[BSOD] And followup investigation

[Scintered]

Hey guys, I've been hampered non stop in the past month or so by random BSOD's plaguing my computer whenever I decide to play some games (mainly Dota 2 so nothing too demanding). I've had this computer for around a year and a half now, and its only recently come up.

My important computer details are here:

Intel core i7 870
ATI Radeon HD 6800
MSI p55-gd55 Motherboard

iirc, the BScode in the Microsoft error message was 124. So I did a couple of hours of research online and most results advised updating and reinstalling drivers - which I did, for my video/ethernet/sound, the whole shebang. I also updated my antivirus and installed all windows updates. However, all of this was to no avail - the BSOD's would still occur sporadically when I play. It might crash my computer 5minutes after opening a game, sometimes an hour, or 2 hours, so forth.

Thinking it might be my hardware I decided to open my Speedfan installation I installed right when I got the computer working (which I previously mentioned was 1.5years ago), and to my surprise my motherboard idle temperatures (temp1, temp2, temp3) were 80+degrees, and likewise with my CPU temperatures (Core0, core1, core2, etc). Here's what I saw:

http://imgur.com/IDqaL

(Note: My GPU/HDD temperatures are normal being ~40 and 35 degrees Celsius respectively)

I remember distinctly when I first got my computer working and I checked these values, my mother board and CPU hovered around 55 degrees whilst idle. I'm pretty scared now after seeing these values...I then cleaned my whole computer in case it was dust clogs, but with no effect. So in the same vein, I did some research and for this case most people advised buying a new cooler or reapplying the TIM to the CPU surface, or replacing the Heat sink.

Hopefully I explained my current situation correctly, I'm having BSOD problems but then somehow discovered that my CPU/Motherboard are overheating. I'm pretty sure they are interconnected, and I would like to fix them ASAP, as I know having your computer operate while idle at 80+ degrees can not be healthy for its lifespan. I'm turning to you guys for help and advice for what to do exactly in this situation, do I follow the advice I read online? Is it another problem and I've just been mislead by my own lack of knowledge? Please help I'm incredibly confused T_T.

Thanks in advance,

Wayne.

 

[HCAIT]

Are the BSODs only when playing games? Also, are you overclocking?

If you can get to Windows fine, you could setup to analyze dumps created during the BSOD, but my guess is that they are just from overheating.

 

[Scintered]

I can't say for sure, but it mostly occurs when gaming. Although once or twice it occurred when I was writing some stuff up on Microsoft word.

So any ideas why my computer is overheating? I got it assembled at a computer shop with the stock gear, and I haven't moved my computer since so its unlikely it'd get loose. I feel kinda scared just using the computer now knowing that its idling at 80 degrees.

 

[Scintered]

Well, I reapplied the thermal paste and installed a new aftermarket fan and everything's fixed. Thanks for the replies anyway