suddenly running hotter

[thefish]

I am running an xp2000 on a Gigabyte 7vaxp with a thermaltake volcano 9 fan in an ahanix dbox case. for the first3 weeks or so the cpu temp would max at 54-55c but run most of the time around 49-51c. During that time, I was taking it apart alot, trying different ram, etc. Then one day I noticed that the volcano 9 was running full speed all the time. I have the thermistor sensor installed and before the fan would adjust speed based on temp and ran very quiet. After checking the cpu temp, I noticed it seems to run now at 55-57c most of the time but can get up to 59-62 during heavy gaming. According to the reps at thermaltake, the thermistor is working fine since the fan runs at full speed when hotter than 52-3c. Regardless, all of a sudden its running hotter. Is it possible that my thermal grease dried out while open? Thing is that when I was removing the CPU to install the thermistor I mistakenly wiped some grease off (but not all of it) and did not replace the grease. I thought there was enough left on the heatsink and cpu for the transfer of heat. It was a about a week after I last disassembled the cpu that it started to run hotter. At that time, everything on the machine was the same, same bios, vid card, etc. Since then I have upgraded the bios which corrected too high of a vcore but the temp remained still high. Any ideas? I have no experience with thermal grease and don't know the brand that was used. Is this typical for a grease problem?

 

[blade]

I mistakenly wiped some grease off (but not all of it)

You had the heatsink off the cpu and wiped off some of the compound? If so then that is for sure not helping. It needs to be a thin-even layer. If it's not even you may have hotspots and that could eventually damage the cpu.

Also check for dust on the fan blades and in between the heatsink fan blades. If there is a lot of dust that prohibits a lot of needed air flow.

For thermal compound I suggest either arctic alumina or arctic silver 3 and follow these instructions.

 

[lenjack]

Also check your case and ps fans...they sometimes die.

 

[thefish]

thanks I will look to pick up some compound this weekend and inspect the fans are working. The only fan I am not sure about is the one on the bottom of the PS. All others are working and dust free. Do you think having the thermistor underneath the CPU can cause a cooling issue?

 

[SaveYourself]

Actually, apparently the fan does not pass its full voltage through the thermal probe. It just passes a small voltage and then reads it with a microprocessor to control the actual voltage going to the fan. This is why the Tt Smart Fan II is patented. And if the thermal probe breaks, the fan should automatically accelerate up to its full 5000RPM so you have no worries about that.

That reminds me, one of these days I've got to take off that Tt thermal grease and put on some of my newly acquired ASIII.

 

[OulOat]

Did you ever remove the volcano 9 after you first installed it?

 

[thefish]

Yes I did remove the volcano 9 and made sure the thermal probe was in the right place according to there instructions. Everything seemed fine there. Perhaps the thermal probe is broken because even when the system is very cold (25c) it still would run at fall speed. But at full speed, I wouldn't think my CPU temp would increase.