Q660 suddenly starting to overheat
Community Forums/General Help/Q660 suddenly starting to overheat
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| Hey guys, I'm hoping someone with some cooling/CPU experience can help out, semi-urgently... fingers crossed... OK so I've been running my old Intel Q6600 with stock cooling quite happily for about 3 years now; I keep the computer case off so I don't have to worry about airflow etc. Tonight the computer switched off, so I booted it back up and went in to BIOS to see the CPU temp idleing at 90 (normal for me was in the 50s). Giving the computer a rest and looking again saw it climb from 60-80 in a matter of minutes. I was happy watching YouTube vids and this is very rude and inconsiderate :( Sooo... questions regarding old CPUs! Is it more likely that the CPU is burning up because it's on its way out, or is it more likely that the thermal paste boiled up and evaporated or something? The fan itself is still running at its regular pace (some 1900RPM). Obviously I need to go to MSY and pick up something to replace something tomorrow. Hopefully a third party cooling solution would be the answer, but thought I'd check to make sure it isn't likely to be the CPU, in case anyone here knows anything about something. And things. |
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| I'd go with thermal paste before anything else. It's cheap, and after years of constant heat it could theoretically be breaking down... sometimes even just reseating the heatsink will help, but if you're going to pop it off you might as well clean it up and dab on 5 cents of new paste... I've run many open case franken-puters, give it an extra blow through with some canned air, you never know where you might have a dust bunny (under the motherboard for example...). Sometimes systems actually cool better with the case on (better draw over the parts that need it) but that's up to you :0) |
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| I keep the computer case off so I don't have to worry about airflow etc Lol, other way round, with the case off there might be more air to "heat" but without airflow the CPU "air" is often hotter with the box open, than when its closed. |
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| Watching videos is actually pretty processor intensive but if it used to be fine, yeah, I'd give it a good clean out and re-seat the CPU, as has been suggested. FWIW, I have run many PCs over the years with the cases off and have never had one run hotter that way - even one's with special airflow ducting. Seems like a bit of an urban myth, that one. Last edited 2011 |
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| Kind of unrelated to your CPU question, but worth mentioning: running the computer with the case open won't make much difference for the CPU itself, but it can be much worse for many of the other surrounding motherboard chips that don't have active cooling fans of their own but just have a little heatsink. With a closed case therer is a continuous flow of air from the front of the case to the back that passes across those chips as well. With the case open, who knows where the air gets pulled to/from. Anyway, since you say that the fan itself is running properly at a decent RPM, I'd guess thermal paste could be the issue as well. If you re-do this though, be careful not to over-apply it: You just need a tiny bit to fill in the microscopic gaps in the metal, don't slab it all over the place because that can make things even worse. Another potential issue could be the voltage running across the CPU: If your power supply is starting to go wonky, or capacitors on your motherboard are on their way out, it's possible that the voltage supplied to the processor is higher than it should be, leading to increased temperatures. Depending on your motherboard, you may be able to see current CPU voltages in the BIOS, or alternatively you can use a 3rd party program like CPU-Z to show the info in real-time from within windows. |
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| It depends on the case if open or closed is better. Especially with a custom rig you might find your fans are in the wrong place, or not strong enough, or blowing in the wrong direction to get good air flow... I had one case that I loved but the design was utter trash, the air flow was crippled horribly so I had to run it open, on it's side so head could vent up, then mount a fan to the outside of the case to get flow under the mobo to keep things in back from getting too hot... generally the expensive of a case comes in 2 forms: materials (cheap plastic, vs. nice quality aluminum etc.) and engineering (is it a box with some screw holes in the right place for an ATX board, or did someone actually think where the wires are likely to run that might restrict airflow etc.) But, to backup what xlsior said, the other components (that don't have their own thermal sensors...) need consideration too, especially if you're getting weird crashing, graphical artifacting etc. that could be a result of something getting toasty that shouldn't. Side bar: my favorite case is the Mac Pro specifically because it's designed for air flow first and foremost. The components are split into sections and each section has an inlet and outlet fan to blow and pull air over them as needed. The processors even mount on a daughterboard at the base of the case so heat naturally flows up rather than across them (vs. traditional board mounting with a vertical arrangement), and their fins are mounted to maximize airflow over the heat pipes. The case itself is the ducting so there's no little pockets for air to gather. The whole front and back are milled grates to protect the internals while putting almost no air resistance in place... and of course the whole thing being made out of aluminum means that the case itself acts as a heat sink... it's huge and expensive as hell, but by god it works :0) compare to the cheapo cases I usually buy for custom clunker PC's and it's a wonder they don't burst into flames... |
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| Also, stating the obvious here, but if there's no case cover, have you checked the heatsink for dust buildup? |
