Overheating problem with Asus P5N-D

Which part of the system is overheating? is it the northbridge, southbridge, cpu or ram? You could try and put the optional fan on the northbridge heatsink to cool the chip down. otherwise, if system is overheating, then i think the only thing to do is add more cooling fans to it.

Yeah, you have to find out exactly what part/component is the issue. Make sure there CPU heat sink is fastened securely. Doesn't hurt to add some ceramique cream to the processor for better heat transfer. Also, I have the same exact computer you have it's kind of funny.

Intel Quad-Core 2.4 GHz
P5N-D
2GB Ram (Ballistix Tracers)
PNY 512MB Nvdia GPU

I think our graphics cards are slightly different but we have almost the same computer, lol.

So I'll share my story here. My tower worked wonderfully well for the first 6-7 months. Then I had a fire in the apartment and the fire team sprayed in 100,000 gallons of water, and that flooded the ground the tower was sitting on up to four inches. So 4 inches of the motherboard were underwater. After the fire, I let the computer tower dry for 2 months (no kidding!) After that, I took it apart, and cleaned the smoke, thick soot, and minerals off of all the components with 90% pure rubbing alcohol (doesn't conduct electricity) and cotton swabs. Took a long time. Even had to take the power source apart to clean inside of it. Then I put everything back together and it runs fine for the first 2-3 hours of use every time I use it. But after that the CPU usage jumps from 3% to 30% even when idle and it the damn thing slows down so much that the mouse skips across the screen. Not sure what to do. Especially since I can run a virus scan AND spyware scan at the same time when I boot anytime in the first hour and no issues and only a usage of 11% CPU tops for both those at the same time. and it won't slow down but after an hour when the scans are long done it slows down... I don't get it. I know I get a CMOS error and the battery needs replacement but I don't get why it slows down like that it reminds me of your tower...

I have to point two 80 mm fans on my P5N-D Northbridge to keep it cool. I don't get crashes or freezes and I keep my e4500 Oc'd to 2.93 Ghz and the DDR 2 800 RAM OC'd to 90 MHz. With everything on stock the Northbridge stays cooler but still hot to the touch. It could just be the way Asus made these boards - to run hot.

Well let me tell you this... I have a E8500 on my Asus P5N-D running at 4.2Ghz with nothing more than standard coolling. 3 case fans, 1in front at the HDD bays, 1at the back and one on the side panel. thats it! and the NB is normal temp I can keep my finger there for 12seconds before it starts to burn.

My first P5N-D's NB got so hot that I can barely touch it for 2seconds before I had a bluster on my finger. My system seemed to work fine without freezes and restarts but like they say, if the 4second finger test fails, RMA it to be sure.

So,..... I RMA'ed my first P5N-D and guess what? It was faulty got a new one and volla! problem solved... so consider it

talked to a buddy of mine and he had same story and he also took the RMA route and solved it quick quick