Bad mboard? Hangs in SETUP/ HWMonitoring!!

I started a thread (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/267591-28-stock-thermal-compound-artic) on the CPU forum thinking I had a cooling problem with my new replacement AMD 5600+, but, now I think maybe it is the motherboard. A couple of weeks ago my homebuilt PC wouldn't POST and I concluded it was the CPU because it would heat up fast (approaching 50 C) and I sent it off to AMD and they sent me a replacement, which I installed and it worked OK but it runs hotter than I was expecting. The replies on the CPU thread assured me that my temps were not too high, but, I noticed there were settings in the SETUP program that might help with CPU temps, so I tried to enter that and the PC hung trying to enter the HWMonitoring selection. It just hangs there and I have to press RESET to get out of it. DUH!

While it hangs, the CPU temp starts to rise above 40C and so I shut it down. When I restart, it will go ahead and POST and seems to run OK, just about 5 - 10 degress hotter than an identical system that I built for a friend at the same time (2 years ago). The motherboard is the MSI micro ATX K9NBPM2-FID, and the other system has worked flawlessly for these two years and still does.

Since the SETUP program will not let me select the option for monitoring hardware, I am thinking my problem all along was not the CPU but maybe this motherboard, and, maybe it is an intermittent problem and that might explain the somewhat hotter CPU. What do you think?

It is a lot of work (A LOT OF WORK) to pull this motherboard and install another one, but, I am thinking to do that since it hangs when selecting HWmonitoring from SETUP. All the other SETUP options work fine, and, I went ahead and selected "LOAD OPTIMAL SETTINGS", which made no difference that I could tell.

Is the failure of a part of the SETUP program sufficient to conclude the motherboard is faulty?

I got to mull this over. I am seeking opinions.