Right this one has got me stumped. (And yes please do feel free to snicker at my PC problems......)
Anyway, my PC has been running in an unchanged configuration for ages, last change I made was adding a GTX670 a few months ago, but the CPU/mobo/RAM have been unchanged for about two and a half years.
It's an Intel Core i7-920, oc/ed to 3.4GHz on an Arctic Cooler Pro Rev 2 - literally no change for some two and a half years.
It has been rock-solid stable the entire time I've had it, never missed a beat. The CPU did get pretty toasty during a GTAIV marathon one summer's day (nosing up to 90C due to the high ambient temperatures) but still short of the Tjunction of 100C.
Most recently I had a three hour plus Battlefield 3 session on Saturday night, where it was chucking the game around fully ULTRAed out at 2560x1440 the entire time. No problems encountered.
I've been using the PC lightly since then with no issues. (Was watching a DVD last night for example, and usual web-based stuff.)
Today when I got home from work I turned the PC on as usual, then went upstairs to get changed and put my feet up on the bed for about 30 minutes 'cause I'm an old fucker and that's what I do these days.
When I came downstairs my PC was turned off. First thought was to ask AE Jnr and she told me she hadn't touched it, and TBH I believed her as she knows not to mess with my computer. Turned the PC back on and got the 'Your PC was not shut down properly' message, which I thought was odd, but let it boot up again and it seemed fine.
So I went down to the kitchen, got my tea ready, put the bin out, that sort of thing, came back upstairs and my PC was turned off again. Turned it back on, got the same 'Your PC was not shut down properly' message so definitely knew something was up at this point, booted back into Windows and fired up Core Temp, wondering if it could possibly be overheating.
Well, fuck me, even idling in Windows all four cores were dancing between 90C and 95C (!!!!), so it was pretty obvious it'd hit the Tjunction and just powered itself down the previous two times, and would soon do so again.
Pre-empting this I turned it off myself, yanked it out, got the side off and checked the HSF, seemed to be attached fine, no play or anything like that, fan was working fine. Into the BIOS which said the fan was spinning at 2000RPM which is correct, but even in the BIOS the CPU Temp was showing as around 75C.
Deciding there wasn't much else to do but re-seat the HSF I pulled it all off, unscrewed the mount etc, cleaned off all the TIM (I've got proper cleaner for it), got both the CPU spreader and HSF spreader shiny clean, did a nice careful re-apply of fresh TIM, and put it all back together making sure it was absolutely perfect and all solidly in place. (TBH I just put it back exactly how it already had been, as I'd made sure I did a very good job when I originally did the build.)
Booted back into Windows and the temps are better, but still awful.
It's idling with all four cores at 63-68C, which is fucking stupid, even just lightly loading it with a couple of online slots causes the temps to start peaking up towards 90C and gradually get higher, I daren't chuck something like Orthos at it as it'll just fucking fry.
Any ideas? Could it be the actual temperature probe on the CPU is misreporting, but if that's the case, why did yanking off the HSF and replacing the TIM make any difference at all?
I'll power it down and remove the overclock, but even that wouldn't explain why it's fucked today and it was fine yesterday.
I'm stumped!
Screenshot below is when I just chucked a couple of online slots at it.....
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