Hello, my cpu failed prime95 badly. Intel Pentium 3 GHZ, 1MB RAM Since weeks I'm searching for the problem of my computer, not beeing an expert it takes it's own sweat time. My computer simply freezes, sometimes at booting sometimes after few hours of work. I'm sure by now it's not a virus, so I finaly looked out for a cpu test. It failed prime95 after a few minutes. No surprise, but what to do now? Is bios also an option? My computer is 2 years old. Is it possible to bring a cpu back to "normal"? Or what else can I do? To be honest, I still do not know it's the cpu who is creating the problems, I simply guessed and failed in the prime95 test. So I guess that's it isn't it? Thanks for some help and support

prime95 can be set to stress the CPU only, or to include RAM stress tests as well (obviously though, for the test to run it needs at least some RAM). typically (although not always), CPU functionality is all or nothing - either it works or you can't even boot to BIOS. Sometimes a CPU or motherboard will reset if temperatures get too high, to protect against damage. Have you had a look inside the case for dust? if it is really dusty, get a can of compressed air and spray the heck out of the inside of your case, especially around the CPU heat sink. The next thing to do is test your RAM. download memtest86 and install the app onto a floppy, then boot to it (if no floppy drive, i think there's also a way to do it from a USB or optical drive). Test every stick of RAM by itself. If any of your sticks fail, replace them (make sure to chose RAM that is known to be compatible with your current motherboard). if all your RAM passes testing, post back with as much info as you can find about your power supply, including manufacturer, wattage, number of 12v rails, and the amperage of the rails.

Thanks for that. I had the pc just for a (useless) service and they cleaned. I had 512 Ram and a 256 Ram, because I thought may be Ram is problem I replaced the 256 with a new 1MB sitck, so having 1.5 MB now. May be I just take the old one out and try with the 1MB new stick alone. I don't now this Memtest86 but I will check if I can get it. I will certainly look into this option and come back.

you probably mean GB, not MB, but if this issue started around the time when you installed a new RAM module, that would further implicate the new RAM as being the responsible culprit for your stability issues.