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| Having the case open so you "don't have to worry about cooling" is a myth. Your CPU fan will suck in dust like a vacuum cleaner and stuff it all into the heatsink, making it less efficient and cause the CPU to overheat. I'd strip it all down to the thermal paste, clean it out and reassemble (including the side panel). |
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| I've always found dust gets in just fine with the case on. The intake fan acts just like a vaccuum cleaner. |
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| The intake fan acts just like a vaccuum cleaner. You really should have filters on intake fans.http://www.cclonline.com/product/61988/FANFILTER8/Chassis-Case-Fans/StarTech-Cleanable-Air-Filter-for-80-mm-Computer-Case-Fan/CLR0061/ Last edited 2011 |
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| They tend to clog up so quickly to become useless. |
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| Thanks for the feedback, guys, I appreciate it. So dust and thermal paste seemed to be the top 2 suggestions. I had cans of compressed air lying around so gave that a shot. Booting back up there's a marked improvement, but it's still idleing in the 60s after a few minutes, which is a *little* higher than I'd like. Still, we'll see how it goes. At least I can have the thing running while I contemplate my next move (oh Winamp, I missed you so). Guess it's time for a new case, too. I lost the sides to this one years ago :p |
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| Both those suggestions are a good place to start. Since you are changing thermal paste, you might want to replace the stock heatsink with a better one. Go here for your research: http://www.frostytech.com/ You do not have to buy the best, but get one that improves over a stock HS. Jason |
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| I had cans of compressed air lying around so gave that a shot All that will do is blow the dust out of the heatsink and all over everything else (including yourself). You really should remove it, stick the vacuum cleaner hose on the heatsink to get all the dust out, then reassemble. The thermal paste will probably be like old chewing gum anyway if you've been running it close to 100C for any length of time.Its literally a five minute job and well worth doing properly. |
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| I usually use a nice brand new paint brush to get rid of the gunk,and then blow the fan.Only so it dont stop the fan from running slower.dont use filters or you will have heat build up. |
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I have the same CPU, and for what it's worth, this is what SIW outputs for me at the moment (web browsing), under Sensors...Sensor Value Min Max Temperatures SYSTIN 38 °C (100 °F) 38 °C (100 °F) 38 °C (100 °F) CPUTIN 53 °C (126 °F) 52 °C (125 °F) 53 °C (126 °F) AUXTIN 48 °C (117 °F) 47 °C (115 °F) 48 °C (117 °F) Fans SYSFANIN 1048 RPM 1048 RPM 1054 RPM CPUFANIN0 1795 RPM 1795 RPM 1814 RPM Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Temperatures Core #0 68 °C (154 °F) 59 °C (138 °F) 68 °C (154 °F) Core #1 67 °C (152 °F) 59 °C (138 °F) 67 °C (152 °F) Core #2 65 °C (148 °F) 57 °C (134 °F) 65 °C (148 °F) Core #3 66 °C (150 °F) 57 °C (134 °F) 66 °C (150 °F) I didn't bother with thermal paste (never have, unless it came with the processor!), but after a bit of googling it seems 'we' should be anywhere from 45-60 °C (depending on ambient temperature), so it looks like I might have to 'bother' after all and see what difference it makes... However, I'm not sure whether the ideal temperature means the individual cores or the CPUTIN value, which would seem OK here. |
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| Im not trollin but that is one nice app Siw. |
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| Thanks for the link, Jason. That was going to be my next course of action. All that will do is blow the dust out of the heatsink and all over everything else (including yourself). I always do that outdoors. I don't think the environment minds much, and I can always have a shower. :p Its literally a five minute job and well worth doing properly. Yeah there is still a build up I wasn't able to remove. But I figure if I'm removing the fan and heatsink and replacing the thermal paste anyway, I may as well just get a replacement cooling solution. I am still running stock, which admittedly has done itself proud. it looks like I might have to 'bother' after all and see what difference it makes... Yeh Intel provide a bit of paste on the CPU. Without it, you'd have a gap between the CPU and heatsink, which is a terrible place to accumulate heat :) Of course, third party solutions are always going to perform better than stock, but from the reading I've done thermal paste is not really a huge contributing factor, it's more dependant on the heatsink+fan. However, I'm not sure whether the ideal temperature means the individual cores or the CPUTIN value, which would seem OK here. Good point. I think it's the CPU value. I read somewhere the Core temps should be about 5 degrees higher than the CPU readout, but that's much more than 5 degrees, so *shrugs*. FYI Coretemp is only spazzing out on me when any one of my cores goes above 80. I think in your case you're probably fine. |
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| I keep the computer case off so I don't have to worry about airflow etc. that could be your overheating problem right there!.. or at least half the problem. Fans, especially the PSU fan which is the main case exhaust, sucks air through vents in the case and creates more pressure, increasing the airflow effect through the whole chassis (the designed "air path" so to speak) In fact it is not even "recommended" to not have blanking plates on your missing expansion cards either (although i think we are all guilty of that :D). PS, make sure your heatsink and PSU vents are clear of fluff, splodge a bit of new goo under the HS stick yer case back on and give it a whirl ;) Last edited 2011 |
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| The problem is Australia. It's too hot. I know one guy from Australia, who had to downgrade his GPU because the high end GPU was running too hot. In Northern Europe you don't have any kind of problems like this, and you can even overlock high end GPUs. |
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| Ummm. It was Winter when I posted this. |
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