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June 21st, 2007 14:00

"thermal event" shutdown

Last night I upgraded the CPU in my Dell 400 XPS from the 820 chip it came with to a 940. I cleaned off the heatsink and added new thermal paste, but apparently not enough of it. When I booted up the system windows started to boot and then the system shut down. When I rebooted my system I got the following message: "Alert: Previous shutdown due to thermal event. Press F1 or F2 to go to setup utility" I added more thermal paste and the system booted normally after that. From what I can tell, anyway. What are the odds that I damaged the new CPU with excessive heat? Any way for me to check it for complete functionality? Thanks in advance.

3.3K Posts

June 21st, 2007 14:00

   It's probably unlikely that on just boot up, you could have damaged the processor. But truthfully, I'm not sure.

17 Posts

June 21st, 2007 17:00

I've read that Pentium 4s would throttle down and could not take much heat damage as a result. Does the same hold true for Pentium Ds?

592 Posts

June 21st, 2007 23:00

Sounds like the system protected itself and shut off.
If it booted normally after more paste, I would say you were saved.
I would just go about your normal computing business and be on the lookout for any abnormalities. From what I've read and seen, a chip is either fried or its not.

So if you didn't see any smoke or fumes and you get a boot, relax....
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