Pentium 4 LGA775 overheating (possibly)

[mattvirgilio]

My computer has been screwed up for a while and I think I know why, but I just want some confirmation. My computer has recently began to get very hot and shut down randomly, which I am almost certain is from an overheating CPU. Recently it won't even get far enough to start up (shuts down after 10 seconds) Here is my question:

In the the retail box, I got the processor and the heat sink. On the heat sink is a small copper circle. When I first installed it, I put thermal paste on the processor and the copper circle, however, I have seen it wearing down. Could my immediate shutdown be from that, or is it possible for the CPU to run fine with no thermal past in between the heatsink and the CPU? Also, there is an extremely high pitched sound coming from my CPU, and I'm not sure what that is (just throwing it in there). My computer boots up and I can see my motherboard bios before it shuts down, which I beleive is not possible with a burnt out CPU (or is it?).

I would really appreciate some help, I don't want to spend money on a new CPU if I don't have to.

 

[turtile]

The heatsink comes pre-installed with thermal tape. There is no reason to apply thermal paste. It only makes it harder to lock in.

If you applied the thermal paste on the thermal tape, you need to remove the pad and re-apply the thermal paste after cleaning the CPU and heatsink with rubbing alcohol.

What kind of thermal paste did you use?

 

[Nitestick]

ditto. plus you say you've seen it wearing down which i'm guessing means you removed the HSF to have a look. you have to re-apply thermal past after removing the HSF.

 

[mattvirgilio]

I think it came with the pad installed on it and I put the thermal paste over the pad, but I can't remember because it was a while ago. Recently, it has just been a wearing layer of thermal paste that I now know did not give adequate heat transfer, and that is why my computer was shutting down. After, I removed all the thermal paste and tried using just the heatsink and it shut down after 5 seconds. I am now sure it is the fact I had nothing between the two, but thank you for the posts. I needed some reassurance.

Cheers!