PC Auto restarts · DIGIT-ARC

I have started noticing occasional automatic restarts (as if Reset button is pressed) After 2 – 3 hours of operation.
I have been observing that my CPU is now getting hotter than what it would be in the past. I am wondering what would be causing it as I have not made any changes in my system H/W or S/W or the processing load/duration etc for past several months, plus this is winter time now.

The hardware utility or BIOS shows around 40 Deg C but I am skeptical about it.
The heat is mildly felt even if I open the cabinet door. This was not the case before.

My config… it’s quite old but has worked well for past 4 years!
AMD Athlon XP 2000, Biostar M7NCG 400, 512 MB, 300 W SMPS, NVidia 6200 AGP card, 80 GB HDD, one DVD RW, XP SP2, one additional fan in the cabinet. All fans CPU, Cabinet + SMPS are operational.
The only change I notice is that CPU fan is now making more noise that before. This is old system and as such there's no facility to control / vary fan speed based on CPU temperature

The auto restart issue is only noticed after 2 – 3 hours of continuous operation. Hence for the time being I am assuming it could be due to CPU or such heating.
Any suggestions would be great.
Thx.

Most probably the thermal paste on the processor has lost its thermal properties.

where do i get the Thermal paste?

R

also check the heatsink and see if it is clogged with dust and dirt..also check if the fan is spinning fast enough..you could also try oiling it or get a new one..

You get thermal paste in any pc shop. They cost as low as 20-30 bucks to good quality thermal paste like artic mx-2 for 300 bucks. Make you put it as little as you can- but not that little. The chips inside the proccy is exposed unlike the ones we get now so follow the instructions here:
*www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_singlecore_expsd.pdf

Thanks for your help and advice..so I decided to clean my PC today and I could notice unimaginable amount of dust accumulation on the CPU heatsink. Though I have cleaned my PC several times…so far I never touched the heatsink…This time I removed the fan on top of it to clean it from inside and see the attached picture..this is what the heatsink fins were holding in it after 4 years!!

The next pic is after cleaning the fins!!

Ahh good. Did you check the temps after cleaning the fans. If it improved drastically then you dont need to change thermal paste.

As such the temp is still around 40 Deg C but I guess the heat dissipation should now be relatively better after removing heap of dust from the heatsink.
Will now keep it to test for a few days and see if there are any more restarts.
Thanks