i'm now fiddling with an old processor and motherboard. When I run a system monitoring software. It register w high cpu temperature reading. 68-69 C. It has no thermal compound when i first tested it. So i got a silicon compound from an electronic store. the difference... NONE. Still the same. I tried to redo the thing again. but to my mistake. I forgot to connect the fan to the board. and when i tested it. still the same. so i got confused. it seems as if it ranges to that temperature with or without the fan.

the processor is a pentium 4 2.66ghz northwood
the board is a generic. cant find the maker. only the model. ws-1865gv. searched it on the net and found out winstars is the maker.

what could be the problem with this. is it the board or the processor. i find it difficult to believe that the problem could be with the cooling system.

the software shows 3 readings. 1 is the mainboard, the 2nd is the cpu and the third is just temp 3. can anyone tell me which is which. the first reads as 25C, the cpu is 68-69C, and temp3 ranges from 46-51. what is the mainboard temp and what is temp3. is the northbridge temp3 or the mainboard. I touched the heatsink and the cpu heatsink is always cooler than northbridge. so i set up a fan on the northbridge. and nothing changes.
could anyone help me with this..

It's not a surprise for a Northwood to run hot, Prescotts are even worse. However, 69C is a bit too high, if you can keep it down to 45C-ish, it's good enough. You can't tell the CPU temp by just touching the heat sink. The heat is from the CPU core directly underneath the heat sink. You need to do few things.
1) Make sure you get quality heat sink / fan. It can make a big difference from the stock heat sink. Make sure the heat sink fits the CPU socket type you have (socket 478 I persume).
2) Make sure you get quality thermal paste, such as Arctic Silver, not just some regular stuff. Make sure you apply it correctly, see instructions here, http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm
3) Make sure your case's fans are setup properly. Make sure you have intake and exhaust fans setup in the right place and blowing the right way. Make sure you have fans with good CFM rating, such that it can move large amount of air.
4) Try another temp monitoring software like SpeedFan, see if the temps are any different from the ones displayed in BIOS.

Hope that helps.

I'm not sure about Intels, but AMD processors shipped with a thermal PAD instead of paste between the CPU and HSF. If it has a PAD you need to remove it, clean it before applying the paste.

thanks for the reply guys. it's just hard to find quality fans for that type these days.
I just wonder why do intel include such fan that does not perform right for their own product.
And another things is that I tried to run the processor without the fan and heatsink "doesn't matter if it crashes, I have a spare", the reading is still the same till it reboots. do you have any idea about that? But I'm still not loosing hope, I'm still searching for a good quality fan and paste. I'm thinking maybe it's the board, since its like a low quality board. Winstars ws-i865gv. try to go to their site and go to the support pages and see what i'm talking about. It's kind of a generic board. I don't know how they do it.
i'm still working on this things and I'll first consider what you've said. thank. I'll still post the result If I succeed.

First of all the system shouldn't even boot without the cpu fan connected. That tells me you either have your BIOS not set up correctly, or you don't have the cpu fan plugged into the connector marked CPUFan, but maybe a different fan. In the BIOS you should have it set to shutdown on cpu fan fail or something along those lines. Usually in the hardware monitoring section. My Northwood runs on an ABIT IC7 which isn't a crappy board, but the sensor readings are almost 8C off (too high) Try some program like Everest or motherboard monitor 5.0 and see what their readings are for the sensor. Your temps will be affected by ambient room temp as well as case air flow. If you don't have A/C try setting a fan up right next to the case with the side off and the fan blowing directly on the mobo

Temp3 is probably your power supply temp, not the northbridge.

I've used other monitoring software like mbm 5, same reading. Another thing about the bios is that it has no pchealth status. The only thing on the bios setup that concerns integrity is the thermal monitor. nothing more. I recently tried the processor on other working system with a motherboard of ecs p4vmm2 and the temperature reaches 48-55. so I'm thinking that maybe it is on the board. but why? where does it get that information that it shows.

