overheating

[stuperhero]

i recently been having heating problems that cause my system to crash completely, meaning it wont even post unless i remove the processor and reinstall it. even at stock speeds it will overheat just doing simple tasks.
here are the specs:
p4 2.53 533 mgz processor
asus p4pe mb
1 gig corsair 3200 memory
i have two 120 mm case fans and the stock heatsink and fan on the cpu.
i tryed to turn down the core volts and its on the lowest setting 1.5v and i even underclocked it to 2.44 but the same thing happens.
system ran fine now for 2 years and all of a sudden now it heats up and crashes. any ideas why ?

[stuperhero]

oh and the idle temp is around 44c for the cpu
under load it shoots up to high 50's c wich make it crash.

[bryan_d]

Should probably asked in the cooling sections,

But to help, have you looked at the state of your other components besides the CPU? I know my families computers will crash when I haven't tended to them in months (cats and thick carpet) The whole darn things gets so dusty the computer can't breath. If I were you I would check the dust inside your power supply.

Did you use thermal paste for each install of your HSF?

Temps at or around 50c should cause hangups or crashes judging from cpu tolerances... you should do a test of each component as best as you can. Single out RAM/HD/GPU/etc.

Good luck and post back,

bryan d

[stuperhero]

yea it was kinda dirty and i cleaned everything out. i used arctic silver 5 after reinstalling the hs and fan. i think the cpu is just on its last leg.
i took every thing apart and posted with only mb ram and video card and it still had a temp of 47 ish. in the past it would only be that high under full load like playing battlefield 2142. now if i try to play that the temp goes to 60 and the pc dies. i am pretty sure the mb shuts it down when the cpu temp hits 60c