Hi Johnathan.
I've run prime95 before. Not as long as people have suggested because I was concerned about the temperature of the cpu. fanspeed said that it was up to 71C which sounded excessive to me. However, it didn't crash.
If someone can tell me what a normal temperature range for Athlon II 64 is, I can look into prime95 again.
Max temp for it is likely either 63 or 70C. Time to investigate some more cooling for your machine. Open the side of the case, clean out the dust, and then blow a fan inside while you work.
or at least not only temperature. I can "reliably" bsod the machine by running windows dvd creator with the temperature never getting beyond 60C.
Could it be the DVD drive causing the issue? Try removing it and see what happens,
Have you tried a clean install or repair install?
I opened the box up and got out the *big* fan and set it up blowing straight into it on high. Idle, the temperature dropped to 37C. Then comes the test: running windows dvd creator. The temperature peaked at about 52C, almost 10C less than without the fan, and it finished creating the dvd instead of bsoding, which it always did before.
Now I have to figure out:
1) is this a problem with the processor, or
2) I just need more cooling
If 2, then I need to figure out how to get the effect of a huge high-speed fan into my case.
controlling temperatures is rarely about big fans that sound like a jet engine and is actually about airflow
a fan at the front of your box is often useful to create pressure inside the box and a fan at the back of your box often gives good results, given that
you need to create clean air flowing in and out of the box across all the components and so that the pressure inside is just slightly higher than outside ......
a good quality fan on the CPU is essential and taking warm air away from the GPU is important ...........
If you need any help maybe take a pic of your box from the side so we can see your fans and let us know the make and model of your CPU cooler ?
N.B. on my current system I use an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro and this runs at a happy and quiet 40deg core temp rising only by 10deg when stressed , the noisiest fan on my system is on my power supply which is quiet
Just for completeness, I figured I'd make a final note.
The problem appears to be fixed. I took the machine in to a local store, and after a while, they agreed with me that it was over-heating. They replaced the goop between the cpu and its heat sink and that seems to have done it.
Thanks to all the helpful folks here who helped me get there.
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