High Temp or Hardware Problems with Freeze?

[Stachey]

I'm trying to figure out why my Windows 2000 machine freezes up. Not BSOD, rather a complete 'press the reboot button' freeze.

According to the readings from SpeedFan 4.27 my temp readings are:
ambient temp (reported as Temp 1) in the computer box 35C. The HD's are at 38C & 40C. My CPU (reported as Temp 2) will stay under 60C for normal activities but kick up to 65C with World of Warcraft. The other temp reported (also as a Temp1) would be either my northbridge or video card, but I didn't think the VC temp was pulled from the MB. That will start at 39C but, when my computer freezes and I reboot, it's always over 60C. The CPU temp goes down with moderate use, the other doesn't go down unless I shut down and rest the machine for a while (half an hour or more).

To play World of Warcraft I had to upgrade my dual head Matrox card with a dual head ATI Radeon 9550 AGP with 256 ram. After that I've 1) replaced the power supply with a 550W unit; 2) Installed 2x 120mm fans in the side of the case; 3) replaced the northbridge fan with a Sunon Maglev fan 4) Increased system ram from 2x sticks of Nanya 512mb DDR266 PC2100 by adding 2x sticks of Corsair 1GB DDR400 PC3200. I still crash.

System specs:
Abit KR7A (no raid) MB, xxx-9n bios
Radeon 9550 VC with 2x Iiyama AS4821 monitors
3Com NIC to Linksys router to Motorola cable modem
2 HD: 120GB WD in 2 partitions; 300GB WD in 3 partitions
Win 2K, SP4, Build 2195

I've tested the ram chips individually with memtest96 and have had the system freeze during the test on one chip, which would mean it's in the chips, yes? I mean, the OS hasn't even booted yet. But, after removing that chip I'm still running 2.5GB ram so I shouldn't be having a memory problem.

I guess I'm running out of ideas.

Stachey

[bobbyraw]

how much memory you have on the system in total, with all the stick installed.

[Stachey]

The solution was found in information that I didn't provide.

The CPU is an Athlon XP 2000+ with a Thermaltake Dragon Orb cooler. I built the computer in early 2002 using a generic thermal paste from a big-box computer store. Five years later it just wasn't doing the job.

Yesterday I pulled the cooler, cleaned all the surfaces and used ArcticSilver Ceramique thermal paste. After reboot I did everything I could to keep the CPU at 100% usage (play WoW while watching YouTube videos while printing Christmas Cards). After an hour of stress, the CPU was still at only 54degC.

Yep, it was the heat.

And to answer your question, Admin Tools reports I have 2,620,916 KB Total Physical Memory.