Steaming hot CPU on older model XPS Gen 2 Full size tower

For starters this is not my computer or one of the computers used within my home... A woman I know that does my car insurance and gets me the best rates possible on a six month plan (with a little manipulation of paper works) asked that I look at it for her... At first it wouldn't do anything but after dusting and cleaning out the case as well as re-seating a few things I got it to boot to Windows but it began locking up and acting erratic so I downloaded a few programs to monitor temps, and found that the CPU runs at near 80C and above some times so I removed the heat sink, cleaned it thoroughly and when reinstalling I applied a bit of Arctic silver which got it down to around 75C but still too high and locks up after being on for about a handful of minutes... This heatsink is extremely hot to the touch... Any ideas ???


system specs:

Dell XPS Gen 2 Full tower PC
Windows XP Home
Intel Pentium 3.4 Ghz socket 478
2Gigs of ram (4X512)
Ati Radeon 9800 Pro GPU
120 Gig Sata HDD
Mobo: foxconn e210882
3 ide optical drives (1 dvd 2 CD/Rom)
3 80MM fans 2X back exhaust and 1X front intake
Sound audigy sound blaster card

I'm including images of the heat-sink and the tower... does anyone know if these came stock with 3.4 Ghz processors because I'm thinking someone may have tried to upgrade it but didn't also upgrade the heat-sink from stock in order to accomodate the added heat the new cpu would be pushing

The model of heat sink doesn't have a fan... I put the proper amount of thermal compound, it was hot before I changed it and reduced slightly after but still too hot

DirtyElf said:

no fan on the heatsink for the CPU, i know some are designed that way but it never seemed like a good idea to me? are the case fans functioning properly and adequate?

Dell Dimension XPS Gen 2 System Specs (Service Manual) -

it looks like the XPS gen 2 game with a p4 3.2ghz processor

Thanks for the link... that is the proper one... I couldn't find it myself, guess I wasn't trying hard enough ; )

Weird! Seemed as though all the fans may have been facing the wrong direction... after turning the back fans into two intake rather then exhaust and turning the front lower cabin fan into exhaust rather then intake, I was able to get the temps down into functioning parameters...