Pards for thermal reaading you can use what other fellow members are saying ..the SPEEDFAN n SENSOR VIEW 3.1..here u can see the CPU temperature correctly..or if u can downlooad the Everest software ultimate editon, u have d option here to show in ur desktop the temperature for ur CPU, HDD, Motherboard, CPU clock speed and its utilization, and CPU Fan RPM.

http://www.pcug.org.au/boesen/temperature_software/temperature_results.htm
CPU temperature Info..Author: Mike Boesen

Modern CPUs are built to operate quite efficiently even when they are quite hot. For the Pentium 4 series for instance, Intel's stated maximum "case temperatures" are between 66 and 78 C. The "case temperature" is the temperature measured at the centre of the CPU's heat spreader - NOT the temperature of the PC's case. For my P4 2.80c CPU, Intel indicates that the maximum temperature is 74 C. in this Intel article about Pentium 4 processors provides details about maxima for various versions of the P4: http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentium4/sb/CS-007999.htm

CPU temperatures will change rapidly in accordance with how much work the CPU is undertaking. A large range in temperatures for a CPU is quite normal and depends on the amount of work being undertaken, the ambient air temperature, the type and effectiveness of the CPU's cooling system and the ventilation conditions within the PC's case.

In the absence of specific information about the manufacturer's maximum operating temperature for a CPU, I would be concerned if a CPU's temperature exceeded 65 C when the CPU is under heavy load and the ambient temperature is 27 C or less.

However, even if the manufacturer's maximum operating temperature is exceeded, a modern CPU such as the Intel Pentium 4 series is designed to slow itself down automatically, reducing power consumption and hence limiting the overheating to a tolerable level. This is referred to as ''thermal throttling'' or simply ''throttling''. When such CPUs get really hot - around 95 to 100 C they are designed to shut down completely. Infrequent shutdowns of this nature should not affect the operating life of the CPU but frequent shut downs can affect the life of the CPU.

If you want to see some nice charts showing throttling in action, have a look at this article:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/p4-throttling/index.html The testing conducted is described thus by the authors: ''...we conducted a very simple experiment on two top Pentium 4 3.2 GHz CPUs, one with a Northwood core and the other with a Prescott. With the CPU loaded at 100 percent, we powered off the cooler fan and watched the temperature rise and the performance decrease as time went by.''

There are a number of possible causes of excessively high CPU temperatures. My servicing checklist is this:
Is the CPU cooler (fan plus heatsink) attached properly to the motherboard so that the heatsink is locked snugly onto the CPU? If the mounting clips are loose or unattached, this can have a VERY BIG effect on temperatures. Check gently to see if the cooler assembly is wobbly. Check clips visually.

Is the fan on the CPU cooler operating reliably? Check speed. Check for bearing noise. Check for loose plug and sockets. Clean fan's fins if there is a lot of accumulated guk (use a long-haired small flexible brush and vacuum cleaner to fix).

Are the fins on the cooler's heatsink clogged up with accumulated dust and guk so as to prevent air flow? Use a long-haired small flexible brush and vacuum cleaner to fix.

Is the cooler's heatsink interfaced with the CPU using an effective heatsink interface material? This would be an extremely low frequency problem and requires removing the CPU cooler, so unless you are a technogeek, don't fiddle with this.

If the only fan in the case is the one in the Power Supply Unit (PSU), make sure that fan is operating reliably and exhausting hot air out the back of the case. Clean fan's fins if there is a lot of accumulated guk.

Check that any other case fans are operating reliably. Rear mounted case fans should be exhausting warm air out the back of the case. Front mounted intake fans should be sucking air into the case. Clean fans' fins if there is a lot of accumulated guk.
2.2 Hard drive temperature

Mike Boesen ...

Now if u realy want o make ur CPU tempearture within the Normal Range of operating temperature, change ur CPU Fan with a bigger one and with High capacity air flow.. If ur room is w/o AC-unit..open the case n use electric fan...like in tropical countries..Gob Bless

Regards>>>Archie