hello everyone, Im a newbie to this site although not to techonology. I'll be visiting to learn, ask, and, hopefully, provide som eanswers and advice. Today, however, I am here with a little problem of my own.

I have a Dell Optiplex GX240 with XP SP2, 2.4 Ghz Celeron, 512 MB SDRAM PC133. The [used]PC came with a 1.7 P4 but I put a [used] Celeron in there from a clients PC iw as working on where the damages were not worth the repair. One of the damages were to the MOBO. So I called myself beign able to cheaply upgrade using teh 2.4 that was availalable. For a few months, however, I've been having problems with my PC freezing at random times. I tested the RAM with Memtest86 and it passed. I reinstalled XP adn still sticking. I am wondering if I have ot give up this CPu and get another?

I think there is a heat sink problem with your CPU. Though I'm not aware but I think celeron's dissipation power is higher than thatof Intel. if it is using a Northwood Core then it must be nearly 75W. Try to keep the cabinet open and work and see if the problem hits again. If so please use some heat conducting gel b/w Heat sink fan and the CPU surface. If all these doesn't solve your prob try rasing ur upper limit of CPU temp a bit. If this time again it happens then you please revert back to older settings and contact the vendor

THanks for the help. I acutally did switcch heat sinks when I put the new processor in. SInce the other was bigger than mine I put it in figuring it wouldneed more since it was faster and , therefore, would get hottter. And yes, when I installed it I first applied thermal gel. SO there are 2 thigns remaining: to raise the temp limit which I need help with because I've never done that or to revert back to the 1.7 which i was on the brink of diong.

By thye way if raise the upperlimit mean overclocking I tried that too. Dell's BIOS is on lock down. I cant make any changes. I even went to the website to see if I wasn missing something and it celarly states that it cann not be done.

No, it's not time to give up your cpu yet. There are factors to be considered to try before confirming your processor is not fit or not functioning very well with your current setup.

If you have a spare hard disk, try to attach it then install xp. Or get a diagnostic utility to test the status of your current hard drive from the hard disk manufacturer.

See to it there is no conflict between your hardware (driver issue). To clear this conflict, do a clean install and run your computer without installing any drivers yet and observe if the problem still persists. If not, install driver one at a time and observe again.

And y would that be overclocking
I just asked you to raise the upper limit for the temperature at which th BIOS would send a shutdown signal to the OS in case CPU gets heated. Overclocking would be to increase the FSB or Vcore Voltage of the CPU.

Please don't confuse both of them. And what fren said is an excellent suggestion. Just get a spare harddisk and a Neat installation. work for some 7-8 hrs with it and then come to any conclusion. Your CPU is still up and running man! Don't give up on it

It would also be interesting to know more about your system. Tell us the exact name of your MOBO if possible. And tell us how much W your PSU covers. With that info we'll be able to further assist you =)