CPU getting hot: (motherboard issue or thermal paste) SOLVED.

[Julian321]

Just had to reinstall the heatsink. Temperatures at <50.



Hello Tom's Hardware community,

Straight to the point. This is my rig

Z170 Motherboard ASROCK
GTX 1060 6GB <1 year old
I5 7600k 1.5ish years old
2x8gb Ballistix DDR4 ram 1.5ish years old
1tb HDD 4-5+ years old
128GB SDD 2-3ish years old.


2 Days ago I noticed that my CPU fan was very loud so I turned the rig off and have not used the rig ever since except for brief 1-2 minutes to trouble shoot. One day when I booted my computer I discovered that my CPU temps ranged at ~80 degrees Celsius, and over the next couple minutes it would stabilize in the high 50s to low 60s (idle). During this time every other component had consistent temperatures in the mid 40s to mid 50s. To further test, I briefly opened up Guild Wars 2, and saw that my CPU temps would spike to mid to high 80s, I and that's with me just getting past the first loading screen. I immediately killed the program and powered off the system. My first guess was that the CPU thermal paste had worn off.

Here are the steps that I have since taken:

1)Bought CAIG Labs Heat sink Compound Silicone Based for 4.95 at Fry's electronics.
2)Removed old CPU thermal paste
3)Reapplied thermal paste (tried to at least) and gave 30 minutes to cure.

4)Reinstalled CPU fan
5)Booted up computer only to see cpu temps were in 80s. Turned off immediately

I was confused as why temperatures were still high (am I supposed to give more time for thermal paste to cure?), so I removed my CPU and took a look at the CPU socket which also looks suspect.



As you can see in the top center it looks like a few pins are twisted. Could that be cause of my high CPU temperatures? I think I may have avoided critical damage to my components, but I would like some advice on how to proceed.

As far as troubleshooting I do have an older, spare motherboard that should still work.


To me it looks fine but feel free to correct me.

 

[shep611]

by any chance you have not over clocked your cpu? if you have then a fan simply will not do the job keeping it cooled

 

[Julian321]

Nothing in my rig is overclocked. I'm also using a non-stock cooler-master cpu fan. I also have never had any temperature issues up until now.

 

[shep611]

which brand CAIG Labs Heat sink Compound Silicone Based did you get ? reason i ask cause many of the silcone based ones have a lot of conductivity in them personally i would use artic silver or another newer brand . having to much conductive material in paste for cpu could damage it .

 

[Julian321]

Do
do
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.2991/.f

That is the exact paste used.
Do you have an opinion on the motherboard pins?
Also, I think I should mention that my CPU fan was not installed very well and I don't think the heatsink was touching the CPU.

 

[shep611]

im no expert on the mother board part but pins are on the cpu side not mobo side and that top pic doesnt look well to me but again no expert and as for paste yea try arctic ceramique . back top the pins now look at the cpu see if any are bent if they are and they match up to that spot on mobo that looks bad then prob gonna need new cpu and mobo

 

[R0GG]

Your motherboard CPU socket pins look good, on the other hand I would go for either Arctic silver 5 or Noctua thermal paste instead, applied stingily as to provide a very thin layer or as a central pea sized dot or x or rectangular pattern of tiny dots on CPU already installed in it's motherboard socket, and then assemble CPU cooler heatsink/fan flush with CPU surface by evening screws tension gradually in a rotating manner ( made easier for CPU air coolers installation by having motherboard outside of the case)
- Hyper 212x thermal paste method >> http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1768299/hyper-212x-thermal-paste-method.html
- How-To: Properly Apply Thermal Paste and Install a CPU >> https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-properly-apply-thermal-paste-and-install-a-cpu/
- How to install a Heat Sink on a CPU. >> http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834682/install-heat-sink-cpu.html

 

[Julian321]

Ok guys I fixed it. I reinstalled the heatsink and CPU temperature rarely goes above 60 during heavy load. For some reason the fans on my GPU don't turn on. My GPU hovers around 45-mid 50s. Do they automatically turn on at certain temperature?