Just finished performing open processor surgery on my PC and it is a resounding sucess. Woohoo!

The computer had been giving me grief for a few months especially through the summer months with random shutdowns. I installed some monitoring software and it turned out that the CPU was reaching 89ºC within a few minutes and then it would creap up to about 93ºC before the motherboard killed all power, effectively shutting down the PC.

I opened up the case to measure the space around the heatsink, intending to get a more powerful cooling solution, no need it would appear. The heatsink was caked in dust, and I mean literally. It took serious scrubbing with a stiff brush to even start clearing it away. Ditto the CPU fan.

Well, now that I have cleaned the heatsink and fan (they look almost like new) the CPU is holding steady at about 61ºC and the fan is spinning about 1100rpm faster and making less noise to boot :)

Moral:

Clean the inside of your computer at least once a year. I'm not talking about sticking a hoover in there for a minute either (I do that at least twice a year). I mean take it apart, clean each component and then put it back together again.