CPU Overheating - Thermal Paste Fail After 6 Years

[Enforcer52]

Interesting situation developed over the weekend. Was working on the computer when all of a sudden it just shutdown, no blue screen or other info on screen, just turned completely off. Computer is 6 years old.

Turned it back on, started to boot up, then turned itself off again. Let it sit a couple of minutes and turned it back on. It rebooted, so I turned on Speccy to monitor the temps and saw that the CPU temp was running around 140 degrees, when it should have been around 100 while just idling. Watched it and noticed the temp jumping up to around 156-160 while idling, due to background processes running.

Fired up a game because I knew it was an intensive program, and watched the temp soar to over 200 degrees. Bios set to shutdown at 220, which it quickly did.

Ran tests on the Wraith cooler fan and it showed to be running it's normal 2450 rpms. So at this point I knew I had either a CPU issue and possible imminent failure, or the thermal paste had went bad.

Pulled the cooler fan and found the thermal paste to be dry and chalky. Used some 91% alcohol and cleaned the cpu and base of cooler fan. Reapplied new thermal paste and put the cooler fan back on.

Booted back up and while idling the cpu temp was back around 95 degrees. Fired up the game and put it thru it's paces, temp never rose above 126 degrees.

So my advice is to replace the thermal paste on the cpu and fan after about 5 years of service to prevent overheating issues of the cpu.

 

[saioke]

When you say 140 degrees, are you talking Celsius or Fahrenheit? Because if that's C well uhhh, yeah. That's way too hot and your PC should be shutting off way sooner than that even. It's just that I never see anyone refer to CPU temps in F before lol. But yeah, with extreme temps, a good majority of the time it's either the thermal paste, or some clogged vents/fans. Modern CPUs have so many safeguards that prevent it from damaging itself, and it's pretty rare for a CPU to go bad unless someone deliberately bends some pins or don't know what you're doing with overclocking, etc. You'll likely replace your whole system well before the CPU could croak. I still have a PC that has a first gen i5 and that thing came out in like, 2011 lol.

But yeah, I tend to repair computers if someone requires it, and my general rule of thumb is that assuming you use some good paste, that you should replace your thermal paste every 3-5 years on a Desktop, and every 1-2 years on a Laptop, or you're just asking for issues. Also don't be afraid to open it up every 6 months or so to clean out the vents and fans with some compressed air, especially if you're in a home with a lot of smoking or pets.

Anyway, just remember that new thermal paste typically has a break-in period, and temps will be slightly hotter than they should be for awhile until the thermal paste cures. For the stuff I normally use - Arctic Silver 5, it typically has a curing time of 200 hours or so.

 

[Enforcer52]

That is in Fahrenheit. I also used Arctic Silver 5.

 

[saioke]

Good stuff! I mean there's better pastes out there but Arctic Silver 5 does the job just fine. Using something like Thermal Grizzly Duronaut seems like overkill unless you're overclocking and personally, I think overclocking is overrated lol.

 

[StoliRaz]

Interesting. In my still in use 2011-era desktop, the processor from the factory has never been touched. It probably has thousands of hours on it without ever overheating. Primary use is playing older games (processor- heavy ones), basic word processing and internet browsing.

In my SDR PC, I upgraded the processor to an i7 7700t and used Arctic MX-6 paste. It's been running 24/7 for almost 2 straight months now, hovering around 100°F on Speccy. I keep it in my basement where it is nice and cool, 50-70 degrees year round.

 

[Enforcer52]

I keep it in my basement where it is nice and cool, 50-70 degrees year round.

Unfortunately no basements in East Texas

 

[JimmyJet727]

So my advice is to replace the thermal paste on the cpu and fan after about 5 years of service to prevent overheating issues of the cpu.

Very good advice. I once helped a friend fix a computer that would boot and run for only a couple minutes then shut down. Opened the case and discovered that the heat sink was so caked with dust that the heat sink was barely visible. Thorough cleaning with compressed air and the computer ran great from that day on. HEAT - the enemy of all things electronic.

 

[phask]

I'm on my 3rd Acer Nitro, 2 still working. SOP seems to be re-paste after the first year with a premium paste. Then, every year or so, check and clean the fans and air tunnels. Check the paste, but the premium stuff holds up rather well.

 

[saioke]

Interesting. In my still in use 2011-era desktop, the processor from the factory has never been touched. It probably has thousands of hours on it without ever overheating. Primary use is playing older games (processor- heavy ones), basic word processing and internet browsing.

You're lucky! I mean, it could still be running extremely hot but you never really notice because you don't exactly push that system but those early i5's assuming that's what you're using typically didn't run very cool to begin with. Some people have gone so far as to delid their older 1st and 2nd gen equivalent intel CPUs to apply thermal paste directly onto the CPU die. I've done this myself, but I don't run any systems that old anymore. I have an old system in my closet with a 4570k that I'm not doing anything with, as well as an old dell with a i5 4400, and another in my building with a 3rd gen i5 of some sort. Rising electricity here in Ohio has me trying to use as little as possible, otherwise I'd turn one or two of those into a server of some kind, or music production lol. I already leave my main machine - a Laptop, on 24/7 to host a rdio-scanner server.

Very good advice. I once helped a friend fix a computer that would boot and run for only a couple minutes then shut down. Opened the case and discovered that the heat sink was so caked with dust that the heat sink was barely visible. Thorough cleaning with compressed air and the computer ran great from that day on. HEAT - the enemy of all things electronic.

Yup, I've had that happen before as well! Usually if someone smokes a lot or has a lot of pets, you'll definitely have to clean the vents and the fans far more often. At that point, replacing the thermal paste would've been good too lol. Thankfully shutting down is the best option. Not too long ago, computers didn't really have such sophisticated systems that detected how hot they've gotten and were particularly prone to destroying themselves or worse - catching on fire.

PCs can still catch on fire of course, it's just not as common lol. Mostly fires nowadays begin in faulty power supplies. This is why many computer builders and repair techs often tell themselves or customers not to cheap out on a power supply. Plus, If you get a good power supply, it will last you for years and you can use it to build a future system.