Pentium 4 overheating

Okay, I'm working on a machine for a friend and it appears that his CPU is overheating. The machine was experiencing random freezing which I originally attributed to other problems before I noticed the CPU temp on a cold boot to the BIOS setup utility shot up to the mid to upper 60's Centigrade. He's got a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz - 533 FSB - 512 cache. Socket mPGA478.

If I disable quick boot and set the CPU/memory Bus ratio to 133/166 (it has a gig of 333MHz DDR ram) then the machine will freeze while it is counting the memory.

If I choke down the clock speed to 100/100 the CPU will get through the memory count and boot up. It may freeze shortly thereafter, it will definitely freeze if I reboot it and it has to recount the memory.

I have ascertained that the memory is definitely not the problem.

I took off the heat sink and it had some kind of aluminized tape attached to the bottom with a thin layer of heat transfer grease on it. I peeled that off, removed the CPU, cleaned both surfaces thoroughly with 99.9% Isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free swab, applied a small dab of heat transfer grease to the heatsink and rubbed it into the area with my finger protected by a plastic ziploc to fill the microscopic crevices, wiped the excess so there was only slight discoloring, applied a dab of heat transfer grease slightly larger than a grain of rice to the center of the CPU, inserted the heat sink, wiggled it slightly (1 or 2 degrees) and fastened it down.

All of that per the instructions included with the grease.

Long story short; when I was done, the CPU appeared to function exactly the same. No change. A friend suggests to me that the CPU may be malfunctioning. While I have not ruled this out, I think that the connection for the heat sink may simply not be locking it down firmly enough. Does anyone have any suggestions that I should try and/or advice?

I should mention that I am looking for another P4 chip to test this with, but haven't located one just yet.

PS: The machine is running XP and the case had no case fan before I started working on it. I installed two case fans, (both blowing out the back as per case manufacturer and Intel specs) made sure that there was room inside the case for air to circulate, and have tried running the thing with the case open, so far nothing.

The Bios does not allow a feature for adjusting the fan speed and the case fans are wired directly to the PSU running constantly and fast.

If you cannot adjust the fan speed, I assume it is a "dumbed-down" BIOS from a common pc manufacturer, like eMachine perhaps? If you can, I would start by upgrading the BIOS to the latest version. I would check the CPU fan connections, it may need a new CPU fan. You are correct in looking for another p4 to test this on, but any compatible CPU should work actually. I can't think of anything else atm, sorry mate, good luck =/

Looking through my posts I noticed that I had never closed this one off. Here is how I solved the problem.

First, I eventually figured out that one corner of the heat sink retaining mechanism was not fastening down properly. Don't ask me how I missed that before, but it wasn't. On the advice of a friend, I solved that problem by wrapping a zip tie around the whole mechanism on that side and tightening it down.

Yes, this was a simple and relatively primitive fix, but it worked like a charm.

I am using Pentium 4 it's running well. Which machine you are using?

Just got an email notification that someone had replied here. Man, how'd you even find this post to reply to? That problem was four years ago and I posted the resolution as well. I mean, I appreciate your wilingness to help and all, I'm just confused.