Hi

It was a fairly hot day and My machine was runnings as normal when a
BSOD appeared, forcing a system freeze. But the normal attempts at
rebooting, ie: choosing safe mode, booting from a floppy with & without
cd support. Could not get it going, it would hang just after Identifying
the drives (all present and correct).
Because of the lack of a boot from floppy I suspected a hardware problem
and left it to cool down for a  1/2 Hour. Then it booted properly I shut
it down again and let it cool for hours.  Some time later I rebooted and
played a fairly basic game for half an hour when the same problem
occoured!
I took the cover off and the heat sink on the chip was VERY hot to the
touch, I could just keep my fingers on it.
I have since removed the heatsink and cleaned the sink and fan and re
attached it using heat transfer compound.  I have been runnng it with
several applications in the last hour or so and it is cool to warm to
the touch.
My questions are:

a/    Is it likely that my chip has been damaged?  Does it have a
thermal cutout or has it just temporariliy failed?
b/    Is a fairly light layer of dust on the heatsink likely to be the
only cause of this overheating? (seems unlikely to me)
c/    If the CPU fan is running underspeed  How do I know ?(other than
an overheating chip)
d/    The CPU fan is only 8 mths old, If it is the problem as I suspect,
where do I get a decent one, and how do I know? (they all look the same)

e/    What other likely causes for this problem? (until I felt the
temprature of the CPU, I was suspecting the power supply or mainboard,
or chip)

The CPU is an AMD K6-2 400 Overclocked to 450 (The system has been
stable for the last 8 mths)
96meg ram,
asus sp97v mainboard
Running win98

Thanks
Any suggestions would be apreciated
Leigh Jennings [log in to unmask]

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