ST62K Zen - Switched off, heat likely?

[melbourne720]

Hi there

A Shuttle PC I built for someone momentarily died the other day. It is a Shuttle ST62K Zen, with a P4 3GHz Prescott (hot! ) and 1GB of RAM. I built it a year or two ago, and it is the first time friend has had problems with it. She is bringing it in for a service/repair.

Initially I thought it would be heat related. I told her to switch it off and unplug it for a bit, which she did, and she restarted it later and it was fine.

Reading round, it seems like most of the problems with this are heat/fan header related. Now obviously I want to fix it so that this issue doesn't happen again.

So should I..
(a) Replace the stock fan?
(b) Use a different fan header?
(c) Move the fan to a molex connector?
(d) Underclock the CPU to cool it down? (she's not exactly a power user or anything, just email, web and word)
(e) Undervolt the CPU? (If so, what is a good undervolt for a prescott)
(f) Reseat the HSF? (If so, what temps should I be looking for?)
(g) All of the above?

Any and all comments welcome Thanks in advance

 

[Tute]

If she's not been inside the case for a year or two, it may well be dust buildup. I'd open it up and have a good clean with a can of compressed air, wipe all the fans off, and reseat the HS.

It should run with no problems at stock (it appears it has done for a while) so underclocking/undervolting shouldn't be necessary.

I think it's just asking for a clean!

 

[melbourne720]

Cheers Tute, I needed a nice level headed response. I was beginning to panic, as the 'friend' is the mother-in-law

 

[Tute]

Any luck with this mate?