How can you determine the CPU temperature if system is overheating

You can also be interested in these:

These days, PCs are more powerful than ever, as the requirements for running programs and games continues to go higher and higher. It’s a blessing that such powerful systems can be achieved in your home, but unfortunately it also means it’s tough to keep things under a suitable temperature. Overheating can seriously damage your system if left unchecked.

However, for many PC users, it can be hard to determine if your PC is even overheating in the first place. After all, there are so many different parts in a computer, and if you’re facing performance issues then it’s possible that any one of those parts is causing the issue on hand. So, how exactly can you determine your CPU temperature to find out if your CPU system is overheating?



Well, worry not, because today’s guide will help you with that. In a few simple steps, you’ll be able to figure out whether your CPU’s temperatures are healthy or not. We’ll be offering multiple different methods to finding it out, so don’t fret if some don’t work perfectly for you. With enough time and testing, we’re sure one of these methods will definitely work for you.

What happens if your CPU overheats?

If you’re not familiar with the issues that come with CPU overheating, we’re here to help you out. For starters, any time your CPU goes above a suitable temperature, your PC will automatically begin to throttle it. Doing this keeps the CPU a bit cooler, but also means your performance will suffer as a result.

Throttling should keep CPU temperatures lower, but if the overheating continues, your PC will simply shut itself to keep itself safe. Extreme temperatures can cause permanent damage to the delicate internals of your system. In a worst-case scenario, it could even cause your entire PC system to completely implode upon itself, never to work again.

All of this is why you should always keep your PC’s CPU from overheating. If things go bad, it’s fully possible that you’ll lose your entire system, and all the internals with it. That would be a huge loss, and ideally we’d like to avoid that. So, make good use of these methods to check whether your CPU is overheating. Keep your system safe, and you’ll be fine.

Using BIOS to check CPU temperature

BIOS or Basic Input and Output System is what provides you access to better control over your system. In newer systems it’s called the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) but there is no fundamental difference between BIOS and UEFI. Both of them are designed the same way, and ultimately are used to accomplish the exact same things in your system.

Now, while using your BIOS means you won’t need to download any external tools, it’s also somewhat cumbersome to use. First, you’ll only be able to go and check out your temps after restarting your PC, since you need to do this to access your BIOS.

On top of that, even though you can check your CPU’s temperature in the BIOS, you can’t actually stress test the PC. As you can probably piece together, it’s tough to check If your PC is overheating if you can’t run programs to test it in the first place. Thus, it’s not recommended to use the BIOS, and instead to use a utility like the one we’re about suggest.

Using core temp to check CPU temperature

Core Temp is one of the most common and popular utilities to test out CPU temperatures, and for good reason. It’s very simple to use, it’s light on resources, and it gives you all the information you need. As a result, it’s extremely easy to figure out whether your CPU is overheating or not.

Your CPU’s cores are all visible in the utility, and each one has a different recorded temperature. It also shows the maximum CPU temperature for your system before it starts, giving you a better idea of when your PC is coming close to overheating. Typically if your CPU cores reach close to 90 celsius when you do anything even somewhat intensive, then that’s a bad sign.

What to do if your CPU temperature is too high?

Now that you know your CPU is overheating, it’s time to take steps to solve this issue, at least temporarily. There are several ways to work around high CPU temps, though it’ll also take a bit of work to figure out what exactly is causing your CPU to overheat. General fixes work, but at some point you’ll definitely want to try and solve the problem permanently.

One of the biggest reasons CPUs overheat is because the thermal paste applied to the part has dried up completely, leaving nothing to conduct heat from the CPU to its cooler. In this case, you’ll want to remove the cooler and apply a fresh batch of paste to the CPU.

You can also check and see if your CPU cooler is malfunctioning. Sometimes the cables can grow lose, or maybe the cooler’s fan has simply stopped working. In the case it can’t be fixed, you’ll need to buy a brand new CPU cooler. Sometimes your CPU is simply powerful, in which case it can help a lot to underclock and under-volt it to avoid permanent damage.

If you find that none of these permanently fix the issue or your temperatures are still rising a bit too high for your comfort, then you’ll want to take it to a professional to be checked. There are many things that could be wrong with your build that are too hard for an average builder to find out.

We hope this article helped you figure out whether your PC’s CPU is overheating or not. Remember, if your CPU is overheating, it can cause permanent damage to your entire system. At that point, you’ll definitely at least want to use one of the temporary fixes just to keep in check. Keep your system safe, and you’ll be alright!

More stories like this