Recent CPU Overheating Problems

[Jforsyth1]

In the past couple of days my computer has been reporting troubling CPU temperatures. I've had the warning alarm go off and the computer has shut down on its own once. When I go into the BIOS, the temperature is between 70-80 degrees Celsius.

I have an AMD 4000+ socket 939 chip that has run fine for the past two years or so. I have never had overheating issues and am not overclocking it in any way. I even reset the BIOS to make sure I hadn't accidentally changed something important.

Today I applied a new layer of thermal paste to the CPU but it has not solved the problem.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

The fan may be bad. It's probably not spinning fast enough the keep the CPU cool.

 

[Remeniz]

Dare I say it?

WTH!

Make sure that the fan actually spins and that it's free from dust.

 

[worshipme]

Today I applied a new layer of thermal paste to the CPU but it has not solved the problem.

How did you go about this? Did you properly clean the heatsink base and CPU IHS with rubbing alcohol? How did you apply the paste?