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I have an Intel NUC 7* (NUC7i5BNH). Approx 1 year old.

Running watch sensors on Linux shows an operating temperature of 95 °C.
Windows shows 99 °C.

Many stalling issues, including: cannot play 4k video in YouTube, but 4k videos in VLC work fine.

After opening the NUC, inside the case looks perfectly clean – zero sign of dust.

Why is it overheating?
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* Unlocked | (Newegg.com) says:

…  NUC is Intel’s designation for their ultra-small self-contained personal computers.  The acronym NUC stands for Next Unit of Computing, which perhaps purveys the idea that in the near future, home computers could become this small as a matter of standard. …

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  • I'm using exactly the same NUC as you are using. It seems 4k videos play well here. I'm using Arch Linux.
    – Qian Chen
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 5:44

5 Answers 5

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There is a non-obvious trap with the Intel NUC's, upon inspection the internals can look perfectly clean and dust-free...

However, there is a spot between the cooling fan and the cooling fins, where dust gets trapped and causes overheating. Unusually, this is not possible to see upon a normal inspection, even if you remove the motherboard from the chassis.

Solution:

  1. Open the NUC, via the 4 screws at the bottom.
  2. Remove ram/ssd, and all plugged wires - take a photo first so you know where to plug the wires back in later.
  3. Carefully remove the mother board from the chassis - There are two screws holding the motherboard in on the NUC7.
  4. On the back side of the motherboard, you will find the cooling fan and cooling fins/air intake. (these may look perfectly clean)
  5. Unscrew the two screws holding the fan in, and remove the fan.
  6. You may find a big clump of dust inside - blow out the cooling fins and the fan with a can of compressed air - (perhaps available at your local dollar store).

Credit to Stokanator: https://communities.intel.com/message/570261#570261

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  • Appreciated. However, cleaning the NUC7 as described is not recommended for unexperienced tinkerers.
    – wp78de
    Commented Jan 13, 2019 at 3:11
  • I just tried removing the motherboard of my NUC7i5BNK (BNK, not BNH) but found it very nerve wrecking since the board is rammed in so tight. Gave up after I got it a bit out and had a hell of a time getting the board back in. Is there any video or description that explains it step by step?
    – Tom
    Commented Mar 18, 2019 at 16:02
  • This really helped! However, I skipped step 2, which wasn't necessary to remove the motherboard of my NUC, D53427RKE.
    – Per Quested Aronsson
    Commented Apr 19, 2019 at 18:38
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    I've created a visual guide for this in the iFixIt website: ifixit.com/Guide/Fix+NUC8i7BEH+overheating/131345
    – Vlax
    Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 18:42
  • youtube.com/watch?v=z4VQRN8nCpk&t=116s
    – marcolopes
    Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 11:26
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I tried the above suggestions and it only helped slightly and temporarily. Temp is still in 80C and will shutdowns down when it hits 100C for a period of time. I was about to give up until the fan started to make weird noise. I decided to take risk and buy a replacement fan (AVC BAAA0508R5H P002) for my NUC7 from AliExpress for $9 with low expectations. Given that it is coming from China, getting it in two weeks fast.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2255800747703860.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.21ef1802q7KyPQ

After swapping the old fan out, my average temperature has gone down from 80s to 40s. It is like when it was new. If you do not feel a lot of air flow when the fan is on, try replacing the fan and thank me later.

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  • Great time, thanks for taking the time!
    – Mtl Dev
    Commented Jun 30, 2022 at 15:27
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Thanks for the answer. I cannot post a picture but my NUC8i5 had fully blocking 2mm thick wall of dust in front of the entire copper exit. About 40 to 50 degrees less after removal, and no more crazy fan noise even at 5% CPU load.

Tip: I needed a youtube example to remove the motherboard, since the usb C connector is stuck below the metal of the case and you need to pull at the case (be gentle with the motherboard).

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    Link to the youtube example? Please edit your answer and include any extra info
    – Greenonline
    Commented Dec 10, 2021 at 22:38
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Recently my NUC 7i5BNK shut down due to overheating when playing games such as HOI4 or Starcraft2, which it did not before.

Two attempts of removing the motherboard failed (it's stuck in there so tight) that I simply opened a support ticket with Intel to resolve the matter.

They adviced to tinker around with BIOS settings and clean the device from the outside with compressed air.

Especially the latter seems to have done the trick for me, quite a dust cloud came out of the device and since then I haven't had problems anymore. Its intersting to notice that the core temperatur is now around 40 degree when doing trivial stuff with the device while it was 50+ before.

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    True, one should keep their components clean and dust-free, but OP specified zero dust, so I'm not sure this is a very helpful suggestion in this case.
    – Alex M
    Commented Mar 29, 2019 at 16:46
  • Depends on what part of the system was actually opened. I am sure this is a very helpful suggestion for all those people that do not dare or simply cannot remove the motherboard
    – Tom
    Commented Apr 3, 2019 at 9:58
  • To be fair, yes mine had zero visible dust inside or outside. But it turns out there was plenty of "fluff" collected & caught inside on the sharp edges of the cooling fins. I'd call this a design fault. So yes a can of compressed air in the back would help dislodge the blockage - however, you would also be blowing most of that dust into the NUC...
    – Mtl Dev
    Commented May 1, 2019 at 15:33
  • youtube.com/watch?v=z4VQRN8nCpk&t=116s
    – marcolopes
    Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 11:26
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Having had trouble with my NUC overheating for ages when it was busy. Had it apart numerous times, ended up hanging it out of a window yesterday as it was windy; so it would cool enough to be useable.

Followed the hair-dryer method and blew hard in the exhaust vent; so much muck came out. I then got a vacuum cleaner over the fan so it was spinning in reverse and blew again and again.

NUC now silent under load, previously sounded like I was in a server room! running cool now, hasn't been like this for ages. So much so, I can leave it switched on!

Rear vent NUC skull canyon

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