Hot, Hot, HOT! CPU overheating
January 10, 2024 6:29 PM Subscribe
So my son is back from school. Been spending a lot of time gaming.
A couple of days ago, his PC started giving CPU overheating messages. So we checked that the fans are running, (they are), cleaned out all of the dust. Same situation. Ran Core Temp on it, and all cores are showing 100C.
Any ideas what may be going on? Any other things we can try before taking it in?
It's possible the CPU heatsink is not mounted properly and thus not seated tightly. If the computer just moved (back from school?), then it may have been knocked somewhat loose in the move.
First thing to try is to just see if you can seat the heatsink more securely. If it mounts with push pins on four corners, you might improve things simply by pushing down on all of the pins. Push harder than you might think is reasonable. Just a slow, steady push, not hard blows or anything.
Alternatively, you can remove and reinstall the heatsink. Ideally, you would clean any thermal paste and reapply new paste (you can buy some at Best Buy, for example). The internet has plenty of videos and guides on how to do this for whatever specific CPU socket type the PC has. Intel has official instructions, for example. (Note that they do not say to clean/reapply thermal paste, so apparently that should be okay... just not ideal.)
posted by whatnotever at 6:42 PM on January 10, 2024 [1 favorite]
First thing to try is to just see if you can seat the heatsink more securely. If it mounts with push pins on four corners, you might improve things simply by pushing down on all of the pins. Push harder than you might think is reasonable. Just a slow, steady push, not hard blows or anything.
Alternatively, you can remove and reinstall the heatsink. Ideally, you would clean any thermal paste and reapply new paste (you can buy some at Best Buy, for example). The internet has plenty of videos and guides on how to do this for whatever specific CPU socket type the PC has. Intel has official instructions, for example. (Note that they do not say to clean/reapply thermal paste, so apparently that should be okay... just not ideal.)
posted by whatnotever at 6:42 PM on January 10, 2024 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Machine did not go to school with him. Cannot see anything that looks like what I would call a heatsink. Its some model of MSI Aegis computer. Weird thing, that from watching videos, seems to be covering the CPU, and the fans are connected to this thing, but can see no heatsink to repaste.
posted by Windopaene at 6:56 PM on January 10, 2024
posted by Windopaene at 6:56 PM on January 10, 2024
Best answer: Is it possible that it's a liquid cooler? Those pumps have finite lifespans.
Any chance of us getting pics of the inside of it?
posted by She Vaped An Entire Sock! at 7:08 PM on January 10, 2024 [3 favorites]
Any chance of us getting pics of the inside of it?
posted by She Vaped An Entire Sock! at 7:08 PM on January 10, 2024 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Yeah, it's liquid cooling. Assuming it's one of the computer models currently sold, they all use Liquid 240.
posted by tubedogg at 7:27 PM on January 10, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by tubedogg at 7:27 PM on January 10, 2024 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Sorry, hit Post too fast.
The Liquid 240 coolers have a recall on them from 2022. Not sure how old the computer/cooler is, but might be related.
posted by tubedogg at 7:28 PM on January 10, 2024 [1 favorite]
The Liquid 240 coolers have a recall on them from 2022. Not sure how old the computer/cooler is, but might be related.
posted by tubedogg at 7:28 PM on January 10, 2024 [1 favorite]
So the "heatsink" in this case is the little block in the center of the image, connected by coolant hoses to the radiator on the left side of the image, in the rear of the case.
If you were going to repaste, the paste would go under that. And the whole waterblock/pump assembly will be clamped to the cpu socket... somehow? There's a lot of variation among retention mechanisms.
If you can splash out the dosh for it, it might be a good idea to replace it with an aftermarket water cooler. It'll come with thermal paste, and some sort of warranty, and will almost surely solve your overheating issues. They can be purchased in the usual places, and run about $80-$150 US, depending on how massively fancy and bedazzled with LEDs it is.
They can be fiddly to install. Not terribly difficult, but in my experience they'll give you a big bag of metal bits and brackets, and instructions on how to assemble some of them into a retention mechanism that'll fit your socket. Often there are brackets on the back too. (In which case you'll either need to remove the mainboard or the far side of the case. Air coolers are an option too, but are pretty much just as fiddly to install if you want something high-performance.
Good luck!
posted by She Vaped An Entire Sock! at 2:01 AM on January 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
If you were going to repaste, the paste would go under that. And the whole waterblock/pump assembly will be clamped to the cpu socket... somehow? There's a lot of variation among retention mechanisms.
If you can splash out the dosh for it, it might be a good idea to replace it with an aftermarket water cooler. It'll come with thermal paste, and some sort of warranty, and will almost surely solve your overheating issues. They can be purchased in the usual places, and run about $80-$150 US, depending on how massively fancy and bedazzled with LEDs it is.
They can be fiddly to install. Not terribly difficult, but in my experience they'll give you a big bag of metal bits and brackets, and instructions on how to assemble some of them into a retention mechanism that'll fit your socket. Often there are brackets on the back too. (In which case you'll either need to remove the mainboard or the far side of the case. Air coolers are an option too, but are pretty much just as fiddly to install if you want something high-performance.
