The review team over at 01net have spotted something wrong with their ZOTAC ZBOX CI540. The fan-less design compact desktop was running its dual core i5-4210Y CPU at 80 celcius in an idle state, which is obviously ridiculously hot for a CPU running at idle.

While investigating the cause, the review team opened up the Zotac ZBOX to find that the protective plastic film on the CPU thermal pad had been left in place, preventing the CPU cooler from making contact with the CPU and causing the system to over heat. This is a real rookie mistake and we imagine someone will be getting frowned at pretty hard by their line manager in the Zotac factory.

Of course the temperatures dropped back to normal with the plastic removed, but don’t be so quick to open your ZBOX and check this yourself, because doing so will void your warranty, doh! Hopefully this is a one-off problem, but it is certainly something to keep in mind if you’re experiencing similar issues.

Thank you TechPowerUp for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of TechPowerUp.