The thermal paste needs to be redone every so option too, it dries out and looses its thermal reducing quality. I redo mine every 2-3 years.
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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- remove dust
- reapply thermal paste
- make sure cables are managed properly for better airflow
- ensure cabinet itself is getting proper airflow
Undervolting is treating the symptom, not the cause.
Exactly. Or like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. It's not going to do much to fix the issue.
Why is it that so many people do absolutely zero maintenance on their computers, and think that's completely normal?
Clean that bitch out at the very least. Allowing dust to build up in all the little books and crannies means it's not getting enough air flow.
It's typically common sense that when your AC isn't working well, you clean/replace the filter(s) to keep it operating at peak efficiency, and if you don't, you risk burning up fan and/or compressor motors.
Same thing with your car's cooling system. Keep that radiator grill clean of mud and dirt, or it's more likely to overheat and burn up your engine.
Why the fuck don't people think of that when it comes to their computers just blows my damn mind.
A tube of Arctic Silver thermal grease is less than 10 bucks. A can of compressed air is like 20 bucks, and will typically last for months.
Once a month, take the PC case outside, and blow out all the damn dust.
Every year or so, replace the thermal grease/paste.
"My computer runs slower and slower as times goes by!" Yeah no shit, it's trying not to burn itself up. Clean the fucker.
Thermal grease can last for a good while now. The older stuff would cake up and not be able to transfer heat as well. New stuff is pretty incredible, I retired my AM4 build about 6 months ago, and I'd had the same CPU in it for around 5 years without changing the paste. Pulled the cooler and it was pretty much the same consistency as when I put it on. This was some kronaught stuff.
I'd say clean it every year, maybe twice but monthly seems like you'd be wandering on the slope of a possible accidents.
I have never changed the paste (I do put in good stuff from the beginning) but I'd do if I detected temp changs ofc.
"But i never have to clean my phone!" /s
Many phones need a charging port clean-up every so often
And the speaker grill. Too much gunk can reduce the output volume drastically.
I was also about to say headphone jack but now it's a product of a bygone era.
What nobody has yet mentioned is that redoing the thermal paste is dead simple, and doesn't carry any significant risk.
Make sure you're grounding yourself by touching the metal case frequently. Open the case, unclip the CPU fan, clean the old paste off with isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free wipe (both the fan and CPU). Use as high a concentration of alcohol that you can lay hands on, and eyeglass wipes and gun cleaning patches are lint free. While the fan is off, hold the blade still and blow off all the dust with some canned air. Dab of thermal paste, between the size of a grain of rice and a pea, right in the middle of the CPU. Don't spread it. Clamp the fan back on, done and done.
As long as you're taking the fan off, might be worth investing in a new fan at the same time.
Also give that radiator a good whiff of canned air while the fan is off. Dust can accumulate there too.
Make sure you're grounding yourself by touching the metal case frequently.
the case will only ground you until you disconnect the power, which you probably should do before doing things in there. for your safety, and for when a screw falls to the wrong place
Ground is a very relative concept in electronics. You are correct about earth ground, but if the case is unplugged and you touch it, you are still grounding yourself to chassis ground. Chassis ground is the important one for this since the danger isn't electrocution (assuming the PC is unplugged) but electrostatic discharge (ESD) that can damage components.
This is still a massive simplification of the concept of ground.
but is it enough that way to touch the case frequently? I thought you would need to touch it constantly while touching things inside
Good enough! You only need to discharge any static your currently (heh) carrying. Unless you're rolling around on the carpet in an arid room, you'll be fine.
When you shock yourself on a doorknob, notice how you don't get shocked again?
ok, but where do you discharge that static electricity to? where does it go? or is it more about "dispersing it" so that both you and the case and everything inside have roughly the same amount?
When you shock yourself on a doorknob, notice how you don't get shocked again?
yeah true, probably it is about dispersing it. didn't really think about this much before
I believe - and @shalafi@lemmy.world will correct me if I'm wrong - that as long as the static charge differential between you and the equipment is low enough, there's no concern about damaging static electricity flow through components. Touching the case, even if it's not earth grounded, will discharge any potential you're holding into the case. Then the difference between you and the components will be small enough to be safe.
I assume it goes into the case (that's one of the reasons why the motherboard had standoff screws), and will discharge when the case is plugged back ?
If your worried you can get a wrist band that attaches you to the case/ground for a few dollars. You really just need to touch something that would discharge the static before grabbing a part. The real risk is everything in the PC is bloodthirsty and wants to cut you.
I joked about blood on my soundcard at an IT job.
Because yes, I managed to cut myself installing a sound card.
The younger guys were just like, "Sound card?"
Unless you really need something specific, the stuff built into mobos is fine these days.
The PC generally won't boot till you pay the blood toll.
