CPU Dangerously Hot - Fast Response Please

[clocand]

Hi,

My friend booted up his desktop, only to find it restart shortly after boot (before windows loaded up). He's not very tech savvy, so I checked his temps for him and his CPU is IDLING at 90C (not F) after cleaning it. He updated his RAM/GPU about a month ago, but the rest of the HW is ~4-5 years old, including his liquid cooling (which, admittedly, I know little about [does it evaporate? does it need to be removed in order to rid the CPU from potential dust problems?]).

Any ideas on how to proceed with troubleshooting this problem? The CPU is an i7 960.

Thanks in advance for your speedy responses ,
Coel

 

[Stuka87]

I assume you checked the radiator fans to be sure they are spinning, and that the radiator is not plugged with dust.

In which case, are the cooling lines coming from the CPU block warm/hot to the touch, or are they cold? If cold, either there is no coolant, or the block is making really poor contact with the CPU for some reason. Its also possible the pump failed, so the coolant is not being circulated.

Quickest fix is to put a standard heatsink on it.

 

[Yuriman]

Check that the pump is running, reseat the block. If it's seated properly and water is moving, idle will not be that high.

 

[soccerballtux]

lol

 

[clocand]

Thanks for the help all! Very good suggestions. Turns out he also updated to windows 8 about a month ago and hadn't updated his BIOS in 4 years. Once updated, it is now idling at 37C. Hopefully he learned something from all of this.

Thanks.

 

[Techhog]

Thanks for the help all! Very good suggestions. Turns out he also updated to windows 8 about a month ago and hadn't updated his BIOS in 4 years. Once updated, it is now idling at 37C. Hopefully he learned something from all of this.

Thanks.

That still seems a bit high for idle...

 

[GOLI@TH]

That still seems a bit high for idle...

Just wait for 10-20 computing hours until thermalpaste evenly distributed.
Or put a slightly more pressure to speed it up.