how much RAM mach3 can eat (i am getting restarts due to thermal trips)

[jasminder]

hello friends, (again)
the problem started yesterday when my PC restarted automatically and the same is happening randomly. I guess it is a thermal trip.
okay i know what to do. I opened up the heat sink, and there wasn't any thermal paste. I cleaned the things then put the heat sink back on the processor.
Now it ran for around 2 hours then again a thermal trip and restart. i touched the heatsink and it was warm. (i guess that processor was too hot that time because the outer fins were warm and i am sure it was more hot on its center.
 
my question is "how much ram does mach3 turn can eat and how can i get rid of this thermal trip" It has a P4 2.5ghz processor and 512 mb ram.

thanks in advance,
jasminder singh

[ERP]

I'd load up one of the temperature monitoring apps and verify that the CPU overheating is actually the issue.
Heat sinks will get hot even in normal operation.

Did you put thermal paste on before remounting the heat sink?

The reset could be any number of things.

[TramAlot]

I think a lot of mach runs in the video chip, there is a log file somwhere for windows "event viewer" I think

[jasminder]

I'd load up one of the temperature monitoring apps and verify that the CPU overheating is actually the issue.
Heat sinks will get hot even in normal operation.

Did you put thermal paste on before remounting the heat sink?

The reset could be any number of things.

no i didn't had any thermal paste so i just cleaned it and mounted again. The processor was not sitting with the heat sink properly so used some sand paper to make both of them flat and wow it ran successfully for 2 hours.

[jasminder]

I think a lot of mach runs in the video chip, there is a log file somwhere for windows "event viewer" I think

hmm i will check it. But does the windows event viewer shows information about thermal trips also?

[Tweakie.CNC]

It was my understanding that the processor thermal trip "shut down" the PC rather than triggered a "restart". 

Tweakie.

[jasminder]

It was my understanding that the processor thermal trip "shut down" the PC rather than triggered a "restart". 

Tweakie.

but my pc restarts (i guess this is what actually happens when a thermal trip occurs)

[Tweakie.CNC]

Do you have evidence that it is a processor thermal trip that is causing the problem or could it possibly be something else ??

Just curious about this.

Also check your BIOS settings for over-temp sensing and actions to be taken.

Tweakie.

[TramAlot]

It was my understanding that the processor thermal trip "shut down" the PC rather than triggered a "restart". 

Tweakie.

my understanding also

[ERP]

If it's the CPU overheating it will most likely restart.
What will usually happen is windows will blue screen with some random error and the default behavior is to immediately reboot.

If you believe it's the CPU overheating, I'd put thermal paste between the CPU and the HeatSink.
But I'm suspicious that it's taking 2 hours to shutdown, usually thermal problems are pretty immediate when under any significant CPU load.
As I said above I would verify what the issue is.

There are a whole host of other things that could cause a reboot, from PSU problems to RAM and bad components on the MB.