Old computer overheating

[jon.oman]

One of the reasons I bought a new computer was because my old one was starting to get flaky. I had to replace the power supply, and a couple of fans. This week, it started to overheat and shut down. It turns out that this six year old machine had a dust problem!

#1

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Before I cleaned out the heat sink under the CPU fan, the CPU temp got up to 102 degrees C. After cleaning it out, and putting on a new layer of thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink, the temp is now about 62 degrees C.

If you have an old computer that is getting slow, and overheating, you may want to do the same to fix the problem!

I also used compressed air to blow out all of the dust bunnies that were in the case. They tell you not to use an air compressor that is not filtered to remove the water in the line. Water and electronics do not mix!

[JohnSR]

I take mine apart every month and clean it out. Surprising just how much dust gets in there.

[jon.oman]

I've only cleaned the inside of the case about once each year. But, I never did take the CPU fan off and clean the heat sink! The above image is the result. I will try to clean this stuff about every couple of months from now on. By the way, after about five years, the thermal paste dries out. When it does, it does not conduct the heat away from the CPU as it should. I found out that you should remove the old, and put on new paste about every four years. Especially with the newer CPU's.

[JohnSR]

Good info, thanks

[jon.oman]

Well, after about two or three days, the six year old thermal paste I was using seemed to fail. The CPU temps went back up to 70 degrees C., at rest. So, I replaced the older CPU heat sink and fan with one of these:

http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/produ ... PCUWR.html

Now, the at rest temp is 45 degrees C., and the under load temp is 54 to about 58 degrees. Since my CPU states a max temp of 63.4 desgrees C., I'm now within the cool zone!