Thermal Paste done wrong?

Well I decided to reapply my thermal paste today. Everything looked good, I started it up and my first three cores are fine, but my fourth core is running really hot! The only thing I could think of is that the paste isn't getting all the right areas. I am going to reapply it but I wanted to know what you guys thought first. Screenshot with temps attached. By the way, I used IntelBurnTest to load the CPU (and also played a bit of Bad Company 2, that is why my GPU temp looks like a load temp).

So, do you think that the CPU is fully covered in paste? I did the 1 drop method.

 

I would reapply it.
It looks like it's not fully covered.
Did it help with temps beside that 1 core?
What paste did you use?
Sorry for all the questions but they would help.

 

hmmm i have the same thing where my core #1 is always 5-6C warmer than my core #3, and cores #2 and 4 are in between

is that a sign of bad paste application?

 

What method of paste application did you use?

 

Check the CPU core affinity in the task manager. I'd be very surprised if it was the thermal paste
It's probably just the core itself being utilized more than the rest. You can play with processes and assign them to other cores to see if it changes.

 

I got the same problem here, my 5870 is at 81'c stock !!! i don't know what to do or how to correctly apply the paste on this beast

i need help fast !

 

There are many guides on the internet how to apply thermal paste. Some use a pea-sized amount of paste, some evens it out with a creditcard or something. Don`t use too much.

 

Well my system is stable but i got really high reading... maybe i've put thermal paste on the sensor... i don't know

 

You can always try and re-apply, but will probably end-up the same way.
I find it hard to believe that uneven paste spreading would result in one core being warmer than the rest. If you did a poor job allcores would heat up, not just one.
So I'll say it again - check the affinity for that specific core and assign less processes to it and see if it helps.

 

Well as i say, i gain -10'c with all core cpu but get high temps on GPU so... it's not a core related

 

In your case -> find a better cooling (pads/paste) approach.
Does your GPU have thermal pads or paste?

 

Just noticed.. Did the system have pads or paste on it before you put yours???

 

yeah but i remove everything exect for some foampaste for memory !?

 

Oh my, I hope Soviet doesn't get here to flay you alive...
The pads there for a reason. Whatever you do, don't substitute the pads with a paste. You can buy higher quality pads (same thickness as the stock ones). If you put some paste instead of some of the pads you might get into trouble.
1) You could be out of the proper contact of the surfaces and the card would heat up.
2) The paste can leak of the crystal and destroy the card.

If you're hitting 80c stock - stop, remove the card, clean the paste and re-apply the pads.

 

Why don't you remove the heatsink while you're at it. Oh, don't forget about your brain. That needs to go too.

 

Too late....

 

pwned 10char

 

Haha ... wow that was stupid.

Alright well right now my card seem ok only the temp reading is up so... i don't know, I've already replaced all the foam as they was anyway

 

What's your idle and load temps?
Note, if you have very high (70c+) idle temps, don't stress the system, don't game till the issue is fixed.

 

I have made references in both the w860cu and w870cu threads to problems with 5870 heatsink interference from the aluminum can around the card check the w860cu thread for more info.

The threads are in the owners lounge.

 

Seem like you found my problem man !!!

Yeah i got like 66'c idle but can jump to 97'c max on game. so yeah I won't game. Thanks for your help !

Edit: EVERYTHING is fixed now ! thanks to your great idea ! I put a aluminium shim on the die (about 1/16') and i gain -25'c !! I'm idle at 48'c now. I've removed all the aluminium tape stripe too.

 

Sorry I haven't posted recently, but I fixed my problem. I reopened it and took a look and realized that some of the surface area barely had any paste on it. I just put some more on put everything back together and now my temps are great. 39-40C idle. One of my cores still seems to have a lower load then my other cores though. Core 1, 3 and 4 load at about 62c (which i'm quite happy with) and my core 2 loads at like 58c.

I didn't even touch the GPU, that thing loads at like 85c and idles at 60c. What kind of temps are you guys getting for the GPU? I might do a repaste if I feel I can get better results.



Welcome Back Soviet, good to have you back.

 

For some reason this thread keeps reminding me of that song, "Fairytale gone bad".... therm paste gone bad. There is no point to this, but I just felt the need to share that with you.

 

85C @ load would be acceptable, but it looks like you could reduce another 10C easily. Need some quality pads though.

 

Just to make it even more chaotic: Is a CPU temp of 76 - 79°C to high? Is the thermal paste not applied correctly? The temps are the maximum during gaming, didn't even check the temps under prime95 yet. I find them too high but it's a quadcore after all. Right now I have no thermal paste so I would not be able to reapply it anyway.

GPU is 74°C max under 20 mins FurMark 2010. So that seems to be alright, but the GTX 260M is not that hot anyway (or so it seems).

 

Your CPU is within the safe zone but I'd re-apply the paste and probably lower the max by 10-15C.

 

More likely he still has the sticker covering the CPU fan on.

 

That would be hilariously sad

 

Yes.

Oh, yeah...

Should have known better and double checked the interior right away but is is not the resellers responsibility to remove that sticker? I always though I'd be smarter than this but any normal enduser would probably not check for such a sticker. What should have alerted me is that the CPU fan was constantly at max rpm.

Anyway, this is also funny or sad. Here is how my GPU fan looked like after one freakin' month in this room:

I really should worry about my health giving the ammount of dust that is flying around here and yeah, I clean regularly.

 

It seems that resellers are the ones that put the sticker on in the first place, to "improve" cooling for other components.

Weekly cleanings for you!

 

Lol, looks more like daily to me
Well, at least you got the culprit

 

My GPU fan doesn't even look like that after 1 year in this room

 

fyi: very thin layer covering entire cpu using a razor blade or credit card.

 

eehhhh... i know a lot of people use this technique and it serves them well. But theres a reason Arctic silver post instructions on how to use their product (even if you didnt use AS5)

The credit card technique is bad imo, because if you dont create a perfectly flat layer, any area slightly lower than the rest will be an air bubble not touching the heatsink.

This, plus you're WASTING thermal paste by covering the WHOLE chip heatspreader!!! the cores heat travels almost directly through it. So creating an oval over the cores, by pressing down on a small oval/line over the cores, allow the paste to spread against the chip and heatsink.

...but credit card method still works for a lotta friends just fine...

 

Mobile CPU's do not have heatspreaders.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5411393&postcount=159
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=465339