AMD "ABS II" 80degrees celsius while Heatsink is 40???

im having problems with my crappy old computer.

Basically Its an old amd xp 2000 with a soltek 75drv5 mobo

I basically took the computer apart (parts and all) to get the mobo out in order to give it a good dusting and general maintenence (new thermal paste, removing dust etc).

Now, as im trying to reinstall windows xp, i am unable to do so.

The system hangs up at different installation times sometimes with an error message with some hex code.

Im sure the hard drive is ok as i have tested it, not too sure about the memory, BUT

As i went into bios to have a look at the temps the abs ii temp is at 80 degrees celsius while the other temperature is 44! can there really be that much difference in temperature in a space difference of a few millimeters? or is there something wrong here?

I have not mucked around with oc-ing so its not like im bumping the vcore or anything to get the temp up. (keep in mind this is the temp AFTER the thermal paste and heatsink cleaning.

Checked already that all fans are running.

Anyone have any clues? should i flash bios? (since my comp is basically unusable, i cant do anything but get into bios)
your help in advance!
thanx for

I know there was another thread where people were having a problem with the reported temperatures with one of the intel board, and it was fixed with a bios update. That I would say is the first possibility. The second, when installing, have you tried installing with the minimum amount of periphials on? (e.g. one hard drive, floppy drive, cd drive, and mobo). Sorry this is coming so late, perhaps you already fixed it.

Oh, and after you put the thermal paste on and then the heatsink and let it spread out a little, did you take the heatsink off to make sure the paste was getting acrost to the whole of the chip? Just a thought, I know that was a problem when I first started with my computer.

KingMeander