Hi. I recently took off the HSF and moved the HS a little, now my temps are up a little and i want to know if its safe to continue like this or do i NEED to get new thermal pad on there? The highest i saw it go up to was 50C, is that somthing to be worrying about or shall i purchase a thermal pad and put it on there Intel P4 3.00GHZ HT 800MHZ FSB NORTHWOOD 4EVER! 1.5 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM nVidia 6800LE Pipelines unlocked!!! 200GB 7200RPM SEAGATE BARRACUDA PATA 80 Barracuda GB SEAGATE

UPDATE: I just ran a program called CPU Burn in and my temps went up to 74 C at their peak!!!!! Then quickly after it went down to 50 now its running at 40 again. is this normal? Im running Everest Home Edition to moitor my temps within windows. Its like 28 in the room aswell btw Intel P4 3.00GHZ HT 800MHZ FSB NORTHWOOD 4EVER! 1.5 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM nVidia 6800LE Pipelines unlocked!!! 200GB 7200RPM SEAGATE BARRACUDA PATA 80 Barracuda GB SEAGATE

i think thats normal cos mine will run from about 42oc - about 70oc as long as u dont go over 75 oc i think u fine but i would put a pad or artic silver inbetween the chip and heat sink

NEO, Sounds like a couple of things happened here. First you removed the heatsink and reinstalled it without replacing the pad or cleaning the old one off and using thermal paste. Second, it sounds like the old thermal pad was still alive enough to do its intended job...thermal pads are phase change material which means as you heat the stuff up, it changes from a solid to a semisolid and flows into all the little valleys that exist on any processor and heatsink. This usually happens at about 60°C. You should now run your burn in program again to see if it hits 74° or if the max temp is lower this time. You might have just gotten away with murder. Post back and let us know what your new max temps are. Don't worry...you won't fry the processor. Skip

Well i went into windows and i was running at 55 after i cleaned the paste off and ran metal to metal. I dont have any alchohol to clean those little unseeable channels. I have now stopped using the computer till my new fan and thermal stuff comes through, but i still have the issue of cleaning it. Also, i need to know that maximum that it can go to WITHOUT shortening my life or doing any damage, i read that it will shut down if it gets too hot, but i really dont want to get to this point. Also by the way (i know u will hate me) i ordered some thermal pads instead of a compound, because i know for sure i will mess it up! but i dont care if its like 5C difference cause i dont overclock Intel P4 3.00GHZ HT 800MHZ FSB NORTHWOOD 4EVER! 1.5 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM nVidia 6800LE Pipelines unlocked!!! 200GB 7200RPM SEAGATE BARRACUDA PATA 80 Barracuda GB SEAGATE

it also went way up to 75 when i started up a game, so there is no way im gonna risk running it. the thing is my previous temps i was gettin 30 idle and MAX of 45 load. (not burn in program). So what shall i do? Intel P4 3.00GHZ HT 800MHZ FSB NORTHWOOD 4EVER! 1.5 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM nVidia 6800LE Pipelines unlocked!!! 200GB 7200RPM SEAGATE BARRACUDA PATA 80 Barracuda GB SEAGATE