cpu overheating? all you may need to do is some dusting…

Now the summer is just around the corner an old demon of my PC started to show it’s signs. Overheating! Usually in summer when I push my CPU to it’s limit it most definitely goes over 60C. This is not surprising since I am running an Intel 2.8Ghz HT processor with it’s stock fan. What surprised me this time around was that it was going over 60C even in idle mode. Seeing things are definitely out of hand, and the unbearable noice of the cpu fan revving at 5000rpm I decided to replace my stock fan to a  some sort of a fancy over clocker’s outrageous looking heat sinks. Cheaper than installing AC!

Usually I do my homework before buying any tech equipment but I was in a rush needing to get some work done very quickly. So I ran to my usual computer shop and asked for a decent socket 478 heat sink. I was given a Thermaltek Goldern Orb II heat sink/fan and I took it home. Only to find out the damn thing didn’t fit my motherboard! Arrghhh.. I basically pulled apart my whole PC for nothing! Disappointed I decided to put my stock fan back in with a good clean up. I was rather surprised to see the amount of dust collected within the heat sink metal plates and also underneath it around the CPU. See below. Mind the quality of the images, I took them with my N73 and I have notoriously shaky hands.

My god! How in the world did my motherboard avoid a short circuit? So I gave everything a through vacuum including the heat sink and put it all back together. Voila the temperature went down back to good ol 40C in idle mode. All that was causing that extra heating was the layers of dust stuck inside.