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Need Help with CPU Overheating

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Mine Draped
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2016/02/12 07:22:31 (permalink)

Need Help with CPU Overheating

Hello all,
 
I hope I'm posting this in the right place.  I also hope that someone can help me (or maybe just assuage my fears).  I know almost nothing about PC hardware, so please bear with me.
 
I bought a fully custom AVADirect PC about 7 1/2 years ago.  It's been fantastic.  Thank you!
 
Given it's age, everyone will likely laugh at the specs, but it does just about everything I want it to.  I have the original order form somewhere with all of the components, but here's a quick rundown from HWiNFO:
 
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (Yorkfield)
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB GDDR3 SDRAM
 
The other day I turned on my "monitor" (a 52" LCD TV) and found a black screen which said something along the lines of "CPU Overheat...something...Press F1 to Resume".  Sorry, but that's close enough; I panicked when I saw that.  I pressed F1 and a Windows update screen appeared, Stage 3, which completed and then eventually led me to my desktop.  Apparently my PC had rebooted and tried to update in the middle of the night.
 
Because of the overheat warning, I downloaded HWiNFO and Core Temp.  Currently, they are both reporting that all four cores are at or over 90 degrees C.  This is just while idling at the desktop.  Yesterday, they reported mostly 65 - 80 degrees, with spikes over 90.  HWiNFO reports that the cores are throttling down frequently.
 
My PC, however, seems to be running mostly fine.  The fans seem normal, just about everything seems normal.  I can run programs, etc...  Guitar Pro 6 and Amplitube 3 both seem fully functional (though they're both kinda glitchy anyway) and can still be ran simultaneously.  Opening them both yesterday had no effect on core temp.  I'm not a PC gamer (I'm a console guy...shoot me), so can't test that way.
 
The only real issues I've been having have been with certain webpages.  I can't go to sites like fallout.wikia.com and some others (mostly sites with lots of video ads, it seems) because they lag, freeze and Firefox eventually freaks out and crashes.  Internet Explorer is basically useless and lags horribly all the time (I haven't used it in years).  Most of the internet works fine though.  Oddly enough, I uninstalled Flash Player yesterday and the Fallout Wiki page ran great for a little while, then HWiNFO showed a spike in core temp (above safe levels) and when I tried switching over to Firefox again, it was unresponsive and then crashed shortly after.
 
I honestly don't know what's going on.  Is this a hardware issue?  Could I have a virus?  Could a virus even cause this?  I used to have Kaspersky Pure 3.0, but after the license expired last year, I never got a new anti-virus program.  In all the years I've been using PC's (basically since they were invented...anyone else remember Tandy?), I've only ever gotten one virus and in all the years I had Kaspersky, it only ever prevented two possible trojans.  I'm not stupid when it comes to surfing the web.
 
I hope I've provided enough information, though please ask questions that may be relevant.  The thought of my PC dying on me is freaking me out.  I know it's old, but I'm disabled and low-income.  An expense like this isn't really in my budget.  Sorry if I'm rambling, but this is scary.
 
Any help, information, direction or, well, anything would be greatly appreciated!
 
Thanks!
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    MikeBlystone
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    Re: Need Help with CPU Overheating 2016/02/12 13:58:24 (permalink)
    Good Afternoon,
     
    It is not abnormal for a computer to overheat at some point in it's functional lifespan.  Since the cooling equipment in a modern PC is most commonly a hunk of metal with heat dissipation fins, being actively cooled by a fan, standard PC heatsinks are incredibly vulnerable to dust buildup over time.  Dust is a good insulator but not a good heat conduction medium.  
     
    I would highly recommend visually inspecting the cooling unit on any PC that is overheating and making sure it's fan is spinning and it is free of dust.  Modern Intel processors (I still consider the Q9XXX series to be modern) have good thermal controls built in, so will often throttle down in speed when faced with an overtemp scenario, which is most likely why the computer appears to be running fine.  A constantly overheating processor though, is something that should be addressed as soon as possible to prevent damage to the PC!
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    Mine Draped
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    Re: Need Help with CPU Overheating 2016/02/12 21:59:51 (permalink)
    Hi and thanks for the quick reply!
     
    I turned off my PC (the fans ran longer than usual after shut down) and looked inside.  Most of it was lightly coated in dust, with some areas worse than others.  The main fans are reasonably clean.  However, what I'm assuming is the CPU fan on the motherboard (it says "Intel Inside"...remember, I'm totally clueless here) looked to me to be pretty brown and caked.
     
    Help on how to go about cleaning it would be greatly appreciated!  I couldn't even see a way to remove the thing (there was the obvious wire connecting it to the motherboard, but everything else was solid plastic - no visible screws whatsoever) and would have no idea what to do even if I did get it off of there.
     
    The last thing I want to do is make anything worse.  The problem has gotten worse since even yesterday, when average temps were 70-80; now they're constant high-90's.  I could feel the heat inside of the the machine when I opened it up, which I don't think is a good sign...I really hope it's not too late.
     
    Thanks again and thanks in advance to anyone who can give me some direction here!
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    Mine Draped
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    Re: Need Help with CPU Overheating 2016/02/16 01:55:23 (permalink)
    Hello again,
     
    Well, I found the problem:  A half-inch-high by three-inch wide pile of dust came out of my heatsink.  7 1/2 years is way too long.  Thanks for pointing this out to me and getting me started in the right direction!  I just hope I didn't mess things up.
     
    I found YouTube videos explaining most of the process and also want to thank Taylor at AVADirect for talking to me today and answering my questions the three times (yup) I called.  I cleaned everything and applied new Arctic MX-2 thermal compound.
     
    Can a person apply too much?  Or is it bad if gets too far outside the CPU?  I was told to put it on the CPU rather than the heatsink, but my CPU was vertical at the time (my tower is too large for me to move much...I have neuromuscular problems).  I was expecting a much thicker substance than what came out of the tube.  I tried to do a five-dot pattern like Taylor described to me.  That is, one larger dot in the middle and four smaller ones somewhat in from the corners.  All of them stuck to the syringe and dripped downward/outward, etc...  I wish I'd had something to practice on first because I got the technique by the time I was done.
     
    I cleaned up as best I could while I was doing it, but the end result was much messier than I would have liked.  I don't particularly want to detach everything to see what happened when I placed the heatsink up against it.
     
    Then finally came the moment of truth:  I turned on my computer.  It booted up faster than it has in years.  My core temps are in the high 30's/low 40's and I'm now starting to remember how my computer was years ago.  Everything seems to be running faster.  All this time, I thought the slowdown was just from crap getting installed and was even contemplating using Acronis to start over again.
     
    However, I'm concerned that it sounds like the fan is running too loud and even buzzing a bit (though that last part may be in my head).  I don't remember it ever being like this; my computer was always pretty silent.  It also made an disconcerting and pretty significant rattling sound for a minute after I first got to my desktop.  Is this normal?  I seated it tightly, but could it have needed to correct itself or something (I'm just making things up here)?  I worry that I may have been too rough when I was cleaning the fan blades (I made some rookie mistakes, held it wrong and pushed too hard at times).  I checked the RMP's in HWMonitor and they're around 2,000, which is much lower than the 2,900 or so prior to this work.
     
    I hope I did good; the temps are amazing.  This was a heart-pounding ordeal.  I'm glad I survived.  I hope my computer did too and would love to know if the noise is something I should be concerned about or if the thermal paste could end up being an issue (it's amazing what little drops of grey goo can do). 
     
    Sorry for the all the questions, but my computer means the world to me and, given what you all do here, I think you may be able to relate to that.  :)
     
    Thanks!
     
     
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