CPU temperature reading abnormally high

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Ive have a quad core Q8400. Ive never actually bothered to check the temperature readings and used the intel stock heat sink for about six months. Recently out of curiosity i checked the temperature reading through speed fan and the CPU temp was 121C ....i was dumbstruck and asked my friend a suggestion. He told intel stock heatsinks suck and told me to buy a coolermaster Hyper TX3 with some thermal fusion 400 paste.

Yesterday i got em and installed everything and i checked again. Surprisingly the CPU temp is same at 121c but the individual Core temperature are well below 40C.

Now what i want to know is Is my CPU temp sensor gone mad? because the mobo is quite an old one. It is DG35EC from intel.

Try checking the temps with CoreTemp, RealTemp or HWInfo to see if its the same. Speedfan is reported to be erratic at times.

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Checked it with all the three softwares you mentioned above. Every one of them shows core temperatures in the range of 35-45C. In Hwinfo the CPU temperature is showing as 121C and core temps are again in range of 35-45C. Im really getting mad :-?

Post screenshots.

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*i40.tinypic.com/2lxtgp.jpg

Here it is i put them all in one window

And yeah forgot to mention..In the bios under hardware monitoring the CPU temp is being shown as 102C and internal temperature is 40C

Even mobo temp is pretty high. Is your system stable while idle and under load? I think there might be some sensor problem, if that is the case, nothing much to worry about. I have a 10 year old P4 in my home which used to show over 100C temp through monitoring softwares some 6-7 years back. Applying thermal paste etc. didn't help. System was stable btw. Just uninstalled the temp monitoring software for peace of mind. That system is still alive and kicking.

BTW, that is also an Intel board.

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ya system Runs just fine ... i am a Structural engineer and all the analysis Processes i run put heavy load on the CPU.....i was just concerned about this wierd temperatures readings. Thanks for the help . It's always better to confirm

Then I think its OK. BTW, how old is your system?

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the processor is just 6 months old before this i used to have a core 2 duo E7200. The system itself is 3-4 years old i guess

Just touch the heatsink and see if you can keep your finger on it fairly comfortably. Before that make sure the heatsink is touching the processor properly with a little heatsink compound in between the two. 121C is very hot, so if you can touch the heatsink and it doesnt feel too hot, then dont bother. Looks like a sensor problem as said above.

i also think its a sensor problem the system would automatically turn off at those temps

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ya i can touch my heat sink and installed it yesterday. I applied the thermal compound and made sure the heat sink touches the CPU. And Btw ive had so many problems with this motherboard i want to change it and moreover i cant do any overclocking ( heard it isnt safe on an intel mobo). Any suggestions on what mobo i should buy ?

quote your max budget.

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i just want a motherboard. I dont want to spend more than 5k on it.

your best bet is to find some mobo based on P45( needs discrete GPU )/G45 chipset - get mobos from brands like MSi, Asus, Gigabyte or Biostar with DDr2 mem support - if you can't find any P45 chipset mobo your best bet is to get Gigabyte G41 Combo - which supports both DDR3 and DDR2 rams and also OCing ;-)

Gigabyte GA-G41M @2.8K

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ya i was searching for a p45 chipset buy they seem to be out of the market now

. I will get this Gigabyte mobo. Thnx

^^ You can find it @ theitdepot. (its overpriced there)

should not be a penny more than 2.5k ;-)

^^Yep I bought MSI-G41-PM26 at 2400 sharp.

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now i have a wierd problem >.<''. The mobo G41 combo you mentioned has support for DDR2 ram but it has only 2 pins each of them supporting 4GB. I already have 2x2GB on my current mobo. Now this will make me invest in ram again i suppose. So its better if i switch to DDR3 ram? and buy a different mobo? Suggestions please

Why will you need to invest in RAM? Wanna increase it above 4GB ? If yes, then exchange them with ddr3 kits, they're damn cheap this time. BTW why do you need mem excess of 4gb ?

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na i dont think you understood the point. I have 2 x 2GB not 1x4GB and this motherboard requires 1x4GB ddr2 ... so i thought it might be better to switch to DDr3 instead

Why it requires 1x4gb, couldn't get you!!!

@blacrobous u got it wrong mate ur MB supports max 4gb ram in one sloth so u can use 4 or anything less than that so 2Gb will work fine in it

blacrobous said:
na i dont think you understood the point. I have 2 x 2GB not 1x4GB and this motherboard requires 1x4GB ddr2 ... so i thought it might be better to switch to DDr3 instead

Mate, you got it wrong. I have the same chipset board, and does support 2 GB/1GB kits. Also your mobo supports max 16GB RAM (4*4GB), not that only 4GB. I hope its clear now.

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ah srry ... ignorance can be deadly

....thnx for the clarification

. Im getting it asap

^^ congrats in advance ;-)

dashing.sujay said:
^^Yep I bought MSI-G41-PM26 at 2400 sharp.

Congrats

and when did you buy it ?

Thanx

Bought it some 10 days ago for one friend, his mobo had fried