CPU Cooling Help.

[LaZeRz]

Hey guys, I recently installed a Thermaltake FRIO OCK cpu cooler on my pc and all was well, the computer would run at under 35 degrees Celcius when IDLE and never go over 70 degrees celcius under load.

After a while, I wen't to boot my computer and it shut down while loading windows (I suspect CPU overheating or RAM errors)

I kept checking the cables in my PC to see if I mixed something up because I had to take most of my PC apart to get my cooler in. That didn't help.

I then took out my 3 of my 4 ram sticks and tryed running it with 1 stick. That didn't help so I removed that stick and tryed another one. Still no avail.

Then I got a CPU overheat message in BIOS. So I suspect the cooler isn't making good contact with my CPU, but how could that happen when it's bolted down and lying on its side.

My PC boots succesfully now but I get 60-70 degrees celcius idle temps...

I would find it hard to believe if my cooler came loose and only makes contact with some of the CPU but everythings possible :/

Thanks in advance...

 

[Nocturnal]

If the mount required screws, then maybe one of the screws was screwed in harder than the rest, and caused the cooler to loose full conact?


Edit: or maybe not screwed in enough, and the weight of the heat sink is causing it to loose contact.The FRIO OCK is by Thermaltake

 

[Cyparagon]

Sorry, but I have to ask just in case: You did use thermal paste, right?

If so, what temp does the heat sink idle at?

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Yeah, I've gotta wonder about the thermal paste too. Most people will specify what kind (Arctic Silver, silicone, etc.). You can also usually see what the temperature is in the BIOS to see what's wrong.

 

[LaZeRz]

Yes, I used a pea sized blob of silver paste spread out evenly on the CPU.

I'l probably take the heatsink apart again and re-apply my TIM in a few hours time

Heres a size coomparison of the heatsink.

In my PC

Idle

 

[LaZeRz]

EDIT: Temp drops to around 62 degrees celcius when on its side. I think the HS is lose, I will check it out

 

[Eudaimonium]

Well, you know that using too much thermal paste is also a really bad idea, right?

Thermal conductivity of aluminium and copper is in order of severah hundreds of W/m-k, while your BEST thermal paste has only what, 15 ?

Ideally, the best thermal contact is between two perfectly flat metal surfaces. But since ideally flat surface does not exist, we use thermal paste to fill in microscopic gaps which would otherwise be filled with air.
So basically it's lesser of two evils.

If you use too much thermal paste you can prevent the two metal surfaces from having a strong contact with eachother. Try removing any extra paste first.

Then, while computer is working, try pressing the heatsink with your bare fingers towards the processor, hold it like that for a minute and see if anything's changed in the temp readout in your software.

That's all I can give you right now, report back with any results or more info, see if we can't figure it out

 

[LaZeRz]

This is well worthy of the fail thread

I had a friend over so I was trying to get everything done quickly and I left the protective plastic sheet over the heatsink. Mind you, im no rookie when it comes to computers and this was a one off

Removed the film and re-applied my paste, all is good and when overclocked from 2.6 to 3.6 ghz and under load (running CoD4) it stays under 45 degrees celcius. Me fail, but Me impressed

So, I can completely reccomend this product to anyone looking for a high performance heatsink for their cpu. This thing is huge and keeps the heat of my processor down. I would get 80 degrees celcius peaks with the stock intel heatsink, and when you compare these together the intel heatsink looks like a piece of crap.

 

[mpwn]

wow nice looking pc, and what the hells in it 700W psu? what graphics?

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Reminds me of when I bought 4.32 Ohm resistors instead of 4.32 kOhm resistors and was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why things weren't working...

Edit: Whoops, left in a stray "k"

 

[Nocturnal]

Reminds me of when I bought 4.32 kOhm resistors instead of 4.32 kOhm resistors and was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why things weren't working...

i dont see the differene in resistors?:thinking:
do you mean "4.32 kOhm resistors instead of 4.32 Ohm"

glad you fixed the problem LaZeRz

 

[LaZeRz]

wow nice looking pc, and what the hells in it 700W psu? what graphics?

Thanks Its running an i5 processor at 3.2ghz and it also has an overclocked ati 5870 graphics card.

Reminds me of when I bought 4.32 kOhm resistors instead of 4.32 kOhm resistors and was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why things weren't working...

Yeh, I was going crazy trying to find out why my computer would shut itself off when loading windows.

i dont see the differene in resistors?:thinking:
do you mean "4.32 kOhm resistors instead of 4.32 Ohm"

glad you fixed the problem LaZeRz

Thanks Im glad aswell.

 

[Benm]

This is well worthy of the fail thread

I had a friend over so I was trying to get everything done quickly and I left the protective plastic sheet over the heatsink. Mind you, im no rookie when it comes to computers and this was a one off

LolWUT? You mean the protective sheet on the part that connects to the processor?

Good thing these cpus throttle back so quickly when overheating, otherwise it would probably have turned into a half molten mix of plastic and paste

 

[Bionic-Badger]

i dont see the differene in resistors?:thinking:
do you mean "4.32 kOhm resistors instead of 4.32 Ohm"

glad you fixed the problem LaZeRz

Whoops! Looks like I made the mistake in reverse this time!

 

[LaZeRz]

LolWUT? You mean the protective sheet on the part that connects to the processor?

Good thing these cpus throttle back so quickly when overheating, otherwise it would probably have turned into a half molten mix of plastic and paste

Yep... feel free to post this in the fail thread, I can't be bothered atm.

Its funny how I took apart most of my pc to remove my mobo and then I forgot to remove a simple plastic sheet.

 

[Benm]

Ah well, its often the small things you overlook. I guess its also a win for the processor that survived the ordeal though. Especially the older AMD's were very unforgiving and went up in smoke. Funny thing was that Intel procs of the same era already throttled back and survived yanking off the heatsink completely.