Scary moments (Overheated chip)

1477 Views 22 Replies 14 Participants Last post by breakfromyou, Dec 1, 2009

Nenkitsune

Discussion Starter · Nov 27, 2009

so, just now, i had to access the backside of my case to get an additional power cable, not realizing i had just unplugged my CPU fan. so i got everything started and began ripping a dvd onto my hard drive. about half way into it, my computer crashes, restarts, then fails to reboot. eventually going into infinite reboot loops. I eventually get a memory managment Bsod and begin looking to see what could be wrong, and i smell, burning metal (you know, the kind you get from a HAIR DRIER) i then notice THE FAN IS NOT MOVING. I shut that thing off QUICK, but the heatsink was already scorching hot (a thermometer reported something like 180F, or roughly 82C) See, seeing as this was something i never thought would happen, i never set an alarm for temps when they hit over 70C.

I sure as HELL hope my 940BE isn't damaged. it SEEMS to be ok, but only time will tell i guess. Luckily i've only been running 3.5ghz with 1.43v

so, what's the prognosis for a chip that's gotten so hot that the built in thermal protection goes off :/

1 - 20 of 23 Posts

Butmuncher

· #2 · Nov 27, 2009

same boat dude, i'd just setup my new cm storm case, 3 hours of mesing and routing cables, was abit tight installin the heatsink, pc kept crashing as windows loaded, 82c in bios wow quick flap it run for the plug.
Turns out the heatsink wasnt even touching the cpu as the past was still untouched.
I'm wondering the same as probly it went to 90/100c while loadin windows.
Would like to know the same?

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getbigtony

· #3 · Nov 27, 2009

one way to find out
start that badboy up

Butmuncher

· #4 · Nov 27, 2009

Yeah mines started and works fine, stress tested with oc and everythings ok, i'd think you'd be ok , im still alive to tell the tale

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youra6

· #5 · Nov 27, 2009

that burning smell thing doesnt sound too good to me.

But 82 degrees isnt the worse case scenario. Ive seen peoples CPU jump past 200 F in similar situations

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Nick911

· #6 · Nov 27, 2009

oh please thats it? My Q9550 went up to over 120C!!!!!!!!! Worst part of all is it was a unplugged pump so guess what?? The temps SLOWLY rose to that point! I'm happy my PC is even running after that!

But ya sorry to hear that. I learned to keep my pump o na dedicated cable and run real temp to tell me when my pc over heats.

Nenkitsune

Discussion Starter · #7 · Nov 27, 2009

The burning smell was probably from the fan and the metal of the heatsink (combined with dust) burning.
The HEATSINK hit 82C. the IHS itself probably got damn near close to 100c. I got the reading of 82C several minutes after shutting it down.

I think the temps rose slowly over a period of about 30-40 minutes as well.

So far everything SEEMS ok though.

also, Intel chips have a higher thermal limit than amd chips do.

I'm just glad nothing decided to catch on fire or something haha.

gonX

· #8 · Nov 27, 2009

There are so many safeties in a CPU that it's impossible to fry it with a high temperature by accident, and even killing it on purpose is hard

You should be good to go.

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ikcti

· #9 · Nov 27, 2009

I would have taken the heatsink off to check the metal cover, at least.

youra6

· #10 · Nov 27, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick911

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oh please thats it? My Q9550 went up to over 120C!!!!!!!!! Worst part of all is it was a unplugged pump so guess what?? The temps SLOWLY rose to that point! I'm happy my PC is even running after that!

But ya sorry to hear that. I learned to keep my pump o na dedicated cable and run real temp to tell me when my pc over heats.

Well AMD chips just dont have the kind of thermal limit capacities like intel

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Nenkitsune

Discussion Starter · #11 · Nov 27, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by gonX

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There are so many safeties in a CPU that it's impossible to fry it with a high temperature by accident, and even killing it on purpose is hard

You should be good to go.

I sure hope so, cause I'll bet this chip got at least up to 90C hahah.
I went ahead and kicked on my motherboards thermal protection and tested it. Set it at 75C, kicked on Prime95, and turned off the fan. the instant it hit 75C it powered down. So looks like now i'm good to go in teh event that ever happens again, without any risk of damaging my chip (oh, and btw, at 75c, my heatsink temp was 140F Compared to the 180F that the heatsink got previously, i have a feeling i capped 90C hahah)

For now though i'm running the shutdown at 70C though.

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Gen

· #12 · Nov 28, 2009

3

Quote:

Originally Posted by gonX

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There are so many safeties in a CPU that it's impossible to fry it with a high temperature by accident, and even killing it on purpose is hard

You should be good to go.

Ha! Try telling that to the Pentium 4 I had a few years back, a few seconds without heatsink touching killed it.

Anyways, usually if the heastsink was at least making contact you'll be fine. I had a Athlon 6400+ powered up for about 2 seconds and it ran for months after then I sold it. Also had a Pentium D 830 (I think 830) running at 113C for about 20 seconds about three years ago and it still running today.

So odds are yours is fine

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gonX

· #13 · Nov 28, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gen

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Ha! Try telling that to the Pentium 4 I had a few years back, a few seconds without heatsink touching killed it.

Anyways, usually if the heastsink was at least making contact you'll be fine. I had a Athlon 6400+ powered up for about 2 seconds and it ran for months after then I sold it. Also had a Pentium D 830 (I think 830) running at 113C for about 20 seconds about three years ago and it still running today.

So odds are yours is fine

Indeed, they did not have any safeties back in the day, but today, there isn't a single CPU produced by either Intel or AMD that doesn't have these safeties installed.

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HiddenConn

· #14 · Nov 28, 2009

Well, the worst thing that could possible go wrong with your CPU is

YouTube- CPU overheat

.

Now personally, I don't even want to TRY overclock my processor, until I know exactly how much cooling protection I need. I only have the standard heatsink. :/

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Ecchi-BANZAII!!!

· #15 · Nov 28, 2009

???
NH-U12P should be that hot when using it passively...

Nenkitsune

Discussion Starter · #16 · Nov 28, 2009

lmao, well at least I know the damn thing was doing its job even if it was passive. it's amazing that the heatsink got as hot as it did, but you know what, now that i think about it, i'll bet the heat pipes were saturated and were pushing their limit, and the temperature between the IHS and heatsink were probably about equal.

Brutuz

· #17 · Nov 30, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by youra6

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Well AMD chips just dont have the kind of thermal limit capacities like intel

Eh? To say that.. it's so outdated that you'd have to be running an Athlon XP or Pentium 4 for it to apply.

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Nenkitsune

Discussion Starter · #18 · Nov 30, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brutuz

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Eh? To say that.. it's so outdated that you'd have to be running an Athlon XP or Pentium 4 for it to apply.

not really. most intel chips have somewhere around 100C limit iirc, and they run much hotter than AMD chips to begin with.
AMD chips have a 72C limit.

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youra6

· #19 · Nov 30, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nenkitsune

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not really. most intel chips have somewhere around 100C limit iirc, and they run much hotter than AMD chips to begin with.
AMD chips have a 72C limit.

My 9950 has a thermal capacity of only 62 c

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gonX

· #20 · Nov 30, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by youra6

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My 9950 has a thermal capacity of only 62 c

It most likely has a Tcase of 62c, which is likely. That's not the maximum temperature.

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