a week ago i came home to my system beeping away happily, as the cpu was idling on 72c... time for cleaning and some new thermal grease (old stuff was hard and crusty) replaced the grease and cleaned it out (lotsa dust... disgusting really) system is now has these temps: CPU Socket - 56c CPU diode - 50c case temp - 38c room temp - 35c sounds all good... but no... system is crashing whenever put under load... 2/5 bootups it doesnt make it to welcome screen, or if i play NFSU2 its crashed within 5 minutes, which suggests to me a temp prob but the temp is lower than before any suggestions on whats causing this and what i could try to do to fix it?

IT's running to hott. 56c on idle is way to much. You have to cool the room. 35c is way too much. 95F, no unexceptable for a computer. You have too find a way to cool the room like 10c to 20c to 25c How do u have your fans setup. You can be amused by the simplest of things. The smartest people in the world, over-look the smallest objects. War does not determine who is right, only who is left.

its always run that hot in summer I got a thermaltake Xaser III case, 2 intake at the front, 1 intake on side, 2 exhaust at rear, 1 exhaust on top, PSU has 2 working as exhaust room temp cannot be lowered for less than $1000... it'd be cheaper to set up water cooling but im not confident in my skills to set it up... update on problem - just booted up and had a high pitch beep... looking through book that means CPU temp is too high but its only reading 53c in socket 49c on diode... before i put new paste on it was running at 65c diode and socket i had a probe under the CPU before but it doesnt work anymore, not sure why... it always claimed the temp was 8c above what MBM5 tells me. but now think of this... when it was running at 72c idle IT WAS STABLE... now that its running 53c its unstable... mobo not reading the temp properly?

I gotta figure you have overlooked something in your reassembling the cpu cooler. My best suggestion would be to pull the cooler/fan assembly off, clean things off, regoop it, and reassemble, being sure it goes the right way around. It's always the basic things that we goof up.

The fans in the rear should be taking air into the case, and should always be in the shade. The one on the side should be takng air out of the case. If the case is open in the front, then the fans there should be taking air out, if it is closef then they should be blowing into the case. You can be amused by the simplest of things. The smartest people in the world, over-look the smallest objects. War does not determine who is right, only who is left.

"The fans in the rear should be taking air into the case,......in the front, the fans there should be taking air out". Cold air is denser and therefore heavier than warm air, so lighter, warmer air naturally tends to rise above cold air. With that in mind you want your rear fan installed as an exhaust fan and the front as intake contrary to the advice above. -- Always do what you are afraid to do --

intake should always be in the shade, even if its just below the PSU which is pumping out hot air for the fans to drag back in? i dunno what i could have overlooked... i cant have put the fan on upside down, it was solid to the heatsink... thermal grease was there...the fan was running at sufficent speed... *shrug* all too late now though, the CPU is crispy... waiting for a replacement... i've resorted to using mums comp to post this... not that it can be called a computer really... 400mhz iMac >_<