Unique hard crash; unknown cause

[Montyphy]

You could always just underclock you processor

[dasmoose]

Hi guys - touch wood but the indications are that the problem is solved.

I followed fred's suggestion of using a fan with the side of the case off - used a temperature monitor, the highest was about 83 degrees. I was able to complete the generator level, which took aproximately 20-30 minutes. This is far longer than the normal time before crash. I then turned the fan off, and started the Yard level. The temperature started climbing gradually, about 30 seconds after it hit 95 degrees the freeze happened.

I'm gonna buy me a big-ass heatsink and fan.

[Montyphy]

I heard you the first time

[trickfred]

Built-in motherboard sensor (A7V600-X). Easier. No muss, no fuss. Very Happy

Ah, my case has 3 temp probes, 1 to be placed near the CPU, 1 near the HDDs and one for the PSU. Has a LED read out on the front.

Although, I'm certain I have an onboard sensor since I remember seeing temp readings in the BIOS. I would rather be able to know the temp without restarting.

CPU sensor, and motherboard sensor (for case ambient/board temp) are built in, and Asus has a little probe program I keep running in my tray to monitor those temps, plus fan speeds, the rails/vcore/etc from my PSU, etc... it's great. No rebooting!

Athlon XP 3000+ (Works plenty fine for me, I'll upgrade next year, or whenever there's better 64 bit driver support)

Heh, I upgraded from an Athlon XP 1800+. For some reason its decided to hog the CPU when copying or moving files so it grinds to an halt.

As for 64-bit driver support. That looks a long way off. I think I'm going to have to uninstall WinXP x64 from the thing since I'm finding it hard to get anything working on it.

The wife's is a 2200+, which was mine before the 3000+. The pecking order goes: I buy a new motherboard/chip/ram every 18-24 months, along with vid card, and whatever else looks shiny; the wife's system gets upgraded from the best of my 'leftover' pile, I keep one full set of the next best parts in case I need a spare system (which might soon become a Tivo/Myth box-type setup, or a comp for Little Boy Blue), and the rest get patched into the in-law's computers (Not that they need them; they still play Diablo... One. )

New MB/chip last summer, this summer was just ram and upgrades, and a 19" lcd. I have another car seat to buy, can't be giving AMD all my money.

Hi guys - touch wood but the indications are that the problem is solved.

I'm gonna buy me a big-ass heatsink and fan.

That's how it starts... soon you'll have LED fans, UV tubes, water cooling, and an electric starter on your keychain.

I ALMOST bought a water cooling kit (Thermaltake's BigWater SE), but then I wouldn't have the budget for the widescreen lcd, or the video card/ram/portable HD for the wife's birthday presents. It's a pretty green colour though, almost Darwinia clamshell-esque. Maybe next year with the new mobo.

(Edit: There must be an echo in here! )