Graph showing CPU temperatures while processing photos

[Note to those not in the least bit interested in my PC problems: scroll down to the bottom of this POTD entry…. there is a nice picture of a church in Malta to look at instead]

Sods law/Murphy’s law happened last night.  In yesterday’s POTD I commented that the PC hadn’t blue screened.  It did – immediately after I had posted that to my POTD!

Today began the investigation as to why.  Voltages checked with multimeter all proved to be what they should be.  Through out these long, long problem I’ve been communicating with two friends both called Andrew who have both been giving me lots of useful advise on things to check.  While writing my findings in an email this morning to my friends I had a thought.  The case is a tower case.  When I installed the CPU heatsink and checked it the case was, of course, lying flat.  After installing everything the case was moved into an upright position.  Which means the motherboard is vertical and the heatsing/fan has a lot more chance to come free.
 
PC shut down. side opened.  All retaining clips on heatsink/fan pushed home again.  PC rebooted.  CPU temp now 20C lower!!   Mid 40sC when idle.  Core temps low 50s when idle.   The readings are a lot better even under heavy load:  CPU 68C core temps high 70s/low 80s.

My sincere thanks to everyone who has offered advice about the PC problems – especially to the two Andrews!
 
Let hope this is the end of the blue screens.  So far so good.  I only hope that doesn’t invoke sod/murphy’s law again!

I’ve been doing a lot of processing of photos today to put the computer under as much load as I can as a test.  That has meant I’ve been looking at a lot of Malta photos.  For those bored of my PC woes here’s one of the best that I was working on today:


Church of the Visitation, TaPinu, Gozo, Malta