Hi boys and girls, I have a problem with my Dad's computer (which is located in another country). He is not able to get into the WinXP startup option screen and already, the computer shuts down by itself. The computer shuts down very randomly when booting up (cannot get into Windows at all), so I asked him to check the temperature of the CPU in the bios. It turns out the CPU temperature are WAYYYY of the charts... 90C+ and increases in bios when my dad was giving me a reading over the phone. The temperature reaches up to 97C and the computer turns off by itself. As well, he told me the CPU fan speed is in the 3400+ rpm. I suspect this is a temperature reading error by the mobo. My dad told me this started happening 2 days after he has installed some program. Please let me know what I need to tell him. I am going to tell him to check the CPU fan physically and remove all dust visible around the CPU. Here are some of my other questions: -- What else can I do when all the dust is cleaned? -- Can a virus cause a temperature misreading and caused the CPU to shutdown automatically? -- If so, is there anything I can do to reverse the effect (other than formatting the computer). Thanks in advance guys, Don

"90C+ and increases in bios" if he is looking in the bios for the temps, nothing has been loaded yet. It is either a hardware problem, or a false reading. How did you tell him to clean out the dust? Did you mention to unplug it, take precautions against static and if possible use "canned air"? Have him verify the CPU fan is running and the heatsink/fan assembly is firmly attached. Verify the power supply fan and any other fans are spinning. Check for blocked vents.

And do it quick or you won't have a CPU to monitor. Asus K8V-X Athlon 64 2800+ ATI AIW 9800 Pro 512 PC3200 WD 80 GIG LG DVD-RW XP Home Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".

Thanks guys, It turned out that dust was a problem, and the fan above the CPU came loose. Thanks again, Don