This is getting more bizarre...I now realize that the reason that the CPU temps dropped was NOT because of new thermal compound, but because when I booted up, the system was running at half speed (1.5ghz). That is why the temps dropped. Obviously, my first thought was that maybe the Intel cpu slowed down because of excess heat, but how could that be since it was off for a while, as I cleaned the cpu and heatsink to re-apply the thermal compound(the cpu was not hot to the touch). However, if I leave the system off for an hour before booting, it then will boot to the correct cpu speed and runs all day long at 60 degrees Celsius at idle, (it use to idle at 34 to 40 degrees Celsius) but doesn't seem to rise that much further, under load! I even did this with the case opened. Placing a small house fan toward the cpu and motherboard only drops the temps a little.
I though that maybe it is just a bad cpu sensor, but running some real world test confirms that the speed is significantly slower when it boots at 1.5 instead of 3.0ghz. I thought that maybe it is the cpu fan, but it seems to be running at approx. 2400 rpms constantly. I assume that is the correct speed for proper cooling.
Do any of you really think that it could be nothing more than a bad battery???? Has anyone seen anything from Asus or Intel related to this crazy speed thing?
I could understand it better if the cpu dropped in speed when it was hot, but since it seems to drop in speed when you boot up sometimes, that kind of shoots that theory.
I'm starting to loose it...anyone seen this before?