Is it possible for a faulty cpu to run a lot hotter?

[Moloch]

My brother in law has a 3ghz prescott and it idles around 70C and under load it uh.. crashed.. unsurprisingly.
He runs it at 2.6 ghz to make it stable.
He's remounted the HSF and re applied thermal paste and it still runs freaking hot.
I've never heard of a faulty cpu running too hot.. I'm pretty sure it's a HSF?
The cpu fan spins way up and he has an antec sonota 2 case with a single 120MM exhaust.
I'm just curious if this is a common problem with p4s or what.
Funny story, I told him to buy a A64 because p4s run hot.. but I didn't think this hot

 

[Blazkowicz]

did he put just a tiny bit of paste as needed? lots of paste is bad (if he thought that more=better)

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

My brother in law has a 3ghz prescott and it idles around 70C and under load it uh.. crashed.. unsurprisingly.
He runs it at 2.6 ghz to make it stable.
He's remounted the HSF and re applied thermal paste and it still runs freaking hot.
I've never heard of a faulty cpu running too hot.. I'm pretty sure it's a HSF?
The cpu fan spins way up and he has an antec sonota 2 case with a single 120MM exhaust.
I'm just curious if this is a common problem with p4s or what.
Funny story, I told him to buy a A64 because p4s run hot.. but I didn't think this hot

Stick your finger on the heatsink and see if it's hot. Check near the top and near the bottom. If it's not hot, then it's not been attached properly. Too much paste, wrong type of paste, forgot to remove plastic surface protector, attached backwards, etc. If the fan is controlled by the BIOS, it's going fast because of the high CPU temp, but it's never going to shift much heat because the heatsink isn't transmitting much heat away from the CPU.

If he's using the default HSF, he might want to look at some of the better aftermarket ones. I have a bit of a soft spot for the Arctic Cooling ones because they work well, attach easily and are incredibly cheap and quiet. Probably the Vapochill Micro for something with more grunt and cost to it.

 

[Moloch]

did he put just a tiny bit of paste as needed? lots of paste is bad (if he thought that more=better)

I have no idea.
But he remounted the hsf to try to get the temps down.. they were already hot, they did not get hotter after he remounted the hsf.

 

[maaoouud]

He could try and turn the 12cm fan so it sucks in cold air instead... might be the easiest solution. Also try lowering the voltage of the processor (needs stability testing). If those don't work I'd say it's time for a better heatsink, can't do that much about the airflow in the sonata 2.

 

[NANOTEC]

Is the HSF an aftermarket or factory? Is it even the correct HSF made for P4s?

 

[Moloch]

Is the HSF an aftermarket or factory? Is it even the correct HSF made for P4s?

retail cpu HSF of course.