Determine the appropriate course of action to resolve the overheating CPU issue.
Determine the appropriate course of action to resolve the overheating CPU issue.
My i5 4590 with stock cooler and paste has experienced a recent temperature spike. Previously, it reached about 55 C two years ago. Recently, it has been hitting 65 C for a couple of months, though I thought that was normal. Yesterday it reached 95 C under load and now idles above 50 C. Dust cleaning was done, the fan bearings are fine without extra noise, and it idles around 1500 RPM (which seems high) and reaches a maximum of 2050 RPM at 70 C, after which the temperature rises slowly. The case fans are functioning properly, the motherboard and hard drives stay around 30 C, and the GPU idles at 34 C. I've checked the BIOS readings, confirming a room temperature of about 22 C. I'm considering adjusting the fans to help, but I've used this setup without issues for seven years. Would it require new thermal paste so soon? I haven't had to reapply it in the past dozen builds, though I know it's necessary from time to time. Am I missing something else I should try first?
2 years isn't that long, but just to be sure I would reapply. If that doesn't work, I'd buy an aftermarket CPU cooler—Intel stock coolers are known to be terrible. I agree with that idea. Assuming you're getting enough airflow through the case (case fans working well, no dust, good cable management, proper fan placement and airflow direction), then the issue would likely be with the CPU cooler. I'm not a big fan of stock coolers, but I've had a pretty good experience with the Hyper 212 Evo. Even if you're not planning an aftermarket upgrade like that one, starting with some decent thermal paste could help see if it fixes the problem.
The thermal paste was most recently used on [insert date] during the [insert event or task].
2 years isn't that long, but just to be sure I'd reapply. If that doesn't work, I'd buy an aftermarket CPU cooler since Intel stock coolers are known to be unreliable. Agree. From a lifespan standpoint, 2 years is fairly new for thermal paste. If the PC has been moved often, it might have shifted or the paste dried out. I'd start by cleaning the cooler and applying fresh thermal paste as a test.
When I purchased this, I thought I’d give the stock a try to see its performance, particularly because I’m not planning to overclock it. It has been functioning well, which is surprising given how poorly it’s been performing lately...
It hasn’t changed hands since I installed a new GPU a few months ago.
I’ve been considering upgrading to a CPU cooler; having this CPU last longer while staying cool could help extend its lifespan.
2 years isn't that long, but just to be sure I would reapply. If that doesn't work, I'd buy an aftermarket CPU cooler—Intel stock coolers are known to be terrible. I agree with that idea. Assuming you're getting enough airflow through the case (case fans working well, no dust, good cable management, proper fan placement and airflow direction), then the issue would likely be with the CPU cooler. I'm not a big fan of stock coolers, but I've had a pretty good experience with the Hyper 212 Evo. Even if you're not planning an aftermarket upgrade like that one, starting with some decent thermal paste could help see if it fixes the problem.
Hmm... it looks like my post didn't appear last night. I checked the case and noticed some dust still stuck in the CPU cooler. My air can was nearly empty, so it didn’t clean as well as I expected. Then I ran SpeedFan again to recheck temperatures and discovered one of the intake fans wasn’t working properly—it spun at about 400 RPM instead of the normal 800+. I also noticed the FAN1 slot adjusts fan speed based on CPU temperature; when I plugged the CPU exhaust fan into it, it seemed to draw more heat. Switching FAN1 to an intake fan helped a bit, bringing the CPU back down to idle in the 30-second range. Later, I realized my cooler installation was incorrect—it wasn’t secured properly and had come loose during reassembly. It still idles below 30°C, but it reaches around 65°C during stress tests and about 40°C while gaming. I’ll leave it as is for now, planning to reapply the paste next if it starts acting up again. Thanks a lot!