Premeire Pro Rendering Pushes CPU's over 92 degrees C.
 

So yeah, I've got major cooling problems with my dual Athlons apparently. My CPU's never went over 70 before until last night when I was rendering out a project which is due today. The computer restarted by itself, I went into BIOS to check the temperatures and CPU1 was at 105 celsius, while CPU2 was at 93. I shut it down, opened the case and started blowing a large window fan into it. About an hour later I started it up, and was able to render the project (with window fan) with the CPU's both staying under 83.

I know they should have burned up, I don't know why they didn't, but I'm really really glad...

Anyway, I've got an Antec server case with 4 fans (2 intake, 2 exhaust), 2 cpu fans and a video card fan. I also have the smaller IDE cables that are round. I really don't know why it almost burned up on me last night, I can't figure out what the problem is with the case.

Does anyone have ideas?

Are the fans blowing the correct direction?

That is WAY too high. Probably your CPU doesn't make good contact with the heatsink. It would be best to remove the heatsink, re-apply a cooling grease (like Arctic Silver) and then test it again.

You can also touch the heatsink while your system is running to see if it's taking any heat from the CPU. You should be able to feel this. Whatever you do, don't stress the CPU untill you have this fixed.

Heh, you must not know much about cooling computers if you're getting those temps, eh, Steve? ^_^ Ok, because you're running dual Athlons, here is a list of things you should check:

(Also, since you didn't specify which AMD processors you have [Dual AMD64 / Athlon MP / Opteron] some of these steps may not apply, but I am assuming you have dual AMD Athlon MP's for now)


1. Did you use ANY thermal grease on the CPU?

2. Did you put the grease ALL OVER the ENTIRE CPU chip? (not just the core but the red/green/brown areas around it) If so, then you should clean the CPU off and apply the thermal grease ONLY on the core of the CPU chip (this should be the little blueish-purpleish square in the middle of the CPU). Don't put too much! Just enough spread around on the core and (if using generic thermal grease) if the grease is watery, wipe that stuff off and make sure the grease has a thicker texture to it.

3. Are the heatsinks positioned correctly on the CPU(s)? The Socket A format is set up like this: There is a lever to pull the chip out and to lock it in, there are the holes for the CPU pins, and the socket itself has an area that should say something like AMD### or something like that, so it should be a square socket with a space at the top. When applying the heatsink, look at the bottom of the heatsink and notice how there is a plate screwed in or built into the heatsink's bottom, this is the part that makes contact with the CPU, you could be applying this backwards and not getting the plate into contact with the core (the little square in the middle) of the CPU and instead, could be placing it above the AMD#### peice of the socket.

4. Also, are the fans facing the correct direction? The exhaust fans should be blowing out, and the intakes should be blowing in. On all fans, the bare side with only blades is the sucking side of the fan and the side with the 3 plastic pieces in front of it is the blowing side.

5. Is there a sign of dust buildup? If so, then you may want to move your PC to a less dusty area and/or just periodically check and cleanup the dust (make sure the computer is turned off before you do though ^_^).

6. Maybe your heatsinks aren't good enough(?) If so, then buy new heatsinks designed for the Socket A format.

All right, that should be it. If you have any other problems then just post again.

I had the same problem once: my fan was turning to slow. I remember the smell!!
My PC was rather new, so i got a totaly new CPU with fan for free. Since then I never had this problem again.

If the fan or airflow is the problem, it is easily noticable by touching the heatsink. If the heatsink is badly placed/greased it will be cold. If it DOES take the heat from the CPU, then you will "ouch!" :)

The fans are all blowing/sucking in the right directions. The heatsinks are hot. There was a little bit of thermal greese on the CPU's, I applied more.

The temperatures remain at about 60 celsius at idle... which is still very high for idle. I'm not even going to try to render anything now... I'm going to try turning around the fans in my case.. but I'm out of ideas.

It should be pointed out that the fan on the CPU heatsink itself should be blowing air AT the heatsink (i.e., toward the motherboard), not sucking air away.

And are you absolutely sure we're dealing with Celsius here? These numbers are absoultely, mind-bogglingly insane. I don't care how fancy-pants a chip you've got in there, even a noisy, low cost, inefficient stock HSF should keep the thing below sixty degrees Celsius. FAR below.

Sixty Celsius is about a hundred and forty Fahrenheit, and for an idle processor (even two, notoriously hot-running, Athlons), that's ridiculous. I find it hard to believe a processor with such high temperatures hasn't completely collapsed on you.


EDIT: Okay, I spoke too soon. Sixty Celsius for an idle temperature ain't TOO bad. Could be better, but I have my system idling at about fifty-three, if my motherboard's sensors are to be believed, after a few hours of operation. I could most definitely do with some more case fans, however, and my case is too big. Lots of dead space. Thusly, I still find those rendering temperatures to be bothersome.

And I wonder if the position of the processors could offer some clues? You say that CPU1 was, what, eight degrees hotter than 2? Perhaps the location of the chips could point you toward the heat source/cooling malfunction...

Your motherboard may measure temperatures different from other boards (Abit boards are known to do this) but even then your temperatures are high. The processors are supposed to shut down at 75C.

More thermal grease isn't really better (you want a thin layer), but the difference between a lot and just right shouldn't be much.

Get a thermometer and measure the temperature. The measuring software is probably not calibrated.

hello steve,

most of the remedies the guys above have already mentioned. i have a dual mp2800 with dual thermalright slk900a's + generic 92mm fans that is roughly 4k rpm. around 50°C idle and 54 or so load. if you really need to meet some deadlines you can get some delta fans or fans that can do 8-10k rpm. i know you will go deaf but if you really wanna air cool your athlons while they render, it's the way to go. when i had some 10k rpm fans (80mm i think) my temps were 35°C idle and 37°C load... but i almost went deaf as it renders through the night. the comp is in my bedroom. =( therefore i sacrificed some temp but peace of mind =).

anyway you may also want to sheck your heatsink. if you have a crappy hs... then swap it out and get a good one.

Not so fast Yi, a Delta is a good fan and all but there should be no need to get a fan THAT loud for some Athlon MP's that should be hitting around 35-45C stock at full load.

BTW Yi, you should reconsider those Delta's going all the time in your bedroom while you sleep and everything as you could permanently damage your hearing or actually, ^_^;; heh... heh...heh... go insane according to some tests......

Well what I do to check if more air would help is to get a table fan. Those are relatively huge and move a lot of air compared to computer fans. Put them at an angle to the fan if possible so that the fan doesn't block the air (you think it would if the air going in is moving is faster than the fan can normally move air).

A thermometer would be that helpful unless you had something to compare it to. You can't compare it to other people unless they measure things exactly the same way and use the same heatsink and processor. You could compare it to your own computer, but then you don't have past results. The motherboard thermometer is good enough when you have past results. It's also good enough because at least the relative values are good (66 is hotter than 65, etc.).

Anyone know a good/free program that will keep my CPU temp in the little box with the time (task bar?)

Mother Board Monitor (MBM5) and SpeedFan are good monitoring applications. I find second one closer to reality. Both read the info from the monitoring chip on your motherboard but interpret the results a bit differently.

As Glen Chan said all monitoring software uses certain formula and doesn't give 100% true result. Main meaning is to know where you are and do something if it gets really hot.