Hi there, just as the hot weather arrived, I started getting problems with my computer freezing up. It's mainly during games. Obviously the first thought is overheating. Here's my spec:

AMD Athlon 64 2.45Ghz
1GB Corsair RAM
2 x 150MB Maxtor HDD
KV8PRO mobo
AX800PRO (asus/ati) gfx card (latest driver).

At first I thought it was simply the graphics card overheating, so to test this I bought a desk fan and just pointed it right at the card whilst playing games, and sure enough the problem stopped (for a while).

It's back now though. This morning I bought another 120mm fan for inside and superglued it to an empty PCI slot so its pointing at the gfx card. Also bought one of those extractor fans to expel the warm air.

This worked for a while, but the problem persists. Temperatures are currently:

CPU: 36 deg c
GFX: 49
SYS: 39
HDD1: 58
HDD2: 58

Firstly, are the HDD temps too high? Whats the norm for these.

If I'm honest the whole case if quite dusty, I'll clean it out if it'll make any difference. (I'm too lazy too otherwise!). Also I've read that reseating the heatsink and applying more thermal paste can help, but with the CPU temp @ 36 deg, will it be worth it?

So, basically I'm stumped! Any advice appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Alex.

Hi and welcome to D-A-L

all the dust will not help much, have you got the sides on the case the case is designed to direct airflow over the motherboard

Hi there, no the side has been left off ever since the problem started.

I've given all the components a good clean, but the problem persists?

FYI : it was my 450W PSU causing the problem.

is all working oK now?