Computer Overheating

The sensors on many mobos are innacurate and are mainly a reference point.

Mine regularly hits 65 in summer.

Most likely it has suffered a rather catastrophic event (in cooling terms).

In order of likeliness:

1) Someone/thing has clouted it and something isn't mating with its dispersal item fully

**btw what sensor reading are we on about**

2) the Arctic Silver thermal paste found in a drawer really was toothpaste and its limitations
  as a thermal interface are now showing

3) The thousands of cubic yards of House dust that it's being feverishly filtering through its
 cupric vanes are now giving it a heart attack (you do clean it regular yeh?)

4) Something near has moved - cats love snuggling/obstructing warm air flows.
  And a magazine down the side of a chair can suddenly suddenly choke a cooling system in a poor position

5) The CPU/mobo <see ** above> is actually malfunctioning or  the victim of an evil PSU

6) Network stuff hardly taxes a CPU like yours. In fact most CPU's tend to try andkeep themselves maxed out anyhow.

7) I assume you've had a bit of a feel about - Moving parts that dont feel like moving anymore can create a hell of a lot
of heat and in intermittent bursts as bearing dont and friction does.

MSI K7N2-Delta ILSR Ultra400 motherboard    OK

AMD Athlon 2600+ CPU (not overclocked)         OK

Thermaltake Volcano 10 heatsink/fan               did you fit it? if not check the paste- wiggle it when you fit it - seriously

Crucial 512MB DDR400 memory                         OK Ihad a stick that started playing up and I actually burnt mesen removing it

WD 400JB harddrive                                           OK U could fan this area - increases disc life... 400 JediBytes?

Geforce2 GTS 64MB Video Card                          Oh bless :-)   I gorra GF4TI4600 and the stupidly mounted fan jammed last                                                                      week   (300bloody quid a year ago) AGP ports need sorting out

Asus CDRW 48x24x52                                        I've jst gone mad.... what are the 3 speeds?? Read, Write, and??? That's me off                                                                        to bed
1 Vantec exhaust fan
1 Vantec intake fan

Hippy: >>Asus CDRW 48x24x52   is 48x Write, 24x ReWrite and 52x Read.

MikeC03:  does it still do this, or was this a one-time thing?

And can you tell me, for reference, both the 'normal' cpu temps and what it spiked to when you say it went over 50 degrees, and what program you were using to monitor the temp?

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20731579.html

cheers alberta - once again - 1st post 4 months and there ya are

I'm everywhere, lol.

mrsmith,
  The temperature readings I am getting are coming from the motherboard readings.  And I did in fact flash the bios last week.  Perhaps that is it.  What type of temperature should I be getting under a normal load (as well as under a max load) with the components I've listed - anyone's best guess?

Thanks,
Mike

Also, could it have anything to do with having a bad power supply?

I don't think you have a problem with heat, you are just seeing higher temps after the flash than you are used to seeing. A power supply can make or break a good computer!!! Check out these links from Tom's Hardware.
http://www4.tomshardware.com/howto/20030609/index.html
http://www4.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html

Good Luck, Jerry

Just an FYI, I agree that the issues most have come from the bios flash.

It's a known fact that certain bios versions read the temp. probe differently than others.  Most of the problems I've seen personally with incorrect heat readings in the bios are from MSI (like yours) and Asus; most specifically the issue is usually with nVidia nForce 2 and nForce 2 Ultra 400 chipsets (again, like yours).

MiceC03:  I run with my cpu (1800+) o/c to 2600+ with one intake and one exhaust case fan, and the stock AMD retail box fan.  I'm on an nForce2 Ultra400 chipset board (Leadtek) as well.  My system has 2x 40GB 7200rpm drives, 1 DVD Drive, 1 CDRW and an ATI Radeon 9600Pro.

With these installed in mine I regulary operate around 45-46C, and gaming is around 49C.  Your stats should be similar.

I certainly wouldn't worry about 50C, or even 55C in your situation.  Make sure your thermal shutdown is set around 65C to be safe, though.

Booger! No one mentioned a BIOS flash..... WD

Hippy:  eh?   Sure, MrSmith asked if he had updated his bios, and MikeC03: said he had . . .