My CPU is overheating

[SmirkingWolf]

I dusted out my computer last night, it had been a couple years.
I plugged everything back in and turned it back on, about 10 minutes later it shut itself down.
After looking in the bios I found that the CPU was running at 174°F.
It goes from 84°F to 174°F in about two minutes while in bios.

All the fans are running and the CPU fan is running at about 4000 RPM.

It was suggested I replace the thermal paste and I have done so but the heat hasn't changed.

I know computers to an extent and I have made sure that all the connections are seated properly and the heatsink is seated properly but nothing has changed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated?

 

[Darkseiders]

That's hardly an overheat temp, so it must be something else. Did you remove the old thermal paste? That is degrees Fahrenheit, not Celsius, right? It might be a problem with the heat sensor on the CPU.

 

[SmirkingWolf]

I did remove the old paste.
Yes, Fahrenheit.

 

[clutchc]

That's 29C at start, up to 79C. Hot, but not dangerous, but it shouldn't be doing that. Is that the temp when the PC shuts down? Or does it go higher before it shuts down? 79C (174F) shouldn't shut down most PCs. What are your specs?

 

[william p]

Make sure the fans are all blowing in the right direction. The only time I've had anything like this a wire was trapped under the heatsink bracket. Make sure CPU latch and bracket are all the way down.When you installed the thermal paste did you put a small ball of it in the middle of the CPU and let it spread. If you covered the whole thing it can trap air pockets and run hot. Back track and check everything carefully. If the fan is running fast then the sensor is working, and the fan is working. Check voltage, and fsb in BIOS to make sure it's running at normal speed, and power. See if chipset heatsink got knocked loose.

 

[clutchc]

I hope you didn't use high air pressure to "dust" the PC. You might have dislodged a component or blown something conductive into someplace it shouldn't be.

 

[SmirkingWolf]

I hope you didn't use high air pressure to "dust" the PC. You might have dislodged a component or blown something conductive into someplace it shouldn't be.

79C is when it shuts down. It starts at 34C and reaches 79C in about 2 minutes. It holds at 79C for 5-10 minutes when it shuts down.
I used an air compressor fron a distance and not at full force.

Specs:
CPU - GeForce GTX 460
CPU - Intel Core i7 960 @ 3.20 GHz 4 Core
Ram - 6 GB
Mobo - MSI PCI Express 2.0 CFX X58 Pro (I read this off the motherboard itself)

 

[SmirkingWolf]

Make sure the fans are all blowing in the right direction. The only time I've had anything like this a wire was trapped under the heatsink bracket. Make sure CPU latch and bracket are all the way down.When you installed the thermal paste did you put a small ball of it in the middle of the CPU and let it spread. If you covered the whole thing it can trap air pockets and run hot. Back track and check everything carefully. If the fan is running fast then the sensor is working, and the fan is working. Check voltage, and fsb in BIOS to make sure it's running at normal speed, and power. See if chipset heatsink got knocked loose.

The fans are all blowing in the right directions. No trapped wires. Latch and bracket is good.
Yes I applied the paste by putting a small amount in the middle.
Voltage is set to auto but I'm unsure what it should be at.
Chipset in proper place.

 

[william p]

You can go to CPUworld and check voltage for your CPU there. Just Google your CPU and CPUworld should be in the results. Was your heatsink stuck really tight on the CPU. Is it possible the heatspreader got pulled loose? The cover on the CPU should be flat, if it's bent up this may be keeping the heat inside. They used to be soldered but it think they glue them now. You might look at some delidding websites to see if this can happen.

 

[SmirkingWolf]

You can go to CPUworld and check voltage for your CPU there. Just Google your CPU and CPUworld should be in the results. Was your heatsink stuck really tight on the CPU. Is it possible the heatspreader got pulled loose? The cover on the CPU should be flat, if it's bent up this may be keeping the heat inside. They used to be soldered but it think they glue them now. You might look at some delidding websites to see if this can happen.

Voltage is good.
Everything looks good.
Except when I pulled the heatsink up just now, it looks like the heatsink isn't touching the CPU completely, I say this because the thermal paste isn't touching all of the heat sink. Like the cpu is covered but there isn't paste on part of the heatsink that is supposed to touch the cpu.
Hope that made sense.

 

[william p]

That's the area you need to be looking at. Where the heat comes out of the CPU into the heatsink. You want the paste as thin as possible, as close to metal to metal as you can get. Check everything for flatness. If the CPU isn't flat suspect internal damage.