[Help] High CPU temp & Fan RPMs with Low CPU Usage...

[evanxcs]

Hope someone can help me troubleshoot my fairly high idle CPU temps and fan speeds while not under any load.

AMD Phenom II X4 965
Windows 7 (64 Bit)
AMD Radeon HD 6770

https://imageshack.com/i/pnXQ7v5Oj

As you can see (if I did it right), My CPU is at 54C, and about 6500 RPM while the usage is at 0.6%. I don't experience any shutdowns or problems, it's just that the fan is a little loud considering I'm not really doing much besides browsing the internet. I'd also like to reduce wear and tear on the CPU unless I'm doing something intensive.

My power settings are on "High Performance". I noticed that under advanced settings -> "Processor power management" -> "Minimum processor state" the default setting was 100%. Under the "Balanced" setting, it looks like the default is 5%. Could that be it?

Any advice or suggestions?]

Thanks!

 

[CountMike]

No that's not "it" if you mean that 5% setting. It's more likely you need to change paste under the CPU cooler and lean everything up of dust.
Although... 54c is still way down from maximum and would not shorten the life of processor.
Other things to consider. Use AMD Overdrive for more accurate readings. Idle temps are not very accurate with those processors and only temps under full load are important.

 

[evanxcs]

No that's not "it" if you mean that 5% setting. It's more likely you need to change paste under the CPU cooler and lean everything up of dust.
Although... 54c is still way down from maximum and would not shorten the life of processor.
Other things to consider. Use AMD Overdrive for more accurate readings. Idle temps are not very accurate with those processors and only temps under full load are important.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I tried changing the minimum processor state to 5% and it didn't help.

I went into the BIOS and realized that CPU fan management was disabled, meaning that the fan was set to always be at 100%, no matter the temperature. I'm guessing that after years of this setting, the fan is starting to get noisier, and so I'm just noticing it more lately.

I enabled "quiet fan" and put the target temperature at 50C and the target fan speed at level 5. This has been doing a great job at lowering the average RPMs on my CPU's fan, depending on what I'm doing. Watching an HD stream in Chrome pushes the temp above 50C, and then the fan kicks into high gear. Basic browsing and truly "idling" parks the temp below 50C most of the time (usually around 42C), and the RPMs adjust down to the 3-4Ks, which is much, much quieter.

I will still take an air can to the interior of my case, and revisit the thermal paste, and/or invest in a non-stock CPU cooler down the road if the problem returns. I may also try increasing the target temp to 55C as it seems that temps in the 50C-55C range are not problematic. The CPU is around 4.5 years old, so I'm not too worried about it, regardless.

Thanks again!

 

[CountMike]

Those fans are inherently loud, can't help much about it. Any 3 or more pipes aftermarket cooler with 120mm fan should bring peace and quiet.

 

[evanxcs]

Just wanted to say thanks for the tips and advice! Between the BIOS changes I made and taking your advice to dust out my system (holy MOLY there was spider webs and dust and God knows what else in there), my cpu seems to be much more cool and quiet.

I'm still going to check out some non-stock cpu fan cooling solutions for down the road as well as this cpu is old enough that I'm ok with trying to OC it and see what it can do. Unfortunately, my case does not make mounting a back plate or bracket for the CPU cooler easy to install (i.e., I'd have to take out the entire mobo to do that). If anyone has a recommendation for a good (cheap) non-bracketed cpu cooler, that'd be great!