CPU not running as intended.

Hello guys.

I have been having a problem. Whilst playing games or watching videos on youtube or any other website or installing something. Or just idling. My PC would freeze or shutdown.
Alot of people told me its a heating issue, so i cleaned out the heatsink and used new thermal paste, but still no improvement.
One time, my PC shut off as usual, and when I came to switch it back on, it alerted me that the bios had reset. But, I dident change back the settings to its usual. And the freezing and shutting down has completely stopped. But its running 400mhz slower than it should. And only on 1 core, rather than 2. And with no Hyperthreading. (Task manager and device manager show 1 core). If I set it back to 3.2ghz it will go back to 2 cores with hyperthreading (so 4 cores) but the freezing and shutting down starts again.

Can someone help me , do i need a new cpu??

The cpu is a Intel duel core 840 Extreme edition (3.2 ghz)

and the motherboard is a MSI P4N Diamond edition.

Test the memory with memtest86+.
Tell us about your power supply.

My power supply is a Tagan TG580-U22.

My cpu is around 55 C and GPU around 48C

I have a XFX 6600GT 256mb

Stock CPU cooler

CPU-Z reports the speed as 2800, and 1 core avalible

No! The fsb is quad pumped meaning 200x4 = 800

Should i press the little red button next to the sata slots?

Yes, CPUz identifies it as this. I can get it to run on all 4 logical cores, buts thats not the problem, the problem is that when I do run it like this, my PC freezes up and shuts down constantly. When I run in in fail safe bios settings, its running on only 1 logical core rather than 4, and 2.8 ghz rather than 3.2.

I think I found your problem. This is a note from your mobos CPU support list:

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php [...] incat_no=1

It does not state it doesn't support the Pentium D 840 but it does state that it does not suppoer EIST which could be the problem. If there is a way to turn it off in the BIOS try that and see if it helps.

I cant find any way to turn it off in the bios, could it be called something else. Or is there some way in xp to turn it off?

I think im better off just buying a new board tbh. Because even if i send it back for rma, this still exists

"But please note that this board DO NOT support EIST when install Smithfield (820/830/840/840EE) CPU. This is due to Nvidia chipset limitation."

And I dont think there is an option in bios to disable it...

But do I really need a new cpu, to be completely fair the intel 840 ee has been just fine, would one of those new ones severely out perform it?

If you pay your own power bill, it might be worth it to move away from the Pentium D architecture. With my D 805, power consumption dropped 30 watts at idle, and an amazing 55 watts under load simply by switching to a pentium dual core e2160 (which by the way is also more powerful than my old D 805). In fact, the new cpu consumes 5 watts less power under load than the new cpu did at idle. The power savings you'll come to see is even more dramatic if you're the type who keeps their computer on for long periods of time. Plus, the fans will be much quieter, and the case temperatures should be cooler, meaning a longer lasting computer and a quieter work environment. To equal the performance of your old 840 EE, you'd have to spend about $70 (US) on a new Intel or AMD cpu. You should be able to sell your old 840 EE for that much or more.

New stuff is always a good thing. too bad in this case we don't know what the issue is. It could be any number of things and there are a lot of good suggestions as too what it might be.

Does anyone know if the memory T2X1024-5400C4 is compatible with the motherboard http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] -GI&tool=3

also is the 6600GT graphics card compatible with it?