[Valencia1]

My computer has had lots of problems recently, and my husband has been trying to fix it but out of clue. It's a self-assembled computer so doesn't have a maintenance. The harddisk was purchased about a year ago and the rest 10 years ago. We've been saving some jpeg and video files on the hard disk since a few weeks ago. This week when we start the computer a message appears at the windows welcome screen saying the paging file is too small or no paging file. We follow the instructions to adjust the paging file but can't adjust it and the message still appears. When we run the spybot it just stops in the middle with an error message in German though we set it in English. Then sometimes there's a message saying the computer runs out of virtual space. I run the disk defragmenter very often and deleted some useless files, and found that there's 62% space free for one drive and 31% space free for the other. Does anyone know what's the problem? Btw, my computer has been suffering from a high temperature in the CPU unit and often breaks down. I'm using a Window XP.

[discobay]

When you say that one drive has 62% free how much is that in MB?
How much hard disk space do you have in total?
How are you reading the cpu temperature?
Be prepared to replace/upgrade your computer.

[Valencia1]

The hard disk is divided into 2, C: 23.1GB free out of total 38.3 GB, E: 12.2GB free out of total 38.3 GB. The starting temperature is 43 degrees but one day we ran the NDD to monitor it and found it went up to 66 degrees and thus the warning message. My husband wants to find out which part goes wrong and replaces it.

[discobay]

Sounds like one or both of the fans inside your computer are faulty or dead. One fan is inside the power supply unit into which you plug the power cord and the other fan sits on top of the cpu on the motherboard.
But if it is 10 years old then it is probably a Pentium 2 and not likely to have a fan just a heatsink :-}
What happens to the temperature if you just leave it switched on with nothing intensive running?

[jimbo]

Also remove the case and try booting up that way just to get some air into the motherboard etc, or get a fan and point it towards the board to cool it down.

[Valencia1]

The cpu is an AMD XP 1800. There is only 1 fan inside the case and it is working, but the case is a very small one. My husband noticed the problem when he changed the hard disk last year. The case is horizontal where the norm is a vertical one. I suggested changing to a bigger case and my husband starts grumbling, too much work. He says many people like to have their case open, but I have a toddler and the environment is very dusty. Looks like my problem is an ANTIQUE one and I have to consider buying a new one from a shop. Thanks all for your information.

[Anthony Green]

Well - if those Jpeg files are valuable to you, I'd suggest you copy them to some other media "pronto". Movie files are likely to be too large for floppies. (Copy to an external USB HD is another suggestion).

I would suggest that some fan(s) aren't doing their job(s). The CPU certainly doesn't like to get too hot. I have never used an AMD CPU but I doubt that yours is meant to run "un-fanned".

If it does have a fan on it, it may well have filled up the heat-sink with all manner of fluff & c r a p. A careful removal and clean-up *might* be all you have to do to get it working better.

C r a p also gets into the power supply - just look at the fan blades !

I'd suggest when you've got the case open - check with a finger and see what *IS* getting superheated & get its temp down!

Me ? I use fans under all 5 of my "Viagra" [Hard] Disks & an additional extractor fan in one of the expansion slot positions.

Keeping it cool ensures longevity! Chuck out the heat...

As does running TRENDMICRO.COM's on-line antivirus/spyware programs & keeping them out with ZONEALARM.COM's Firewall.

NONE of my desktops - from the early 80's - have ever suffered "Heat-Stroke".

[cerberus]

10 years? friend, that thing just wants to crawl to a corner and die somewhere. let it go. backup whatever you can and get yourself a new home office machine (3-4K).