[vinasg]

I upgraded my MB and CPU combo a month ago - new ECS MB withPentium4 2.6G processor. I also have a new graphics card with nVidia GPU. The CPU temp when I started was running close to 55-60 C, which I was told was too hot. I reinstalled the CPU fan (Intel fan) with new heat-glue, have a fan on the panel across from the MB (for intake), have a fan in the Power Supply (exhaust), and installed another exhaust fan on the back panel. The processor seemed to be running ok (I couldnt check the actual temp while the processor was running, I can check the temp only when booting up by going into the BIOS). I set the temp shutoff in BIOS to 60 C.
Then I loaded Spybot SD and ran a scan. This was the only program running, but twice in the middle of the scan, half way though, the CPU shut off for overheating. The only way I was able to complete the scan was to change the shut off temp to 70C in BIOS and do the scan as soon as I started the machine (not overheated already I guess).
Questions: Does this mean my CPU is running too hot? and if yes, what do I need to do? (already have 3 fas working)
Also, is there a way to check the CPU temp when the system is in the middle of some program w/o going into BIOS?
Thank you for responsing.

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Speedfan is your friend.

Electrical component temperatures are actually measured by the temperature rise above the ambient temperature. Which means that the component is subject to get hotter in a hotter environment. What runs marginally in a 70F environment may overheat at 80F. Adjust your cut-off point accordingly. If you dont' see any symptoms of overheating you should be fine.

Pentium 4 Thermal Management

40C or 104F is the upper limit to the ambient air temperature for your processor.

[-=blaster=-]

Speedfan is your friend.

Electrical component temperatures are actually measured by the temperature rise above the ambient temperature. Which means that the component is subject to get hotter in a hotter environment. What runs marginally in a 70F environment may overheat at 80F. Adjust your cut-off point accordingly. If you dont' see any symptoms of overheating you should be fine.

Pentium 4 Thermal Management

40C or 104F is the upper limit to the ambient air temperature for your processor.

[vinasg]

Is the BIOS setting for absolutre temp or rise of temp above the ambient? My BIOS shows the CPU Temp and then it has a setting to shut off the system if it reaches certain temp. (The range for shut off is all the way from 55C to ~100 or so C). At the start the CPU temp is about 40C and then it goes up higher. I have cheked it to as high as 55C. Unfortunately I dont know execatly what thet temp is when running since it is seen only in BIOS at start up. But during Spybot scan the computer did shut off when the shut off temp was set to 60C

[†Gladiator†]

there are programs that you can use to check the temperature of your cpu in windows. such programs like everest home edition, asusprobe, pcwizar2006, and speed fan let's you monitor and adjust the fan settings accordingly. Your temps do sound a bit hot to me. i'd suggest an aftermarket Heatsink and Fan (something from zalman) and some arctic silver 5. when you said you applied new thermal grease, did you clean the previous layer off carefully with 99% isopropyl alcohol? and how much of the new stuff did you put on? Remember thermal grease is meant to fill in microscopic holes on the contact surfaces of the cpu and heatsink, so less is better, a very ver thin layer will do the job, applying too much will cause the cpu to overheat.

[vinasg]

I just got Speedfan installed. I have to play around a little bit with its configurator since it shows three temperatures but calls them Temp1, 2, 3. So i dont know which is CPu temp.
I did clean the CPU with alcohol and used metal based (Silver I think) grease. I used whatever was in the tube, spread it evenly on the HS and then installed the HS/Fan.
I'll check what the temp looks like with Speedfan while running Spybot again. Thank you for your help.

[vinasg]

I ran Speedfan and checked the temp with Spybot running.
Temp1 is the CPU temp as it raises with the CPUusage. At 0% usage, the temp is 45C, at 100% usage the temp gets to 61C. Is that a normal range of operation for P4 (2.6G)? It appears to be.
The Max intake temp based on the thermal char of P4 (URL by blaster - thank you) is 40C and Max chasis temp is 75C. So the CPU Temp range appears to be normal.
Thank you all for your help.