High fan speed and temperature

[alm21212]

Hi, I have a gateway desktop

model gm5684e

windows vista home

intel pentium dual cpu e2180 @2.00ghz

1 GB RAM

The fan is constantly running at high speed even if I have no applications running. I installed Speedfan and it shows fan 2 with around 2000 to 2300 rpm and 127C .Based on what I read online that seems very hot. Is this a hardware or software issue. Thanx

[AdvancedSetup]

Have you opened the case and taken a look to make sure you don't have an Enchanted Forest of Dust covering everything inside?

[CWB]

nice picture ... it explains the situation nicely .

@ alm21212 :

as advanced setup mentioned , that is a good place to start ... clean it out and go forward from there .

and yes , 127C is very warm ... too warm .

[noknojon]

Frm www.cpu-world.com › ... › Pentium Dual-Core

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180 - HH80557PG0411M

Minimum/Maximum operating temperature - 5°C - 73.3°C Above this it can/will produce freezes (and even fires)

See the picture above - That is your system ......................

[alm21212]

Just opened the case. hardly any dust. I un installed some software and rebooted. Now it reads as

Fan 2 : around 1200 rpm

Temp 1: 34c

Temp 2: 127c

Temp 3: 22c

2 questions is the rpm normal? is the temperature reading faulty? If so how to fix

Thanx

[CWB]

a little clarification is needed ...

what is "temp 2" actually measuring ?

if it is the cpu temp , and the machine is not suffering from "freezing" (as noknojon mentioned) , it may be that the motherboard is (basically) reporting the temp erroneously (i have an asus mb that has this problem) .

the 1200 rpm ...

"normal" is relative ... without knowing the prior history of the machine or information from the manufacturer as to ambient temp versus cpu fan speed versus load (and such as that) ... it is hard to say if it is correct .

the amount is quite a bit different than the 2K-2.3K you reported in your first post .

so , how warm does the heat sink feel (barring a thermometer and good thermal coupling) ?

[alm21212]

The heat sink which has the fan over it is not hot at all which i am assuming is the cpu, however there is another smaller heat sink which is very hot I can almost burn my fingers. Not sure if that helps

[CWB]

some research turns up very little about the model and more specifically the motherboard (it is made by elitegroup) ... this is actually good news .

i did find one reference to the "reported cpu temp going up and down like a yo-yo" , this was erroneous due to a problem with the motherboard .

given the age of the machine and to eliminate a cause, there is another possibility or two ... :

the cpu temp is actually running hot because the heat sink has come loose and the gap created makes for lousy thermal transfer while the heat sink itself remains relatively cool .

the thermal transfer compound (aka : goop) that is used between the heat sink and cpu faces has actually "dried up and gone away" , this leaves pockets in the material making for bad thermal transfer .

about the best way to prove the point in this area is to remove the heat sink and perform visual inspection , clean and replace with fresh "goop" .

once you loosen the heat sink (or it has become loose) , you must replace the thermal compound .

this task is not for the novice ... there are electrical and mechanical considerations to be observed or you can wind up with a dead machine .

however , as has been mentioned , if the CPU were actually running hotter than the hubs of hell , the CPU would "throttle back" or shut down in order to protect itself .

you can look at the cpu speed with a utility designed for this or use "task manager" to see what is going on .

that other heat sink that is "warm" is most likely the GPU or the (i believe) northbridge ...

these tend to run on the toasty side .

sadly , they consider this to be normal , right out of the factory .

[alm21212]

thanks for the help. will havesomeone take a look at the heat sink as I dont want mess around in there to much.