For more info why I come to this question please check my question in the xp forum (heat, software or hardware problem?). 512 DDR 3d force4 mx440l onboard sound AC 97 alc650 motherboard: -1st: asus a7v8x -2nd (now): VIA km266 km2m combo -powersuplly: first 300 w, now 500 w -internet: verizon broadcom rj45 + cable modem My question: Bios and monitring tools tell me cpu temp is fine (45 to 50 while idle, 55 to 60 celcius while gaming online). But motherboard and heatsinks feel hot, teh entire case does. So could it be that either the reading of the temp is wrong and in reality teh cpu is a lot hotter?? Or is the cpu at the right temp but frying the motherboard (last one got fried for unknown reason, have a new one now and still have the same problem that comp crashes when reaching temp of 55 to 60). Can a bad cpu fry my motherboard?? Setting it from 133 mhz to 100 mhz dropped temp enough to stop it from crashing but why not run at 133 while my hardware supports it, right?? My cpu fan is running fine.

I'm running at 100 mhz now instead of 133, no crashes and heat stays around 40 while idle or intensive us. I'm starting to think that it might eb the motherboard. It should be able to run at 133, so why doesn't it without crashing?

Well first off those temps are not normal they are in fact quite high expecially when its getting up to 60 C when its not even overclocked. I would look into getting a new heatsink or add more case fans for proper ventilation.

Most CPU temp problem comes from improper heatsink installation when it is not overclocked. 1) Heatsink is not seated properly especially with AMD, which has a notch that goes toward the raised (stepped) socket. 2) Thermal compound is not applied correctly, either too much or not enough; and, or, missing the contact area on the CPU completely. A CPU is either dead or alive. I don't know what bad CPU means. If you drop the FSB from 133 down to 100 and the temp drops also, your CPU is okay and so is your motherboard. I'd check the heatsink installation.

Thank you all for replying so far. Real_Cool, I will have my friend check it out tomorrow. It could be that that is the problem since he had just put in the new motherboard last week. On the other hand it does not explain why I had these errors with the old motherboard before it fried. Or maybe that was software related and now with new motherboard and format it is heatsinkrelated. I will have it checked out and keep you informed. If anyone has some more ideas, please let me know.

Hi Farang, 1. Sofware does not cause heat related problems. Thats purely hardware. (thankfully...imagine if it were possible to write virus to burn a CPU :O ) 2. I have an AMD 2000+ on MSI KM266 KM2M combo board. That means my setup is exactly the same as yours. Right now am running winXP grabbing some music off a CD while typing this, and my CPU temp acc. to the PCAlert s/w (supplied by manufacturer) is ~ 47 C. Room temp = 24 C (the side cover of the cabinet is off) I have this strange 'problem': sometimes for no reason at all the idle temp varies from 37 C all the way upto abt 48 C (sometimes 50..phew!) !!. All this with the side cover off and a variation of room temp from abt 24 C to ~ 30 or 32 C.(max) I dont know if its normal for CPU temp to vary this non linearly wrt room temp. I try putting on the room fan to aid air circulation...but to no avail. 3. The temp you get from the BIOS are idle temps. Once the OS is up and running the CPU is still under some load....so the temp u get from PCAlert is not at ideal idle condition. One way of obtaining loaded temp from bios is to enable CPU heat warning to say 50 or 55 or whatever (upto 75 I guess) temp u want. Once the CPU reaches that temp, (like when playing games) the BIOS makes a siren noise and u can get a resonable estimate of the CPU temp when loaded. PS: After seeing my idle temp @ 45+ I decided to take a look at the heatsink and hence took it off and put it back. I scrapped off the thermal glue and not put any later. inspite of this I idle @ ~ 45 and stay below 55 when playing GTA Vice City. I dont know much of what I've said is useful to you, just my bits to this thread. Regards, Kailas. India.

Thanks you all for the help. You're never gonna believe this. After months of struggling with this problem it finally seems to be fixed. How I fixed it?? No idea. After switching the jumper to drop the fsb from 133 to 100, the temperuture was lower. My friend was coming over to check the heatsink so I switched it back to 133 and the temperauture was still low so we didn't do anything else to it. It's been running good since yesterday. Maybe the jumper wasn't set right or maybe the ram or video card. Funny thing is that all of a sudden my cpu fan runs at 4900 rpm instead of the 4600 rpm before and the fan of the powersupply seems to work better too al of a sudden. I know this sounds weird, but it seems like it fixed itself. I must have ghosts in the house, lol. Just to make sure I think I will put an extra case fan. Thanks all for the help, you were all very helpfull brainstorming on this.