so I've got a little problem with my computer. I'm at college and I left my desktop at home. i recently brought it back to school and started it up. It would start up and begin to load windows and then shut off. I cleaned the dust out of the case with a can of compressed air and even replaced some of the fans. I know that the CPU is overheating and causing the computer to crash. My question is how can i tell what needs to be replaced because i know that it can be a few things. Also i don't really know what information you guys need to determine what the problem is so if you could post what info i need to send i will do so.

Thanks

Try reapplying some thermal paste,Or maybe the cpu fan got disconnected.That would cause a regular PC like a HP or Dell to do just what yours is doing

tried both of this and i built my computer a few years ago

It could as also be bad ram.have you clered the CMOS and started over.Some setting might have got borked

yeah tried that too and i updated my bios

I would try another Power Supply.

Or at least remove all unnecessary hardware. Things like Soudn cards, NIC's, floppys, optical, all HDD's apart form your system drive.

Also all your fans, just the basics.

ill give that a try tomorrow its too late now. But is there anything i should look for when doing that?

Well, what are you current power supply's specifications?

Watts, Rails brand etc


When you re-wire it all with the new PSU, just dont wire it into itself

Have you done this before?

If not let us know and I can guide you through, or someone here can

I didn't try disconnecting all the other components yet because I don't have another psu and I don't have a car on campus to go get one. I booted up my computer today and after about 30 seconds of running this is what it was reading:

cpu: 70C
system temp: 25C
cpu fan: 2518RPM
chassis fan: 727RPM
VCore: 1.38V
VDimm: 2.76V
VBAT: 3.18

Without more data, it does look like a thermal coupling failure between the CPU and the heat sink assembly. Whether it's the paste, how it was applied, the age, how the heat-sink is installed, etc. I couldn't say.

However, latent ESD failures and power supply over-voltage or transients can cause chips to go into a thermal runaway state. The state can be temporary or permanent, and ultimately lead to catastrophic device failure.

maybe get a new cpu fan

yeah...i figured i was gonna have to do that. I just wanted to be sure it wasn't something else

I would first get new thermal paste, clean the old paste off with 100% alcohol, re apply new paste, re-seat old heat sink and fan and see what the temperature says,

And make sure the fan is blowing towards the CPU

eh...i tried new thermal paste last night hoping it would be an easy fix, but it didn't do the trick. It brought the temp down to 65C on startup, but thats still too high. I'm planning on building a new comp in the near future anyway so i think i might just go ahead and get a new heatsink/fan that will be compatible with both systems.

hey guys just thought i would let you all know that i just installed a new heatsink/fan and it is working great. my cpu is running at 30C and its going significantly faster than before!

Is it an AMD Socket A Processor?

Doesn't matter if it's a AM2 socketted CPU 70C is still high.
Check if your HS/Fan is properly mounted.

Gerritt

nah it a p4