ok hi,

I installed an XP2500 barton the other week, like 3 and a half weeks back, using arctic silver and a stock HS/F.

I don't know if I was a little too liberal with the AS, but it was as thin as I could get it using a credit card edge, it looked pretty cool. (no pun intended).

I clipped the heatsink on fine and checked everything a million times (not literally ) as this is the first CPU I've ever done, always been scared to!

Okay, but I did do something that I now know was a mistake... I initially tried to get the thermal pad off the HS with nail polish remover, but it wouldn't, so I gently "peeled" it off with a nice smooth slide of the credit card.

I rubbed some into the HS til it was a nice grey like their site said, and it all went together fine.

It ran at about 41 idle and 48 under load for the last 3 weeks, and that's o/c to 2.1ghz, no voltage changes of course.

then suddenly my PC started locking up one night, and I assumed it was down to my ram as it was pushed a little too far, and does lock up on occasion, but it was now crashing within seconds of starting a game/3dmark.

I'm now idling at about 47 - 50, and I dread to think what it is under load... I've set it all back to stock and kept my window open as my room gets hot.

What I need to know is, could I have applied the paste too much, or wrong or anything? It's strange that it suddenly dived up...

Sorry for such a long post for this, but the more detail the better!

cheers in advance for any help,
too_much

*edit* I forgot to add, it's now taking about 25 seconds longer to boot, black screen between the "welcome" screen on XP, and getting into desktop.