Hello to everyone!!!

I have a big problem with my pc's case temperature (system temperature). I recently opened the case of my pc to clean the dust from CPU fan and heatsink because I was getting high temps (above 62oC) when playing games. After cleaning the dust the cpu temp droped to 55oC (low limit, recomended from my the software came with motherboard).
However, now for some reason Im experiencing high system temps (Case reaching up to 44oC! when the high limit is 40oC).
I felt the case with my hands and is quite warm! However, before cleaning the cpu fan and heatsink my system temps used to be around 28-30oC) This is a drastic increase and I have no clue what I might have happened!!!
Please if anyone has any idea enlight me!!!
I woulf really appreciate it!!

My motherboard by the way is Lex BN790E and windows 2000 professional.

Thanks a lot!!
Take care!!!

well now that your heatsink is actually removing the heat better from the CPU it has to go somewhere, and in the case is where its going...all that dust actually 'locked' the heat in from being transfered to the case.

Any way, get rid of ribbon cables or move them to the side as much as possible. IDE cables come round now-a-days. These take less space and don't block air flow if at all.

Another thing is ensure proper ventilation from the lower portion of case to upper, heat rises so make sure you have exhaust up top, whether your powersupply fan or an additional fan blowing air out. In your case, I would suggest installing an exhaust fan..and possibly a intake fan by the lower front area of the case. Some cases you can see a grill on the inside where you can put a fan

Hello and thanks for the advice justin_b31!
I understand how you explained the sudden increase in the system temp.
However, when I first built the pc.... and run the windbond doctor (software provided with motherboard) the system temp and the CPU temps were BOTH low! Initially there was no dust so why the temp of the case was ok?

And why now is increased to this extent?
Is there a possibility that something else might have gone wrong when I opened the case and cleaned the CPU fan?

Thanks again for replying!
Take care!

If your PSU fan is the only exhaust fan, its possible that its running out of life or that you inadvertantly blocked some airflow.

I doubt if you actually did something wrong..as long as you don't have that sweet burning smell of electronics, man I like that smell-just not what creates that smell :)

More than likely the PSU fan isn't pulling the extra heat out of the case as it did when you first built the system..and since your heatsink was dirty you likely didn't notice an increase of temp.

Install another case fan and see what happens..keep your case accessible so you can randomly feel around for anything hot..like memory on drams and graphics cards, hard drive, etc..if after a couple days and you don't smell or feel anything its safe to assume it'll be alright

Most likely scenario: you moved the IDE cables and or cablings blocking air flow that previously was running smooth.
Or, you "bump" the heatsink and the thermal paste is no longer sitting right with the contact area.

Thanks alot for the advice guys!!

I put two case fans at the back of my case, blowing cold air inside the case. I managed to tide up loose cables and also....

I put thermal paste (You were right real_cool, i did removed the thermal paste because I removed the heatsink to clean it from the dust.

Now the system temperature (and after the pc is on for more than 6 hours) is maximum 30oC (low limit from Windbond Doctor is 35oC) and the CPU temperature has dropped even lower to 35oC (low limit from Windbond doctor 55oC).

Even after hard load of work the processor reaches a maximum temp of 40oC.
so.... everything back to normal!!

Thanks a lot again for the advice justin_b31 and real_cool!
Take care!