[SOLVED] cpu temperature too high when idle

[Taco Dell]

hi since this morning my laptop temperatures keep getting suddenly high when pc is idle with Opera running only. when i play play a video on youtube the temperatures suddenly peak and fluctuate very rapidly back and forth. i have no idea what happening i even heard the fan going crazy so i quickly shut it down. so, is it a virus or i need to reapply thermal paste on processor. here's the snapshot of core temp, look at the max temp its 71 with opera running and nothing else.
https://ibb.co/R6Lfy22
the cpu usage in task manager never went above 20%.

 

[cdrkf]

hi since this morning my laptop temperatures keep getting suddenly high when pc is idle with Opera running only. when i play play a video on youtube the temperatures suddenly peak and fluctuate very rapidly back and forth. i have no idea what happening i even heard the fan going crazy so i quickly shut it down. so, is it a virus or i need to reapply thermal paste on processor. here's the snapshot of core temp, look at the max temp its 71 with opera running and nothing else.
https://ibb.co/R6Lfy22
the cpu usage in task manager never went above 20%.

It doesn't sound like a virus (that would have your cpu usage way up when the machine isn't doing anything). It's probably a cooling problem.

Usually with laptops the issue is dust get into the cooling assembly and block airflow, so first thing to do is access the heatsink / fan assembly and have a look. I have found you usually get a layer of dust between the fan and heatsink- clean that out should help.

If the machine is more than about 3 years old then the thermal paste could have dried out as well, in which case changing that is a good idea. I would recommend against messing around with new thermal paste on a laptop though if it's newer than that (or at least until you have tried cleaning the cooling assembly out first) as it can be quite tricky to get even pressure onto the cpu after changing the thermal paste.