overheating prob?

wondering if u could help (bit of advice)

Im running a athlon xp1700 with a gigabyte GA-7DX+

and ive got a good global win copper heatsink. (cost me £25) can go up to xp2000+

Well the problem is thats its overheating up to 50 - 60c. (idle)

and when i push it playing Q3 or what ever is crashes. says (program error)

^^ is that over heating?? or just a dodgey program error?


Cheers
Dave

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what kind of thermal paste do you use in between your core and hs? Are you ocing? what is your voltage? That seems very questionable to be idling that high on a 1700.

Remove your heatsink and clean off the hs and core with acetone and make sure that there is no residue from the old paste or from your cloth. Then apply a 2 mm bead of as3 on your heat sink and use an application tool(I use a 10 cm razor blade) to dab a little at a time onto the core while spreading it out evenly. Continue until the whole core is cover with an even layer about the thickness of a sheet of paper.

Then spread the rest of the as3 around the hs in the area where the core will seat and rub it in with a cloth until most of it is gone. This is to just fill in the small dents, bubbles, and scratches on you heat sink. This should do you well.

Definatley want to lower those temperatures wether thats the cause or not, add a good fan . try leaving the sides off then run quake, temps if it is ok with the sides off, then you can be sure its the temps.

A couple of weeks ago I had an experience with my cpu overheating just like yours. I was using a taisol approved by amd andit was running way to hot. I reapplied my artic silver and the temp droped by 2-3 c. I got my new hsf in yesterday and I'm idle between 32.5 and 35.5 c (thermaltake volcano 9)

Thermalright AX7 is about as good as it gets for air cool

A Swiftech MCX462 is also as good as the AX7 but is bolted to the motherboard and there is less risk of breaking the socket.

Yeah, the swifty is very good as well...it just depends on how much you want to spend