computer has been restarting non stop. I found out my cpu temp. is 60 C a lot of the time. which is the maximum the computer can take before it causes a system failure. I dusted out my pc and temp. dropped about 10 C but is still high, and it feels unsafe. What can I do?

Are the cables all around in the box? you can try making them together and well aranged so it helps with the air flow , also where is ur box located? Be sure to have a fair bit of space around it so the hot air can circle out, it also depends on your room temperature to a fair bit.

FiReFTW has made some good suggestions. If after following that advice your system is still running hot, then there are some further things you could do:

1) Install some more case fans if possible. Remember if you have a fan at the front & one at the back (for example), then make sure one is blowing in air, while the other is blowing out. This will help to improve the airflow.

2) You may wish to consider upgrading the cpu heatsink/fan assembly. If you do, you will need to make sure you remove all traces of the old thermal compound from the cpu, then correctly apply fresh compound before installing the new heatsink. See the instructions on Arctic Silvers website for instructions.

Arctic Silver instructions

3) Whether you upgrade the heatsink/fan or not, it may still be advisable to renew the thermal compound. You want to use something like Arctic Silver 5 or an equivalent, to get the best results.

i will try all of FiReFTW's advice. the thermal compound method is not something i trust my self with

could it be a new fan i need though?
in all I have 3 fans. 1 in the front 2 in the back.

ok well speedfan 4.36 is telling me that:

fan 1 - 879 rpm
fan 2 - 0 rpm
fan 3 - 873 rpm
fan 4 - 0 rpm

im sure all 3 of my fans spin. i did try it out before i but my case back on after i cleaned it. they all worked then.

Speedfan can only read the fan speeds if the fan has 3 wires & connects straight to the motherboard (as opposed to the power supply).
This may explain why it's only picking up 2 of the fans.

If fan 1 relates to the cpu fan (which is normally does), then it does seem to be going rather slowly. This doesn't necessarily mean that it needs replacing however. A lot of systems throttle the fan speed i.e. the cpu fan speeds up when the cpu gets hotter & slows down when cooler. You may be able to disable this type of control in the bios & force the cpu fan to turn at max rpm the whole time.

Thermal Grease is an essential compound and every major manufacture have it applied!
My cpu always run at 65 C w/o thermal grease but dropped to 45 C with thermal grease.

applying the compound seems a bit too technical for me. I am thinking about buying a fan with 1200 rpms for my computer.
would it improve it a lot?

lately my cpu temp. starts at about 45 but as the computer is left on it rises to the late 50s before I end up powering it down.

could someone answer my last post, please.

If you are talking about buying a new fan for your CPU, you will need to replace the thermal paste when installing the fan. If you are talking about a case fan, this will offer very little benefit to cooling your CPU.

As others have said, the best way to cool a CPU is to improve the cooling solution on the CPU. This involves, at a minimum, replacing the thermal compound, and preferably replacing the thermal compound and putting a better heatsink/fan on.

I'd recommend getting the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, which comes with quality thermal compound pre-applied on it. All you have to do is clean the old thermal compound off of the CPU using isopropyl alcohol (the higher the percentage, the better), and then snap in the Freezer 7 Pro, plug it in, and you're good to go.

do you know if stores like compusa would be able to do that?

my fan size is 120 mm. There are no fans that are artic cooler with a built-in heatsink for the size 120 mm.

So you are saying I have to remove my old heat sink?

Where/how exactly do I apply the thermal compound?
please explain

what do you think about this fan?


http://www.svc.com/y720ccd-25k1-gp.html


what else would I need to do besides installing it?

What you have there is a case fan, which you cannot put onto your CPU. You need a special CPU heatsink/fan. I kind of made a bonehead move earlier, by recommending a CPU heatsink/fan without knowing what CPU you have. So, lets back up a minute. What CPU do you have? You can easily find this by going to My Computer, and selecting View system information on the right hand side panel. Your CPU should be listed under Computer on the General tab.

I have a gateway desktop. Pentium D.

gateway
MX7122
Mobile AMD Athlon ™ 64
Precessor 3400+
2.19 GHz. 448 MB of RAM