Serious Overheating Issues

I've been having serious overheating issues with my Asus Z96J recently.

If I run the CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo T5600) at 100% for about 10 minutes, the temperature gets fairly close (within one or two degrees) of 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit).

I've tried reapply some Arctic Silver 5 (it worked the last time I was having overheating issues), but it's had no effect.

The Z96J uses heatpipes and one fan for cooling both the CPU and GPU, but I have narrowed it down to being a CPU issue.

The laptop is out of warranty, but the CPU is still under warranty from Intel (I just have to double check that it was a retail CPU when I can find the box).

Does anyone have any ideas as to what the problem could be, or how to fix it?

On a side note, does anyone know the legal liability of Asus or Intel if this thing burns my house down?

Thanks

 

If it DOES in fact burn your house downn, it would be a bit like the battery/fire issue which presented itself 2 years ago and last year.

Sure, you CAN sue, but it would be up a court to decide whether in fact Intel was liable for your damages.

I cant surely tell you what exactly would happen, and most likely if your house does burn down after you post this, you really should look into "knocking on wood".


As for your overheating issue.


Have you cleared your chassis of dust and debris?

Possibly reset your heatsink and reapply artic silver. AS5 does have a 'setting' period in which it is not truly "solidified" (it never truly solidifies), where the heatsink could have been deseated.

Give it a look!

 

AS5 usually take a couple months for it to properly set, so you may not see immediate results after you apply it.
Have you tried cleaning the fan and heat sink?
Check out Chaz's cooling guide for more info

 

I've cleaned the fan and case with compressed air. The heatsink is basically just a block...there's nowhere for dust to really collect in it, but I did clean it.

As for the heatsink deseating: the heatsink gets too hot to touch when my CPU overheats, so it's definitely absorbing a lot of heat.

 

Ok. Here are a few possiblities:

1. Heatsink filled with dust
2. Heatsink improperly mounted
3. Broken thermometer/thermal sensing
4. Fan not working

Now, you claim to have cleaned out the heatsink so the first possibility should not apply. For the second possibility, I would imagine that you know how to install the heatsink. That, and you claim that the heatsink is getting real hot(so heat is being transferred from the processor to the heatsink and there is likely good contact). For the same reason I rule out #3.

The only issue you could possibly have that I can think of is that your fan is not working. Did you remember to plug it back in after reinstalling the heatsink? Does the fan spin when you turn on your computer? Can you feel hot air coming out of the computer in the back by the power jack?

 

The fan spins, but the airflow is (and has always been) minimal.

 

Hmm... see if you can figure out why there is such little airflow. Does the fan speed ever change, or is it constant?

 

The speed changes; it gets incredibly noisy. Everest reports speeds from 2000-9000 rpm.

 

If the fan is running at such high speed, why is there so little airflow?

 

Then it could an air circulation problem, caked up fans or clogged vents.

Fire would be a strict liability issue.

 

There is only one fan, and the OP claimed that he cleaned everything.

 

By the sounds of it the fins inside the heatsink and fan block are full of dust.

With any cover that sits over the fan removed get a can of compressed air and blast the heatsink block from the outside in (the reverse of the normal airflow). This will push any dust back towards the fan and hopefully out of the laptop.

My old Advent laptop used to collect dust like a hoover and I was forever cleaning it out as it was one really hot chip and the fan loved to keep it at about 40C which meant full speed was needed even when just browsing the web.