[llirbwerdnadivad]

The CPU in one one of the computers I use has been having problems that I suspect are due to high temperature. If the processor is working at 80/90% capacity or higher for more than a few minutes, the computer will suddenly shut down. As it usually doesn't work that hard, and any processes that take up too much power can be shut down, this isn't a really big issue, but upon checking BIOS, I found that the processor continuously heats up on the fan's current setting, even when the computer is idle and the operating system hasn't booted up yet. At the moment, the fan is set to go up to 100% if the processor exceeds 70 degrees c, which cools it down when the processor isn't working too hard, but I'm worried that the temperature shouldn't be rising like that in the first place, so I'm wondering: what speed setting would be recommended for the CPU's fan?

Currently, it's set to go to 100% if the temperature goes above 70 degrees Celsius, and down to 1% if the temperature drops below 30% Celsius. I'm not sure what it's set for at temperatures between 30 and 70.

The processor is an Intel core 2 duo E8400 with 3.00 GHz.

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If your processor heats up when idling then you need to do a good clean up of the heatsink/fan and replace the thermal paste, too long of a period of overheating will dry up the thermal paste it make it more and more inadequate to do its job.

It should never reach the 70 degrees c. In idling it should be between 25 and 30's degree c and at high usage get close to the 60 degree.

Make sure your fan and heatsink are free of dust, properly clean any excess of the old thermal paste on both the heatsink and processor and apply new one, properly vent your case and you should have no more problem with your computer heating.

[Alzeimer]

If your processor heats up when idling then you need to do a good clean up of the heatsink/fan and replace the thermal paste, too long of a period of overheating will dry up the thermal paste it make it more and more inadequate to do its job.

It should never reach the 70 degrees c. In idling it should be between 25 and 30's degree c and at high usage get close to the 60 degree.

Make sure your fan and heatsink are free of dust, properly clean any excess of the old thermal paste on both the heatsink and processor and apply new one, properly vent your case and you should have no more problem with your computer heating.

[llirbwerdnadivad]

We just opened it up, and the heatsink and fan both appear spotlessly clean...as do the other components. I admit we didn't actually do any cleaning, though...as far as I'm aware, we don't have any thermal paste here at the moment, but when (or if...doesn't seem very likely) we do get some, I'll let you know the results. For the time being, we're setting the fan to turn up at a lower temperature, to try to keep the cpu cooler.