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So I built this computer about a month ago, and it's been great. I got an AMD 3200+ with a Venice core and a PCI-E 6600GT from MSI, enough to make all my games look awesome, and still have an affordable card. I haven't made any major changes to my settings recently, but my CPU temps are going nuts! It had always run stable at around 40-45 C, but during the last couple of days it has exceeded 67 degrees Celsius. My computer re-started and froze once in a while and I messed around until I checked the temperature sensors. I'm gonna need to buy a good fan, but I was just wondering if anyone could think of why it's getting so flipping hot. Thanks a lot.

clean your hsf. Make sure there's no dust in the fan. Also, you may need to take the hsf out and reapply the thermal grease.

Thanks, but my heatsink fans along with everything else inside is free of dust, so that's not a factor. By the way, it is freezing up with absolutely no load (maybe 2% CPU usage at most, as it is idling). It will freeze up through the night, it's only "load" lol being my screensaver, so it's kind of weird. The CPU came with a thermal pad on the heatsink. I guess i'll just get a good fan. I've never dealt with this much overheating, so will a good fan lower my temperatures by 20 degrees celsius? That just seems like a lot to ask from a fan. I'll look into it more as I have not had much time to look at the problem, I kind of posted before I did some research, but comments would be appreciated. I'm shutting 'er off right now... I'm sweating profusely from it's heat. Just kidding.

I can think of two possibilities:

1. The seal between the heatsink and CPU has been broken. This would cause the temps to fire up even with the heatsink on. Did you remove the heatsink once for any reason? My guess is, if you re-seat the heatsink with some good arctic silver (assuming your fan is spinning) you'll be good to go.

2. You are overclocked. Have you been messing around with your settings at all? You may have accidentally overclocked yourself. This would also cause your temps to jump up.

Other than that.... Are your case fans spinning? <-- obvious I know, but worth double checking.

EDIT: thought of a 3rd possibility, and this happens all the time. Your temperatures are being reported incorrectly. Try another temp program or check your bios for a second opinion.
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/547-speedfan.html

67 is definitely a bit too high for the venice (unless you are in a really hot environement). You should check your fan is working properly. Reseat the hsf may help. So try to remove the hsf and reapply the thermal paste/grease.

1.Search if your power supply fun is working properly.
Perhaps it need to be cleanned.

2. Do you have a proper cooler case fan?


3.Search if the sensor of the mobo is not dammaged.

Thanks a lot guys but I'm afraid I burnt up. I'm not sure, I don't see how but right when I said I was going to turn it off (in my last post) I did. When I tried starting it up this morning and.... NOTHING! I'm guessing the CPU fried up, there was nothing else with any of my other components I don't think. By the way, there was no overclocking and all my fans were on. When I start it up, nothing happens, the monitor doesn't come out of its idle or anything. Tell me if that sounds like that's what my problem is.

Well I think your computer can turn on with on with a CPU not in its socket or if a dead CPU was installed but I could be wrong. I alwayts suggest if you use teh stock cooler that came with your CPU always take off the thermal pad or whatever it on the heatsink and apply some actual thermalt paste yourself.

I'm really sorry, I can't believe I stated that so poorly. Everything else turned on (all my fans, hard drive, graphics card fan was running...). I took off the thermal pad and put on some Arctic Silver just in case the CPU was not broken. It's just that nothing displayed on the screen.

I'm not really sure of what i'm seeing. I'm looking at the bottom of my processor (the pin side) and I can't tell for sure if what i'm seeing is burn marks or not. It certainly gets a small shade darker away from the edges of the processor, but it's not like a "Oh wow, that thing is burnt" type of deal. Can it be damaged without visible signs? There is a few pins minutely out of line, but that shouldn't make a difference. Tell me if you need more info.

You might have a burned out CPU since you see some dark marks. Best thing to do if you can is try it in another system or take it to a local shop and have them test in in one of their machines but it sounds like it is fried. Is that dark mark on the pin side of the CPU? check your board to see if there are any dark burn marks.