overheating issue

[mtpollux]

okay, i have a moderate level of knowledge in this area, but this one is stumping me. i've had a few overheating problems in the past (my system didn't like all the heat from the second hard drive i added), and by removing heat sources and adding a bigger fan i've been able to solve them. but this is different. my computer will overheat (by this i mean that the intel active monitoring software that came with the motherboard pops up a warning that temps are outside of safe threshhold) on a semi-regular basis, but only when my 4-year old and 2-year old sons are using it. all they use it for is playing games, either online (pbskids.com and nickjr.com) or on cd. i have windows xp pro, and they have their own account set up. my first thought was that the particular games they played were causing the video card to overheat. as far as the game which runs off a cd goes, i thought it might have something to do with the fact that the cd is spinning so frequently while the game is playing. i had had some problems with overheating when playing a cd-based game in my account before i put in the bigger fan, but not since then (although the kid's game still causes overheating even with the new fan). the only explanation i can think of for the online games is that they are both websites that use a lot of javascript. i thought i had heard something in the past about javascript leading to heating problems, but i haven't been able to find any references to that recently.

sorry for the wordy post, but i wanted to make sure i described the problem sufficiently. does anyone have any wisdom to offer?

my specs are as follows:
p4 3.0ghz hyperthreading processor
intel motherboard D865GBF. the board has built-in temperature sensors and monitoring software.
running win xp pro sp2
web browser is firefox (version 1.5)
1 gig ram (2 512 chips)
120 gb maxtor hard drive
right now my system has been on for 1.5 hours, and is running a cpu temp of 110F (also has "system zone 1" at 95F and "system zone 2" at 100F. not sure what part of the motherboard each of those refers to). the temp alarms will go off when the processor reaches 154F (or when system zone 1 or 2 reaches 122F).

thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[King X13]

did you check your voltage of your CPU, Memory, GPU and so on ? you could have a sh*ty power supply and it could be spiking the current. i mean my p4 is oced with stock fan and runs at about 145-150 on full load and my voltages are raised .05 on each i mentiond. so i would try lowering the voltage. personally Intel boards arent that good so it could even be something faulty on the boards ex. sensors. if all else fails get a better fan and a better heat sink for your cpu cuz maybe its just running hot cuz of the air in the house.

 

[mtpollux]

i'm not disputing the validity of your advice, but that doesn't explain why it only (well 95% of the time) happens when the kids are using the computer. i've watched, and they're not getting into anything they shouldn't, just using their games in the intended fashion. i sometimes will have many things going on at once (virus scan, email, mulitple browser windows, etc.) and i very rarely get any temp. warnings.

in response to your questions king x13, my original power supply got very flaky about a year ago, so i replaced it with an Ultra 600w which seems to be running fine. the intel active monitoring software also monitors power supply and cpu voltages, and there has been no problem since installing the new power supply.

 

[SHAWN]

Make sure your heat sink is installed properly. Also, did you install any thermal paste when you installed the new heatsink? You may want to use Artic Silver 5. If your processor is under warranty consider setting up an RMA as the prescott cores are known for their heat.