Windows 7: System very unstable, overheating NB a possible cause?

Windows 7 professional x64
OEM Version
Hardware 18 months old
Install 12 months old



AMD Athlon II X3 440 AM3
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3
Corsair 4GB DDR3 1066Mhz

Basically a continuation from this old thread: http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...-attached.html I've ignored the problem and used my laptop since then but I'm starting to need a more powerful rig.

I uninstalled everything that was recommended and RMA'd the CPU but I still have an unstable system and RAM errors from MemTest. I'm having less bluescreens (not done anything memory intensive yet) but programs are still crashing a lot

I was checking if my CPU heatsink was seated correctly and touched the NB heatsink and it was burning hot. Speedfan gives me a temp reading of 80C for one reading, which I assume is the NB.

NB voltage is still stock at 1.2v but I have changed the CPU heatsink. It has a fan that blows air directly out the back and not against the motherboard. I assume that would generate some additional heat for the chips, could this be a root cause for the instability and RAM issues?

I sent a message to Dave76 to continue where he left off with you on that linked thread.

thanks!

Just an update. I removed the NB heatsink, added some washers to the plastic pins so the springs are more compressed and applied some Artic Silver 5 to it. Speedfan still reports a temp of 80C immediately on startup so I assume it is a wrong reading.

Tried to do a fresh install of windows but got a bluescreen during installation. This happened a few times so I gave up. Maybe the installation CD is damaged, not sure. I will use the computer for a while and see if there is any improvement.

*edit

Firefox still sporadically crashes so guess that didn't help much. I'll see if I can find something RAM intensive later

What are the temperature readings given through the BIOS on startup?

I can check now, been running for a 15 minutes or so but my apartment is freezing just now so it should be okay

Edit:
Only 2 temperatures I see are System Temp: 37, CPU temp: 29 (don't think I swapped those numbers in my head)

Yeah in that case, I would say Speedfan is giving an erroneous reading.

downloading and installing 15 or so Windows Updates and just got a BSOD. Getting to the point where I am considering chucking the whole lot in the bin and starting again from scratch.

Just thinking, with my system spec, 4 sata2 HDD and 1 SSD, and minimal USB devices, is my PSU big enough?

What is your PSU rated at?

it's a Corsair 450W TX

The rest of my rig is listed in the "My systems Specs" tab

I see nothing to lead me to believe this is a PSU issue unless the PSU is failing. All your peripherals use between 200 and 250 Watts combined, and that's with a high estimate, so 450 Watts should be plenty.