CPU poor WEI score

Just thought I'd share this with folks. After installing Win 7, I noticed that my overall WEI score was coming up at 2.7, which I thought was strange considering it was 5.4 with Vista. The processor score was 2.7 which was really low for a Core 2 Duo E6700, which btw was detected correctly by Win 7. I thought this might just be a bug in Win 7....how wrong was I?

I downloaded the Intel Processor identification utility just to check the specs for my processor and noticed that each core was running at 0.91 Ghz???? Rebooted the pc and checked bios settings for the processor and it was detected at 1.49 Ghz!!!! Noticed the temp of the processor and it was 89 degrees!

Anyway after removing the cpu fan, it looked like the thermal paste hadn't spread across the cpu even though the cooler had been fitted correctly, so I cleaned it and applied some fresh thermal paste properly. Booted the pc back up and the cpu was now being detected correctly in the bios and the temperature was hovering at 45 degrees.

Checked with the Intel Processor identification utility again and both cores were now running at 2.66Ghz. Re-ran WEI and my cpu now has a score of 6.1 and the overall score is back up to 5.5. I've completely stripped my pc down and cleaned everything including fans, psu, hard drives and case and it is now running great with very little cpu usage.

Mr GRiM said:

Nice Result Hammerhead, thanks for sharing, lucky the CPU resurrected itself after applying the new thermal paste.

Thanks. Just glad I caught it in time. Would hate to have to spend some money especially when I haven't got any in the first place!

I am always amazed by how much of a differance is made by cleaning my case out.
At one point my cpu fan sounded like a jet turbine, but instead of cracking my case open i bought headphones :) .... needless to say after a while i cleaned every thing and it shut up, and the temp dropped by ~15'f. its about due again, i can tell.

Good to know Intels thermal protection circuitry works well and drastically downclocks or shuts down to prevent damage. I've had a fastening pin slip out of place and temps quickly hit their max but the CPU simply shut down my pc once it reached its limits.

Good thing you caught that early and if you think that's bad, you should see how ASUS sent out their flagship x48 boards, the Rampage Extreme. In some cases, entire copper sinks had no paste at all. What a joke.

Captain Zero said:

Good thing you caught that early and if you think that's bad, you should see how ASUS sent out their flagship x48 boards, the Rampage Extreme. In some cases, entire copper sinks had no paste at all. What a joke.

Captain Zero how did you find this out? Was it causing some issue? On a funny note a few years ago a friend of mine built his own pc, but had an issue where the pc would boot up and then turn off. I asked him to check whether he had put his cpu cooler on securely with thermal paste and he said he had. Anyway he took his pc back to the place where he had bought his components from. They checked it out and found the cause.....he had used a whole tube of thermal paste!

Thanks for the information.