Core i3 3220 Idles at 40-50C (BSOD frequently) Simple to fix as I think?

Pepto

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Jan 12, 2012
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My friends computer that I built less than a month ago has just today started overheating. She has a Core i3 3220 at stock clock and stock heat sink, her case has sufficient cooling (200mm Fan in the front and a 120mm in the top and back) I was on Skype talking to her from another computer she has to try and troubleshoot the problem and we determined that the CPU was overheating. She will be bringing it to my house tomorrow.

my question is if my guess of what is causing this is a loose heat sink or the heat sink just needs to be re-seated or apply more thermal paste (used the thermal paste provided on the stock heat sink). I really just want to be sure that this is the possible fix to this problem. If you can think of any other problems causing this too please tell me.
 
Solution
Re-seating would definitely fix the temperatures problems. When re-seating, completely remove and the heat sink and clean the thermal paste off of the CPU and heat sink. Re-apply thermal paste, I suggest Artic Silver 5, to place onto CPU. YouTube is going to be your best friend for learning these things if you don't already know how to, especially on cleaning the thermal paste. That should fix the problem with the heat. If persistent BSODs continue, look at the error code and google it.

UselessSoul

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Jul 30, 2011
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Re-seating would definitely fix the temperatures problems. When re-seating, completely remove and the heat sink and clean the thermal paste off of the CPU and heat sink. Re-apply thermal paste, I suggest Artic Silver 5, to place onto CPU. YouTube is going to be your best friend for learning these things if you don't already know how to, especially on cleaning the thermal paste. That should fix the problem with the heat. If persistent BSODs continue, look at the error code and google it.
 
Solution

Pepto

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Jan 12, 2012
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I have a large amount of some cooler master thermal paste that I have used for the past 3 builds I have done that I could use on it. When it BSOD she called me on Skype from another computer and gave told me the entire code shown on the screen, which turned out to be overheating.

She saved up $800 last month to buy her computer and she doesn't want to spend anymore.

When talking over Skype she said the all the fans including the CPU fan was running, but she said the heat sink was hardly even warm even when the CPU was heating up like crazy.