bought a used cpu: now it's overheating

solved

so awhile ago i bought an athlon 64 x2 4200+ socket 939 cpu from a fellow. he said he had been able to OC over 3ghz with water cooling.

so i put it in, and in bios it heats up to 90c and freezes. i whiped the cpu and heatsink with paper towel till there was no old thermal paste left, put a new dap of as5 on, and installed. it's a basic heatink fan, with a copper bottom. i've been running my single core 3200 on it for awhile and it's been fine.

i wonder if it might be volt modded or something? i look at the pins and there is (what appears to be) some thermal paste or something between them. but no wires or anything. i got a bit of it off but not all


....if cleaning is the answer, could someone suggest what to use to clean that would be cheap and easily obtainable?

...if i need a new heatsink, any cheap suggestions?

......if i need a new cpu.........

i don't get why it's running so hot. i hope it's just the as5 settling in, but this is too much. hell, you know, i actually ran this cpu before, and it ran ok, but overheated once in awhile, and that was with the old batch of as5 still on the heatsink in an ugly blob. i don't get it.


any help greatly appreciated

Look at the Xigmatics 90 or 120mm or the 120m Sunbeam Contact Cooler. They cool even the phenoms.

Be sure you only use a small BB sized drop that is spread real thin and make sure the sink is not riding up on a notch in the bracket or socket.

Arctic Silver sells a cleaning kit, buy it. Also use coffee filters to clean the cpu with, not paper towels. Then visit the arctic silver website, and follow the directions for your CPU type exactly. Also, pick yourself up a monster blower, as mentioned in the post above. I'm a big fan of the Xigmatek, or the Thermaltake Big Typhoon. If you try several applications/seatings with no luck, then back off the OC or run stock until you can get a better candidate. Also, if you can get that crap out between the pins you should do it, especially if it is conductive material. You could fry everything. Get some tiny tweasers or something.

it sounds like the chip could have been pin modded or something. i have used rubbing alchol to clean a pad/pin mod off before and it was fine but i didnt pop the chip back in for a day and left near a fan to try just to be safe. if it is a pin mod i could be setting the chip to run at a higher speed or possibly set to give the chip more juice. im not sure as i have little expereince with amd but thats my guess. good luck.

99% alcohol to clean off the cpu and the heatsink

well AS5 does have pure silver in it. If any of it is on the CPU pins it would in turn cause those pins to "short" out and this may be causing the issues!

thanks everybody. well, it turns out my main problem was good old fashioned dust. my hsf was clogged with it. i cleaned it out, cleaned my HS and cpu top and bottom with isopropyl alcohol, and now it runs! however, just barely. i'm getting 70c or so at times while using multiple programs. i need to clean my exhaust fan next, and hook up the input fan

damn, it's running, but it's cooking like a mad man, and apparently 65c is the max temp on this sucker. damn, might need a new hsf after all. gonna have to clean everything and boost all the fans; even with the case off, it cooks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

is that the hsf i should buy?

Check your socket, if the clips for the latches on the sink are at the 12 and 6 clock position when sitting upright in the case then you may want to look at the Sunbeams otherwise the Xigmatek blows up or down in the case which messes with airflow. Sunbeams clips are mounted inline with the fins so that the fan blows to the rear.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010110574 50001903&name=Sunbeam
(Ignore the SW-775, it's for intel only).
I have the CCTF 120 on my Phenom 0950 and it is within a degree of the Xigmatek. I would have used the Xig 120 but my DFI mount was at the 12 and 6 position.

wow, good advice; yes, the clips are at top and bottom

oh, ok, this one will work
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004

but the 92 one doesn't look like it

Yes, it cools a Phenom, a dualie should barely break a sweat.

depending on your core a cooler for a stock Phenom may not be useful for your OC also this chip might have been damaged by an OC therefore I would suggest running the chip as slow as possible and working up the speed. also if your heat sink has been lapped this could also be your problem.