Computer Over Heating or CPU Spike?

michaelareyes

New Member
Starting several months ago my computer, which until then ran flawlessly, began to freeze upon playing video games (World of Warcraft) and watching videos for a little bit of time. More specifically, the screen would freeze and any sound playing would glitch and repeat even if the program was closed, but the mouse could still move. It is still doing this.

I have checked for spyware with multiple programs (Malwarebytes and Spybot), and checked for virues with multiple programs, all saying my computer is perfectly clean.

I checked my hard drive to find out that I didnt have much space left so I cleared out uneeded and unused objects and reduced it to a 60% free, 40% used ratio.

I updated ALL of my drivers and am currently running the latest service pack from Microsoft.

I have opened up the computer and cleaned out any dust the best I could without a compressed air can, all fans appear to be working just as the day I bought it.

My computer: Dell Dimension E520
Microsoft XP Media Center Edition
Service Pack 3
144GB Hard Drive
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
2GB of Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE Graphics Card
SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC Sound Card
(According to SpeedFan) My Computer is currently running at GPU: 48C, HD0: 38C, Core: 48C, Ambient: 0C (Temperature)

I am in desperate need and any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would be more than happy to provide more information if it is needed.
 
48C for your core (assuming it's the cpu, which i'm sure it is) isn't that bad. If you have any thermal paste, you can take of the heatsink, and clean the bottom with some rubbing alcohol, then reapply some thermal paste and reseat the heatsink. Do you know how high the temps get when it's being used thoroughly?
 
According to SpeedFan, when I just opened up World of Warcraft for a bit it read the temperatures as: 60C, I believe I've seen it get a tad bit hotter. If it isn't overheating are the other possible factors to consider?
 
In Speedfan, have you turned your fans down at all??
Make sure to have cleaned the heatsink well with the compressed air.
The thermal paste may have just shit out. How old is your system??
 
Easily two years old, perhaps more.

To be honest I am rather uneducated when it comes to computers, though i will attempt to do so.
 
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