2010 Hotter? or My System? or No Problem?

[exploder]

I would try applying new thermal paste, Arctic Silver works extremely well. Your system has gone quite a few years with the old thermal compound, it's definitely time to apply it again. 

[Ray2047]

Yes, probably time to do that. Thanks.

[j-retired]

There is no "applies to everyone" correct answer to whether it's better to have the covers on or off. It depends on the individual layout of each machine; things like now much internal airspace there is, how much adverse deflection by wiring looms etc.  The only correct answer for "you" is ascertained by trying out each mode and measuring what temp is reached.
When I was employed ( ) I sometimes had to use airflow analysis software, and the results are rarely what you expect!

j

[alexjamestodd]

on an eee900 , until the new kernel the fans were spinning alot . With bfs kernel , hardly.

[pirate]

I am running a AMD Athlon 64     3200+        socket 939    it runs 27C with the sides off..

what socket is it?  I am going to say it is the thermal paste...

[Ray2047]

I am running a AMD Athlon 64     3200+        socket 939    it runs 27C with the sides off..

what socket is it?  I am going to say it is the thermal paste...

It's an AM2 socket. Thank you for the info. That means at 62C I"m running more then double your temperature.  I can't imagine the slightly increased speed of an AM2 socket would cause that. Ok time for thermal paste.

[T6]

if the case has a fan in the back, under the psu(different from the big one in some psu) put it to take out the hot air, sometimes it comes installed to put air inside

also it would be ideal to test another psu, some brands just report fake values, a "600" w. psu is normally a 300 - 350 w. in reality, a thermaltake(and other good brands) is more stable, a 450/500 w. should be more than enough for that hardware

the cpu temperature values should be similar or lower on that cpu you have(compared to that 27° c)

do you have a way to verify that this temperature reported is real?

if you can touch the heatsink when the system is off you can easily verify this(don't do it with the pc powered on, do it with the psu disconnected from the wall, no electricity), just after having it under load

some mainboards can report erroneous values(usually sensors dying, time to replace board usually)

some cpus can report the temperature value based on other values/parameters(front bus, clock speed, overclocking) and a wrong setting can give wrong temperature values,  reset your bios could help if the other steps doesn't work(including new thermal paste)

[Ray2047]

The PSU cost around $25 so that is why I wrote "allegedly 600w" Might be failing since it is at least three years old however the computer shows no instability and before when PSUs failed on me there were noticeable problems. I honestly don't know if the temperature reported is reliable and have no way to check. I ordered a tube of Arctic Silver 5 so I'll try that next. Thanks again for all the help so far.

Edit: Just some thoughts: The case is wide open, room temp less then 80F/27C yet the Bios is saying a case temp of 106F/41C. It doesn't feel warm putting my hand in the case. After shutting down I put my hand on the CPU heat sink and it barely felt warm. Maybe this is all a false alarm. Probably need to look for a digital thermometer I can mount on the CPU.

[T6]

then try bios reset and try more thermal paste, if nothing works it is time to consider a mainboard change

it is possible that the cpu could be failing but is very uncommon, is more common that a intel cpu fails and we are talking about 1 failing on each 500 or even less

[Ray2047]

Thank you.

[T6]

sorry if we can't help you in a more specific way

if you say that the cpu is not warmer than your own hand(around 40°c) the mainboard is not doing well his job

a friend had a a board, it began failing with fake erroneous reports of psu values, then it decided not to work with some mainboard ports and finally no temperature values, at the end it killed the cpu itself, mainbards can catastrophically fail 

the good thing is that a am2/am3 minboard is very cheap, also the cpu, a x3 is so cheap, hard to believe 

[Archie]

Hmmm ... until yesterday I had the same problem I had before - hot CPUs. T6 sometime ago suggested to remove imwheel and that solved it for me. On a fresh Minime 2010, it was the same condition and the temperature was hitting the 60 plus Cel and imwheel wasn't even installed. I installed the newer kernel and now my CPU temperatures are back to normal. I just thought I'd share that and maybe I could get at least 1 Ignore.

[T6]

in the latest 2010 the imwheel doesn't come installed and is very unlikely that Ray installed it but it is a good idea

about the kernel since this is a amd, it could be good to install and boot with the a64 kernel but it still sounds like a mainboard/cpu problem, i say this by the manual verification of the cpu heatsink

[jaydot]

if your cpu setting is more than five years old, it may well be worth reseating with fresh thermal paste.  one of my machines was griping so i cleaned all the cat fluff out and on a whim decided to reseat the cpu, much to my relief when i found that the paste had hardened and was crumbling.  for replacement i used the silver stuff as it takes longer to set.

physicists and case designers spend endless hours making sure that the air-flow in an enclosed space efficiently dissipates heat.  without a case on the air is undirected and flows where it will.  with the case, the fans drive air in a specific direction to cool components.  it may be easier to clean an already open machine, but the payoff with a closed machine is that it requires less cleaning, less often.

[Ray2047]

It is an Elite (ECS) motherboard. I had read some negative reviews before buying but it was what I could afford. It may well be that the temperature sensing is low quality. Really need to Google the board again to see if there have been reports of temperature reporting problems since Goolgling it before buying.