Good luck!
posted by She Vaped An Entire Sock! at 2:01 AM on January 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
This is a stock "all in one" cooler, I would not expect to be able to repair it. It would help to get a picture of the label on the radiator, and to know the full PC spec.
Since this is a prebuilt MSI system, definitely check the RMA page to see if they'll send you a new cooler.
Otherwise I would try to figure out the part number for the existing cooler, look it up, and then buy a replacement aftermarket MSI cooler that will use the same bracket, hopefully sparing you taking the system apart to get at the back of the motherboard. MSI tech support might be able to help you confirm a given replacement is physically compatible.
The downside there being that the problem could recur if that whole line is flawed.
From some of the complaints about them online, you might try gently shaking the tubing while the system is running to see if that breaks up sediment and restores flow.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:58 AM on January 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Since this is a prebuilt MSI system, definitely check the RMA page to see if they'll send you a new cooler.
Otherwise I would try to figure out the part number for the existing cooler, look it up, and then buy a replacement aftermarket MSI cooler that will use the same bracket, hopefully sparing you taking the system apart to get at the back of the motherboard. MSI tech support might be able to help you confirm a given replacement is physically compatible.
The downside there being that the problem could recur if that whole line is flawed.
From some of the complaints about them online, you might try gently shaking the tubing while the system is running to see if that breaks up sediment and restores flow.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:58 AM on January 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
This may sound insane, but in the meantime, you can try cooling it by putting a full-size box fan next to it. I did this successfully with an old iMac with no fan.
posted by 8603 at 6:18 AM on January 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by 8603 at 6:18 AM on January 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Box fan will do diddly squat if the water isn't circulating. The water block itself has only slightly more surface area exposed to cooling air than a totally bare CPU.
Old iMacs were designed to be passively cooled by convection, so no mechanical moving parts, just large cooling fins. Takes scarcely any forced airflow through one of those to drop the internal temperature by a lot.
posted by flabdablet at 11:05 AM on January 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
Old iMacs were designed to be passively cooled by convection, so no mechanical moving parts, just large cooling fins. Takes scarcely any forced airflow through one of those to drop the internal temperature by a lot.
posted by flabdablet at 11:05 AM on January 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
A box fan—an air cooling solution—isn't going to alleviate a severe cooling problem with a water-cooled device whatsoever. Unfortunately that's dangerously bad, misguided advice about hardware that's not equivalent.
In the immediate term: do not turn the machine on, unless you're planning to replace the CPU and whatever else the AIO is hooked up to.
In the short term: replace the failed AIO cooler.
In the medium term: Do not use AIO coolers.
In the long term: Do not use liquid cooling unless you know exactly why you're doing so, why an air-based solution is insufficient to the task, and are prepared to maintain the liquid cooling loop. Liquid is sold as somehow "better" than air cooling — often for noise reasons — but it is hard to build and maintain reliable liquid cooling solutions.
posted by majick at 12:44 PM on January 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
In the immediate term: do not turn the machine on, unless you're planning to replace the CPU and whatever else the AIO is hooked up to.
In the short term: replace the failed AIO cooler.
In the medium term: Do not use AIO coolers.
In the long term: Do not use liquid cooling unless you know exactly why you're doing so, why an air-based solution is insufficient to the task, and are prepared to maintain the liquid cooling loop. Liquid is sold as somehow "better" than air cooling — often for noise reasons — but it is hard to build and maintain reliable liquid cooling solutions.
posted by majick at 12:44 PM on January 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I thank you all.
This was a holy-shit COVID purchase, well beyond my knowledge. And now I some handle on how to deal with it. I am a software guy...
posted by Windopaene at 2:59 PM on January 13, 2024
This was a holy-shit COVID purchase, well beyond my knowledge. And now I some handle on how to deal with it. I am a software guy...
posted by Windopaene at 2:59 PM on January 13, 2024
it is hard to build and maintain reliable liquid cooling solutions.
The most reliable liquid cooling available is the heat pipes most commonly seen in laptops and high-end desktop air coolers, where all of the energy required to keep the liquid moving actually gets extracted from the very heat that the pipe is transporting.
Pumped liquid cooling, which unlike heat pipes takes no advantage of the absurdly low effective thermal resistance inherent in phase changes, has to move a lot more liquid per watt of heat removed and is also much more mechanically complex, with a correspondingly wider range of failure modes.
Of course if you're serious about your liquid cooling, the liquid you need to be using is nitrogen.
posted by flabdablet at 9:32 PM on January 14, 2024 [1 favorite]
The most reliable liquid cooling available is the heat pipes most commonly seen in laptops and high-end desktop air coolers, where all of the energy required to keep the liquid moving actually gets extracted from the very heat that the pipe is transporting.
Pumped liquid cooling, which unlike heat pipes takes no advantage of the absurdly low effective thermal resistance inherent in phase changes, has to move a lot more liquid per watt of heat removed and is also much more mechanically complex, with a correspondingly wider range of failure modes.
Of course if you're serious about your liquid cooling, the liquid you need to be using is nitrogen.
posted by flabdablet at 9:32 PM on January 14, 2024 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
I just know that was the sign my computer was about to lock up for days, sometimes longer, and was unrepairable. If so, make any backups now.
posted by many-things at 6:36 PM on January 10, 2024 [2 favorites]