Odd CPU temperatures

[Chipmyster]

Good Evening,

I was wondering if someone could offer me some advice on a strange CPU temperatures.

The basic sum up is this, while playing Borderlands on my computer a couple of days ago after replacing the motherboard ( The cpu + heatsink were already installed ) and everything was normal and it just switched off, just turned off and would not turn on for a few mins. I thought ok, something probably over heated or what not!

So installed CPUID hardware moniter to watch my temperatures.

I idle around 50C on all 4 cores ( Intel Q6700 )
I play borderlands and the first two cores have gone up to 83C before I turned the game off and INSTANTLY dropped in temperature back down to about 50/60, even if I alt tab the temperate starts dropping right away.
Yet when I play heroes of Newearth all cores average 60C and go no higher ever.

What i find odd the heatsink is stone cold, there is no heat in the case at all. But why is it showing the temperature being so variable and so high without reason...

Could it be the heatsink isnt on right or there was something else wrong?

Any advice would be most appreciated!

Dan

PS -I ran heavyload and it pushed my temperature up to the mid 80's in seconds!

 

[Tmagic650]

Have you run your antivirus and malware scans recently?

 

[dividebyzero]

If you bought the board with CPU and heatsink attached, and the board was shipped it is quite likely that the heatsink isn't seated correctly- which would explain why the heatsink isn't getting very warm, since the heat isn't being transferred from the CPU heatspreader to the heatsink base.
Before you start, you should make sure you have some isopropyl alcohol (available at pharmacies) or a proprietry solution to clean off the old thermal grease, some cotton swabs for application, and some replacemant thermal interface material (TIM, or thermal grease). Tuniq TX-2 and Arctic Cooling Ceramique or Silver 5 (AS5) should be fine and not too expensive.
After you've assembled these, then carefully remove the heatsink ( I presume it's a stock Intel cooler). The guide for uninstalling the heatsink is here (the preceding page outlines how to reinstall the heatsink). Remember to unplug the fan cable from the motherboard header prior to starting. Also take some precautions against zapping the board with static electricity- I assume you are already doing this if you're touching the heatsink whilst it's in use.
Carefully clean the old TIM off the CPU heatspreader, around the CPU socket area and the base of the heatsink. Reapply new TIM as per the manufacturers directions- or use this guide. A single rice grained amount of TIM should be sufficient for a stock Intel heatsink fan.

If reseating the heatsink fan doesn't cure the problem, then you could look at other possible causes - but I would look at the most likely first. Worst case scenario is that your CPU has a fresh thermal application...so no downside.

 

[Chipmyster]

Aha, well I took it all off, cleaned everything, put thermal grease carefully on even tho there was some there and made sure it was fully secured centred etc!

My temperatures have my cut down by half and I have yet to go above 44C doing anything at all! I guess something was a little loose or there wasn't enough grease! Sorry to ask such a very newbie, boring question for you to answer but at least if anything happens in the future I can immeditaly have an idea of what to check!

Thank you very much for replying and the computer works great now!

Regards,

Dan