Underclocking your CPU like crazy because you don't want to replace the thermal paste is an insane thing to do, and probably still won't help, as the thermal paste being gone means there's nowhere for the heat to go. It'll just build and build until you hit a spike; you'll just reach that spike slower. You're rapidly sacrificing your parts by not just opening it up, cleaning out the dust and replacing the thermal paste, even using some kind of heat-reduction work around.
85 degrees is high but normal for a component that is pushing it, so software solutions, like underclocking, are viable. 100 degrees is "most computers will turn off to protect the components" territory, suggesting something has gone wrong with your cooling solutions and it really needs to be opened up.
But, that's not the question you asked, just a word of warning I felt compelled to add. Depending on the processor and motherboard, there are BIOS solutions and in-OS solutions. Check your mobo for settings in advanced. If they're there, they're there. If you're using an old Ryzen, (I believe the 1000 series is 8 years old now?) there's an app called AMD Ryzen Master that lets you tweak CPU speeds and voltages. Realistically Google "[CPU name] underclock" and you'll find a guide that links you to software, if it is available for your processor. I've never heard of a catch-all third party software solution for CPU clocking, the way Afterburner does that for GPU.
Adding another vote for you to clean your pc, possibly redo thermal paste and locate the core issue instead of doing that hack job.
A can of air
Where your computer is located is too awkward to open, and it's overheating... you do know that's likely related?
it's an open space. it's awkward because my desk isn't a proper desk it's a heavy cabinet, was the only place in my room to put the PC. the plugs are to the side and the gap is really narrow so it's a pain to unplug it and plug things back in
If you can't reach the plugs, most likely the air around them is recycling through that space getting hotter. Put a box fan over there and see if your temps improve.
good idea. will give that a try too thx!
At a LAN party (yes I'm that old) a dude came in with a box fan ziptied to the side, like it was a case side.
I didn't think to ask about orientation though. As in, push or pull for airflow.
Whatever, it worked for him.
I had to open the side of my case and point a fan at it to finish some wow related dungeon stuff like in 2010 in the french summer heat or my E8400 would crash.
Cleaned it out and found a mat of dust under the CPU fan.
This website seems to indicate that you can either do it in the bios directly, or with traditional overclocking softwares like MSI's Afterburner.
Though you specified you don't want to take it apart, i'd recommand changing your thermal paste anyway to avoid damaging your cpu. Maybe you can bring your pc somewhere else if the place where it's at is the problem. But anyway, that's none of my business.
i'll try that. thx!
UPDATE: Disabled Boost and undervolted my CPU, now temp spikes are much more reasonable. Max idle temp after 1 hour according to hwmonitor is 53 C which is a lot better than random spikes to 80 C lol
Do you have an all-in-one liquid cooler on your CPU by any chance? Something like this
I've had one of these leak slow enough that after 7ish years the liquid evaporated and my CPU killed itself.
I had another fail the same way but I caught that one before the CPU failed.
Had something similar, but for a GPU. Also corsair.
Yeah, the tubing on the AIO failed and fried the GPU. There did not appear to be any external damage to the tubing. Just... dripped out over the years. Good bye 2080 TI, you served me well during the pandemic and the scalping of GPUs.
I went back to air cooling after that, just with a lot more focus (from me) on airflow, orientation, etc.
Plus, the high end air cooling stuff is good. Like, in the 90s (decade) we dreamed of cooling that good with air, and then water cooling came along. I just never cared for the concept of water running inside my electronics.
Now if I could get that super expensive crap from 3M that isn't conductive and has similar thermal capacities to water, and run that through a water cooling system, I'd be fine with it. Its just prohibitively expensive.
Same. I went all in on noctua and haven't looked back. Just needs a a good dusting a few times a year to maintain peak performance.
You didn’t list the hardware or what the temps used to be before this. Assuming it’s a recent increase from sane normals, your best course of action is to move the system, give it a thorough cleaning, and change the thermal interface material. Underclock / undervolt is a temporary solution as inadequate heat dissipation can still occur even if the temps appear normal, degradation will continue.
You won’t brick the computer by moving it and changing the thermal paste. If you’re not confident enough, just watch a video or two online about how to handle the system, I bet there’s videos of your specific hardware out there. You’re more likely to incorrectly configure the hardware via software controls than you are to damage it by swapping the thermal paste.
If you don't feel comfortable fixing it where you are, search for a maker space. libraries in larger cities often have a maker space where you can get tools and expertise to complete these sorts of tasks. They may even be able to connect you with people willing to help for free. It's highly unlikely that you will break your computer by replacing the thermal paste on the video card just ground yourself by touching a door knob or faucet before working on the system and don't shuffle your feet on carpet in between the door knob and your workspace. That should eliminate most static shock which could cause damage to your circuits.
Just mist your GPU with a water bottle occasionally as you use it.