially for an aftermarket cooler. I initially diagnosed it as thermal compound gone bad, as I hadn't replaced it in at least 5 years, however, I replaced it along with putting in a new Noctua fan as the original fan died (I had it replaced with a case fan, and I was thinking that could have also been the problem), yet it still hits TJ max temps on the first two cores.
The place where I first noticed this issue was when I began playing the new Star Wars game, as I noticed my PC was bluescreening/crashing an awful lot whenever I played the game. I would get WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR and CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT errors, which I heard are related to the CPU and RAM, but I did a memtest on my RAM for a whole day and it turned out to be fine. Replacing the compound and the fan didn't help. I'm at a loss here, as I feel like cooling wise I've done everything I can. I've updated drivers, I've reduced my USB hardware down to just a keyboard and mouse, yet my PC still crashes every now and then. Can someone help?
 
Those errors could also be casued by some apps and settings like Fast Startup.
Idle temps are not bad.
Did you check idle temps in the BIOS?
How about your load temps?
If your load temps are higher than 75° C, then check that your heatsink was properly installed and there is adequate air flow in your PC case.
Which Noctua fan did you installed?
You need a high static pressure fan like the Noctua NF-F12.
 

Solid_Snake3

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Those errors could also be casued by some apps and settings like Fast Startup.
Idle temps are not bad.
Did you check idle temps in the BIOS?
How about your load temps?
If your load temps are higher than 75° C, then check that your heatsink was properly installed and there is adequate air flow in your PC case.
Which Noctua fan did you installed?
You need a high static pressure fan like the Noctua NF-F12.

I have turned off Fast Boot, if that's the same as Fast Startup on my BIOS. I have the same front 200mm fan that my case came with, which is still blowing air great. I've attached a screenshot of an example load from rendering an after effects video. As you can see, cores 0 and 1 are really hot, while cores 2 and 3 are pretty much chilling. I reseated my heatsink twice, and the temps had a similar pattern as I described with cores 0 and 1 as well as cores 2 and 3 before I repasted and added a different fan.
As far as I can tell, my CPU cooler is indeed properly installed, as I did it the same way I did many years ago when my PC was still fine.
I put on a Noctua NF-P12, which is supposed to be a great all-rounder fan that is adequate for CPU coolers. Supposedly has great static pressure.
Nothing has changed significantly in my case in terms of airflow, I cleaned out my filters as well. I haven't added anything new, the only thing I did was upgrade to a 1080 from an R9 270X two years ago.

X7S3nHD.png
 
It could be the motherboard or the CPU heat spreaders is not transferring heat from the die properly.
It could be that the cheap compound used by Intel has dried up and cannot longer properly transfer heat to the heat spreader (IHS).
Try disabling Turbo in the BIOS to alleviated that issue.

I have encountered similar issue and I had to remove the IHS, replace the rock hard dry compound, apply new thermal paste (Arctic MX4) and glue back the IHS.
Of course that's a delicate operation and could damage the CPU.
 

Solid_Snake3

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It could be the motherboard or the CPU heat spreaders is not transferring heat from the die properly.
It could be that the cheap compound used by Intel has dried up and cannot longer properly transfer heat to the heat spreader (IHS).
Try disabling Turbo in the BIOS to alleviated that issue.

I have encountered similar issue and I had to remove the IHS, replace the rock hard dry compound, apply new thermal paste (Arctic MX4) and glue back the IHS.
Of course that's a delicate operation and could damage the CPU.
What kind of improvements did you see? I ordered Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and the Rockit 88 delidder.
 
What kind of improvements did you see? I ordered Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and the Rockit 88 delidder.
I got 16° C improvement.
I do a lot of video editing and it was reaching 94° C, which made the CPU down-clock making the projects to take more time.

I used a Vise clamp (scary :eek:), Arctic MX4 (I had lying around) and silicon glue to reseal the IHS.
It should be a lot safer with the Rockit 88
 

Solid_Snake3

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I got 16° C improvement.
I do a lot of video editing and it was reaching 94° C, which made the CPU down-clock making the projects to take more time.

I used a Vise clamp (scary :eek:), Arctic MX4 (I had lying around) and silicon glue to reseal the IHS.
It should be a lot safer with the Rockit 88
Wish me luck! The stuff should come in tomorrow. I got some black RTV gasket maker stuff that apparently works well to relid as welel.
 

Solid_Snake3

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🤞🤞🤞🤞
Just be careful cleaning the old glue from CPU.
UPDATE! The delidding tool came with a bamboo pick to get the old glue off. The RTV gasket maker seems to be holding up. It isn't the neatest job in the world but the delid was a success! Me in all my wisdom didn't take exact temperature readings, but I ran RealBench from ASUS three times on my PC.
Out of the three reps, only 1 was successful pre delid. The first temperature graph is for that. Notice how insane the differences between individual cores are.
Post delid, all test reps went through. My scores weren't really any better, but I have a lot more confidence about the longevity of my CPU now. The second graph is for that.
The flat turbo frequency graph makes me really happy after the delid lol.
XWsNNOf.png

Gq7UmVc.png

You'll notice that the time ranges are a bit different, as I went away from my computer for a while during the pre delid test, but the test duration was still the same. Thanks again for the suggestion to delid!
I'm honestly shocked, I knew the crap thermal compound thing was an issue with Haswell and a lot of people delidded the 4770k, and I figured they fixed it for Devil's Canyon. Apparently not. I'm really happy with how my temps are doing now.

I have an i7-4790k, used the Rockit 88 delidding/relidding tool, with thermal grizzly kryonaut (didn't want to deal with ruining my CPU with liquid metal because this is amateur hour) and I used Permatex Max Oil Resistance Silicone Gasket maker (the black kind). Since I had a hard time finding a video showing me how to apply the gasket maker, I basically painted a thin line of it around the IHS, leaving a tiny bit of space on one side so gases and such could escape.
 

Solid_Snake3

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It looks very good.
The CPU stops thermal throttling thus allowing better performance.
That Rockit 88 looks a lot safer than how I did it.
Correct! And I'm hoping to squeeze at least 5 more years out of the i7 until something major that's specific to my platform breaks (ie the mobo) to upgrade to a newer platform.
You mentioned that my tool was a lot safer. What did you do?