Sometimes the simplest trick seems to do wonders
I had a PC overheating. Fans all working, blowing in the right direction. PSU fan output feels a bit weak but it's working. 933mhz pentium, running at about 75 to 85 degrees centigrade. I was all ready to conclude that some low level components had gone out and I was looking at mainboard and possibly CPU replacement.
Just to be sure I pulled the heatsink. Looked ok, was a smear of heatsink compund present. I thought I might as well give it a try so I recoated the CPU and heatsink with a light, even coat of new compound and resecured the heatsink. I did not reseat the CPU.
Now it's running at 29 to 32 degrees centigrade. I never would have suspected such a simple fix might result in a 50 degree difference in operating temperature. I did reseat the RAM, only because removing it made accessing the heatsink clasp much easier.
Thats all I did. The results are much greater than I would ever have suspected. Has anyone else seen this dramatic a difference in similar circumstances?