I would start by opening the case and see if the fans are working and get all the dust out.

You can probably see the temps in the BIOS setup screen, press DEL on start up. It is often under POWER > Hardware monitor.

Rob

PC has been on for about 2 hours now and the temps are remaining steady at

40C - CPU
36C - SYS

Fans are all working. Cleaned out the dust when I swapped out the power supply a few weeks ago.

The next thing you could do is turning overclocking of (in the BIOS).
Setting memory to longer CAS latency my also help.
What memory are you using?

Taking the memory out and putting it back in sometimes solve bad connection problems.

If you have two strips of memory leave one out for testing.

Rob

PC has been on for about 5-6 hours now. Temps have not changed at all. Are they accurate?

The PC has just shut down 3 times in the last 10 min. It might be my imagination but it seems to shut down more when I have more apps open and it's under 'load'.

I am not very familiar with AMD CPUs, but I assume that they have some sort of power control. They'll take more power and produce more heat when under a higher load. Old CPUs didn't do this, but then again, they didn't take much power or produce much heat by comparison.

Check the heat-sink temperature with an IR thermometer. Check again for dust buildup. Ensure that your fan is running at the correct speed. If the motherboard is lying about the CPU temperature, it may not be running the fan fast enough.

There are programs for testing pc's.

I think Bitpro has a free evaluation version.
Loading more programs does not necessarily mean more load on the processor. Memory and disk access will be higher.

Rob

seems to be a degrading issue.

It was fine most of the day. I had one shut down during the reinstall and then it was OK for a while. Last night I had a several shut downs and now it will not get past the windows splash screen where the little blue bar is. It's been off all night so it's not a heat issue.

Seems like a software issue but how does the same thing happen twice in a row? This is the second install. The only difference is the spot in which it gets stuck and now it freezes instead of shuts down.

I'm going start taking out peripherals when I get back. I assume the HD is OK because if it was not, nothing would load? I had no issues loading on XP either time. I'll pull memory, vid card and ethernet card.

The mother board and CPU are under warranty till he 21st so I need to pull the trigger before then.

You may have a BIOS problem.
- Switch of power supply
- Remove battery
- Put a jumper on CLRTC
- Put the jumper back
- Reinstall the battery
- Turn power supply back on
- On power up load BIOS defaults

This sometimes helps

Rob

How do I load Bios defaults? Will I have to reinstall the OS? The CLRTC ring a bell but can you refresh my memory?

CLRTC is usually a jumper on the board, look in your manual where is is (and how to use it).

Do not forget to turn the power supply off and remove the battery, also press the power button on the PC to make sure there is not charge left.

If the BIOS is cleared he BIOS screen will appear when rebooting, otherwise press the DEL key.

Load defaults will be under EXIT > Load setup Defaults.

No need to reinstall OS

Rob

The manual refers to a CLR_CMOS

Is this the same thing?

Manual says nothing about removing the battery. How does the Cmos get cleared if there is no power?

Cmos reset did not work. I did see the Cmos error-defaults reset - hot F1 to cont. so the process worked but did not fix the problem.

I'l take out a stick of mem and the cards tonight. I have to go to work now.

Thanks for your help Rob.

The idea is that the CMOS is cleared by taking the power of it, is the pc is shut down it is still powered by the battery.

If the BIOS is reset it should be OK

Rob

I successfully reset the Cmos but it did not fix the problem.

I thought I had two sticks of memory but only have one. I'm going to see if I can get the memory tested to see if maybe that is the problem.