hello there! i have questions about my computer and i hope that anyone out there would share their knowlegde and/or advice with me. my computer began to crash the begining of this 2004 summer. it first was maybe once a day, then 2, then 3, then 5, then 10, then it finally just started to crash whenever it wanted to as many times it wanted too. so, i read somewhere that maybe its because of your hardware and maybe the computer is hot and so on. so i checked my temperture and it was like 130F and i touched the back of the computer and it was hot! i touched the side where the cpu is and same thing. i opened it up and touched the cpu fan and boy!!!! i had to put ice on finger afterwards. so, now after all of this, my computer is unpredictable and i know that my HD is problibly out of wack now. so, if anyone of you guys are experiencing the same problem or have advice i would appreciate getting to know it. many thanks, Bruce Wow! that was so COOL!

There could be multiple reasons for the crash, it could be programs not working correctly. Memory errors or a trojan of some kind. Hardware is rarely the cause of a crashing computer. Usually when hardware crashes its probably a faulty piece. If you really believe it to be hardware... try buying some thermal cooling gel, wiping off the cheap gel, put it on your heat sink (the black/silver metallic object on top of the CPU that "SHOULD!" have a fan on it. And yes CPUs get hot enough taht you should not touch it directly.

Sounds to me like either your PSU fan or CPU fan isn't working as it should. This would cause your computer to act erratically and probably shut down or reboot. Most new mother boards have a feature that monitors the temperature and shuts down the computer if it gets to a dangerous level, to avoid damage to the mother board or CPU. Try running the computer with the case open and observe the fans. P4 2.8 HT 1024 Mb 333 RAM Geforce FX 5700 256 MyVivo

Well, here is what I have to say. Harware can cause major problems. If the computer was not "hot" to the touch before, and it is now, then that indicates something has gone wrong. I don't agree that hardware rarely causes problems. A single capacitor on the motherboard that is bad can cause serious problems. I think it coupld be your power supply. If you are experiencing many crashes and the computer is hot...you could be experiencing a power supply that is no longer stable..and is about ready to give out. I highly suggest that you either replace the power supply NOW or take it into a shop and have the power supply tested. Once a power supply starts to go bad, it can cause crashing, and overheat and even burn out the other components. If you smell any kind of burning smell, like electrical burning, you had better not turn your computer on at all, but consider you are about ready (if not already) have a melt down in progress. Here is another piece of advice in general, I do not keep the sides of my computer on my computers. I leave the chassis open. This keeps my computer at least 10 degrees lower in temperature. Even though I am using a top of the line heat sink and fan (I have a huge copper heat sink), you can still range in temperatures up to 120 - 140 F. I bought a cheap $5 desk fan with a clamp on it, and just clamped it to my chassis. I manually turn it on. It blows directly on the CPU Heat Sink and my AGP card. Doing this, dropped the temperature of my entire computer down by another 10 - 15 F. It also helps to keep my AGP card cooler as well as dispersing heat. Heat has a tendency to rise, and so if your CPU is located close to the power supply (which it seems to be on most motherboards these days), the heat dissipated by the heat sink sits in a pocket just below the power supply. This tends to heat up the power supply...and of course, if you didn't know it, power supplies are also thermally sensitive and the actual wattage of a power supply is directly affected by it's temperature. For example, a 450 Watt P/S rated at 20 C (78 F) will only pull about 380 Watts at 120 F. Of course, this all depends on the power supply and the power vrs temperature curve for the specific power supply in mind. Every power supply is different and has a different power vrs temperature curve. Many power supply manufacturer's try to keep this a big dark secret...they advertize "500 Watt Power Supply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!," but do not give you any information on the temperature vrs power curve. Some manufacturer's base their wattage output on very LOW LOW LOW temperatures (like around 60 or even 50 F!), and you aren't going to get this kind of operating temperature unless you are working in a refrigerator! Why I bring this up is that, even though you might have a sufficiently rated P/S, if you are HOT in the box, your power supply is putting out a lot less wattage...this causes the P/S to overwork to compensate. The capacitors in the P/S are then stressed out...causing them to wear out. Some P/S capacitors actually EXPLODE! I had one explode and it sounded like a gunshot went off in my computer room...that was the last time I ever owned a cheapo Taiwan power supply... Antec, Bubble and Enlight are what I use. Check this site out: http://www.pcpowercooling.com/home.htm Also, your CPU fan could be going out. Have you checked it out and looked at it run? If it is making any noise, it indicates a ball bearing is going out. You want a dual ball bearing fan for the CPU fan. They are easy to replace. The thermal grease the other guy is referring to is ARCTIC SILVER. It is 98% pure silver and has a higher thermal conductivity...it costs about $7 a tube. You will need something like this if you replace the CPU heat sink/fan. Hope this helps

Didn't read any of those essays ^_^, however, 130 deg is pretty hot for an Athlon - I've heard of Athlons crashing at 50 (don't feel like converting that to Farenheit, but 130F is about 54.4C; also, it depends on how hot the room is). I'd check the fan/heatsink, or, if they're still working and are properly seated, I'd consider buying a new one. AKhalifman@hotmail.com

this is probably very basic and you have no doubt already done it :) but its easily forgotten, check the holes where the fan draws air its surprising how dusty it gets, a friend of mine had a similar problem I opened up the comp, vacummed the clogged holes and hey presto all is fine again, just a thort. hth

thanks for the comments, i appreciate all of them, i will test everyone and respond within a couple of days. many thanks agian, bruce Wow! that was so COOL!