CPU was shutdown due to thermal event (overheating)

Hi, my sisters having a few problems with her computer and asked me to fix it... which i have absolutely no idea how to.

Anyways, when she first handed it to me and when I booted it up, i heard 4 beeps (kinda like bee-boop bee-boop) then a couple of seconds later, it shutdown. Didn't even get to the bios screen.

Let it stand for like 10 mins and I tried it again. This time it booted to the intel screen where it tells you press f2 to access bios. So i pressed that, but it gave be a black screen saying "CPU was shutdown due to thermal event (overheating)" Press Enter to continue. So I press enter, but then it shutdown.

So i open it up and find that the cpu fan is loose and the plastic clips weren't fastened down, and i thought after securing it back on it would work. It didn't.

Just wanted to know if theres anything else i should check..
I have checked were the cpu power cables go into the mobo and its secure.

Also, Taking a look at the hardware monitoring screen, is 2580 processor fan speed, front and rear fans speeds are 0000, normal? Getting a temp of 52 C right when it turns on.. Isn't that kinda hot? I'll post pics of the insides in a min.

Are the case fans actually spinning? You can check this yourself you don't need the hardware monitor for that. Unless they are fans specifically designed to report that back to the system (and the system is configured for this) you won't see the case fan speeds.

What you describe is a CPU which was not installed correctly to begin with. The heat sink shouldn't just be loose so there's a chance the CPU is already toast.

But irregardless you've compromised the thermal paste on the heat sink. I'd get some thermal paste and remount the heatsink correctly. Be sure you have the thing on right its one of the scariest bits about building a computer is installing the heatsink it sounds like this was built by someone with not much experience who was afraid of breaking something but really it takes a bit of force to get that in place. Remember to snap it in on the diagonals ... that is upper right and lower left then do upper left and lower right. Generally I try to do the diagonal pair at once (though in reality its always snap-snap in sequence) once its in place and secured grab it and give it a moderate pull it should not just pop back out. It would be very good to locate a heatsink installation guide at this time and read it. You can probably locate a PDF online if you don't have one.

If you're confident the heat sink is mounted securely and the fan is operating on it correctly and it continues to report overheating in seconds I'm going to go ahead and say your CPU probably really is toast.

And please tell me you didn't find a piece of plastic under the heatsink ... I'm not sure if you can install a CPU and sink with that there but that's a protective cover that's supposed to be removed when you install the cpu. They look like this if you see one of those there for the love of all that is sacred get that in the trash can. Do not pass go.

Thanks for the quick reply medialint. I think I got the heatsink back in. Its not loose anymore and doesn't pop back out after a good tug. Seems to be working better now and hasn't beeped yet or shutdown immediately after being turned on. Fans are ok as well and are spinning fine. Think I am gonna get some thermal paste though and apply a dab. Seems to be getting kinda dry and crusty. Guess ill post back if anything happens thanks.

Also theres only 1 fan i can see and thats the cpu fan and I guess the power supply fan. Is there suppose to be a case fan?

And theres no protective cover over the cpu. All is safe. I hope.

Yes there should definitely be at least one fan on the case somewhere to circulate the air. In a typical ATX case these are located either on the back right below the PSU or on the side. If you see a lot of spaces for fans with no fans in them then you should probably obtain the requisite number before you go too far. Some cases are sold without stock fans so you can install the expensive kind with speed control and monitor reporting. Otherwise they're $10-$15 parts. You will run hot without one but it should be several minutes or even hours before you would fail because of a bad or missing case fan alone depending on the ambient temperature of the room, the air circulation in the case in general and the type of CPU (AMD runs hotter than Intel as a general rule) ...

Can I ask how this computer came to be ... who built it?

Asked my sister and all she said was "my boyfriends friend put it together". Guess he didn't really know what he was doing. Yea just went to go double check and theres no fan under the psu in the rear.

Yeah, I just advised her to get a newer computer. This p4 has way to many problems.