Thetownend.com

Had some thermal issues a while ago. Every time I reboot it says 'CPU over temperature error' and makes me hit F1. I can see then that the CPU is in the red, showing something like 203F/95C.

I've also been getting some video crashes and then Firefox and Chrome grind to a halt before eventually (and out of the blue) the pc turns itself off.

So, what do I do?

I've hoovered out all the dust from inside the PC. I'm now considering getting some more thermal compound to reattach the heatsink to the processor. I'd also considered buying a new £30 video card from PC world.

Do you have a big enough case?

Do this. And make sure the CPU fan is working and there's good airflow in the case.

Case is big enough.

I've just hoovered everything out and there is a dramatic improvement! It hasn't crashed in the last hour or so, when it was dying after a couple of minutes before. Surprised, as I didn't think there was *that much* dust inside.

It's dust in the heatsink which is the big killer. If your CPU fan looks like this, try and unclip it and blow as much dust as you can out of the heatsink fins. A can of compressed air is really handy for this.

(http://www.comtechcomputers.com/fan_s775.jpg)

That's the badger! Hoovered round it and gave it a big blow!

Is it worth running 'Core Temp' to see what the difference is now?

What processor is it?

Does your pc case have any fans in it?