Question

Laptop P4 3.0 Ghz CPU Temperatures too High or Not?

Asked by: TomStarich

Are my Laptop P4 3.0 Ghz CPU Temperatures too High.

We are dealing with a IBM G40 Laptop that had a new motherboard installed by a non-professional. I may have done a fine job of installing the mother board and applying the thermal paste, like many of us who are non-professionals who work on pc's. But I want a second opinion to be sure. I am very interested personal experience as I have already referenced the web throughly and found that temperatures in the 60 to 70 C are not unusual.

Here is the facts. At idle the processor is 41 C and when doing hard work where the CPU is running 100% continuously like a virus scan or defragmentation the processor runs at 75 C. Keeping in mind that were dealing with a IBM laptop with a Pentium 4 running at a very high clock speed. It seems like I am runnning on the toasty side. What do you think>

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Asked On
2007-06-24 at 07:49:33ID22654137
Tags

laptop

,

cpu

,

p4

Topics

Computer Fans and Cooling

,

Computer CPU Processors

,

General Laptop

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: PUNKYPosted on 2007-06-24 at 09:49:48ID: 19351638

75 C is hogh temp, but it is still OK. But better yet, you should reclean the cpu surface and reapply new thermal paste, make sure the heatsink put down and stay even on cpu surface.

Sometime, the temp reading by BIOS is not reliable, you should have 3rd party software to read the temp and compare.

 

by: garycasePosted on 2007-06-24 at 23:49:28ID: 19353752

75 °C is FAR too hot for a desktop Pentium-IV (the thermal specification is 69 °C for a 3.0GHz part), but is well within the specification for a Pentium-M (which has a thermal specification of 100 °C).     The Lenovo overview for the G40 does not indicate whether or not the Pentium is a Pentium-M or a standard (non-mobile) Pentium [see http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-50572 ] ... so I can't say with certainty whether or not the temps you're seeing are worrisome.   The idle temp is fine ... but the full-load temp is definitely high if it's a standard Pentium.   However, laptops DO tend to run hot under full load --> that's one reason Intel has "speedstep", "M-" versions of their CPU's, etc. .... to try and alleviate the problems that the small laptop form factors present in cooling the CPU.

If the "normal" temps are consistently under 60 °C I wouldn't be too concerned.   The Pentiums have built-in thermal protection ... and will simply shut down if the CPU gets REALLY hot (you won't, of course, get any message if this occurs ... it will simply shut itself down).

 

by: nobusPosted on 2007-06-25 at 00:49:05ID: 19353943

 

by: jagjitnattPosted on 2007-06-25 at 08:02:04ID: 19356176

Your CPU is a little hot. It won't blow up or anything. It seems ok. Not bad.
But if you are still concerned. Follow these steps:

1. Lap you heatsink using grit paper. First 400, then 600 than 1000 and then 2000.
2. Apply Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

That should lower your load temps to around 68-70C

Your idle temps seem to be pretty good.

 

by: TomStarichPosted on 2007-06-25 at 13:49:32ID: 19359081

I am going to take it apart one more time and see if the paste made a complete square mark on the heat sink which would indicate complete contact.

I have to ask? If after first cleaning off the paste and purchasing arctic silver brand.

Can I gently place the CPU in the socket then, Can I let the heat sink push the CPU down, then take the heat sink off and screw the CPU holder screw tight, put the thin film of Arctic Silver paste on the CPU and then do the final placment of the CPU. Will this work to maybe bring the CPU up to meet the sink more intimately.

Thomas

 

by: garycasePosted on 2007-06-25 at 14:02:18ID: 19359185

I doubt the CPU will seat more firmly by installing/removing the heatsink ... but as long as you do that BEFORE you apply any thermal compound it won't hurt anything.   Just don't remove it after you've installed the thermal compound (Artic Silver 5 is excellent).   Also, be sure you follow the instructions on Artic Silver's site for applying the compound ... you do NOT put a "thin film" on the CPU  (you put a small dab and let the pressure/heat do the spreading).

 

by: jagjitnattPosted on 2007-06-26 at 04:47:43ID: 19362724

Way of applying doesn't make a difference. They suggest this method so that people don't use thermal compound like toothpastes and apply it all over the cpu.
I recommend the thin film method but the film has to be very thin.

Don't remove the heatsink after applying paste and seating the CPU.
Seat the CPU first, apply compund, and then install the heatsink. Also make sure heatsink is tight.
Sit back and watch temps fall.
NOTE: Arctic Silver 5 takes around 200 hours of intense CPU usage in order to settle properly. Only after around 200 hours will it show its real potential.

If nothing helps, try using some sort of utility to reduce you CPU voltage and frequency, so that your CPU stays cool when not required much. That'll help increase battery life too.

 

by: TomStarichPosted on 2007-06-26 at 18:30:50ID: 19369070

When I opened it up again I found that although the processor was spread with a thin film of paste. The heat sink did not have a square mark of paste residue when I removed it. One area was not touching the heat sink at all. I don't know why either. I looked for the obvious. Like a cable pinched under the heat sink or something that was causing the heat sink to be held up on one side. I could not find anything. I decided to put more paste in the area of the processor that was not touching the heat sink and put it back together agian. I noticed a decrease in the processor temperature of about 10 degrees C and feel better now. I also noticed if the system is left to idle the processor temperature seems to go up and down about 5 C in a cyclic and reoccuring pattern on the Mobile Meter Graph. I think this is the fan going on and off but wonder why it only does it on this machine and not other G40s

 

by: garycasePosted on 2007-06-26 at 18:44:55ID: 19369158

A small fluctuation during idle isn't unusual.   It's not usual to not have a "square mark" of residue ... the thermal compound is supposed to migrate into the areas where there are microscopic variations in the metal; so it's not always an exact rectangle (although a completely uncovered area is definitely not right).   That's why Artic Silver specifies a specific method of applying their compound ... depending on the specific type of processor you're applying it to.   The idea is to get "enough" in the right areas ... and let the pressure between the heatsink and CPU, together with the heat from the CPU, cause it to flow into the appropriate microscopic crevices [that flow, and the bonding that occurs as a result, is the reason the performance of Artic Silver 5 improves for the first 100-200 hours of use].

In any event, it sounds like you've got a much better thermal bond now;  so unless your high-load temperatures are still above 70°C I would consider that all is well.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2007-06-26 at 23:37:01ID: 19370138

>>   something that was causing the heat sink to be held up on one side  <<  probably it was not installed correctly, and seated only on one side, and this was the real cause, not the paste.
If it is not flush against the whole surface, it nearly cannot transfer the heat from the cpu to the sink

 

by: TomStarichPosted on 2007-06-27 at 06:52:04ID: 19372215

Thanks to all who contributed. Nobus restated and summarized many of the items you mentioned as well his answer may best help someone who is looking for a cut to the chase answer. I do think however they would benefit from reading the whole thread.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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