CPU Temps High After Cleaning / Reapplying Thermal Paste

[Further shore]

I recently cleaned out my computer and reapplied thermal paste but upon booting up my pc I noticed my temps are a bit high. The temperature on it seems to jump up to 60+ when starting programs (qbittorrent, foobar) and will sometimes jump 70+ celsius. I've had this build for four years now, and I know it's a bit outdated at this point but I just want to know if there is something I can do for the time being until I can get enough money to upgrade.

temperature at the moment from just having chrome / steam open:

here are my specs directly from speccy:
http://i.imgur.com/sSlwSYI.png

I think I may have applied the thermal paste incorrectly. Despite having built this computer I'm not that knowledgeable about some of the stuff regarding it all. I didn't have any themal paste purifier or anything of the sort and cleaned off the cpu with a clean paper towel and cleaned the heatsink to the best of my ability. The way I applied the paste was at the advice of some youtube videos where you apply a bb sized dab of it and spread it evenly with a card of some sort. I was then told by a friend that I was supposed to just put the heat sink on and it would spread evenly itself. Is there anything I can do?

 

[i7Baby]

Do you get the same temp in bios/uefi?

Post your build.

 

[Nuckles_56]

You can pull the heat sink off and reapply the thermal paste again, which would be your best option. Also the method for applying thermal paste varies depending on what paste you are using

 

[Further shore]

I have not yet checked if I get the same temps in bios, although I'm quite sure speccy is reading my temps right because I attempted to watch a stream on twitch and checked speccy only to see it jump over 90 degrees celsius and my pc shut down shortly after.

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 B45
Deneb 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 533MHz (7-7-7-20)
Motherboard
MSI 870-G45 (MS-7599) (CPU1) 46 °C
Graphics
Acer S202HL (1600x900@60Hz)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 5700 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner) 42 °C
Hard Drives
466GB SAMSUNG HD502HJ ATA Device (SATA) 34 °C
Optical Drives
ATAPI iHAS324 B ATA Device
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device

 

[Further shore]

You can pull the heat sink off and reapply the thermal paste again, which would be your best option. Also the method for applying thermal paste varies depending on what paste you are using

The brand is arctic silver, and I think I'm probably going to try and reapply the thermal paste again. Is there anything I can use around the house to clean out the heat sink properly? I've read a lot of things on the internet as to what works and what is okay but it all becomes very conflicting.

 

[i7Baby]

Check temps in bios/uefi

If more than 40C idle or 55C gaming then

Blow out your case - especially fans, filters and coolers. Bump up your cpu fan speed.

Still too high? Then re-seat your cooler as Nuckles said.

Still too high? Buy a better cooler eg coolermasdter hyper 212 evo.

 

[Fidgetmaster]

Pull it off again and clean with some alcohol and a coffee filter....don't use a paper towel.....reapply with some good paste like arctic silver 5 etc....Use the vertical line method or small X I like them more, they spread better.... less is more with thermal paste/grease...and make sure heatsink is seated properly...

NEVER pre-spread with a card or anything like that, all that does is just give you more air bubbles/higher temps when you put the heatsink on....

 

[Further shore]

I'll check the temps in bios now and post an update shortly afterwards. Yesterday I cleaned out my computer quite well with an air duster, cleaned the fans, cpu, gpu, and all the dust hidden in my case. I'll have to purchase some alcohol and a coffee filter sometime today, so I'll do that before I reapply the thermal paste. Also, what is the vertical line method if you don't mind me asking.

 

[Fidgetmaster]

It's a small vertical line applied in the middle, just stop/don't get too close to edges of cpu or it will spill over when put heatsink back on...

not an issue with paste/grease that isn't conductive.....but still messy to clean up/remove etc....if you use arctic silver 5 definitely don't wanting it to spill over and touch anything....while not conductive it allegedly is slightly capacitive....

 

[Further shore]

Well I just attempted to get into the bios, and I was able to get in but after about 15 seconds it just reset my computer. I guess the only thing I can do at the moment is clean the heat sink and reapply the thermal paste using the method fidgetmaster suggested.

 

[Fidgetmaster]

I don't know your temps are really high and jump to that pretty quickly? sounds more like heatsink not seated all the way etc...

 

[Further shore]

I don't know your temps are really high and jump to that pretty quickly? sounds more like heatsink not seated all the way etc...

You're probably right, I'll try and redo this all this morning. My temps were fine gaming and watching streams pre-clean up, there was definitely an error on my part.