Windows 2000 pro Freeze

[nmr]

Hoping somebody out there can help me.

Hardware:
MSI 865PE Neo2-P
P4 2.8ghz - 800MHZ
2x512mb PC3200 (DDR400) Kingston (KVR400X64C25/512)
AT Radeon 9600 Series 128MB
400W gold power supply + APC Voltage controler & UPS
2*Maxtor 120gb IDE drives
other cards & cdrw's etc but they ain't important

Software:
Windows 2000 SP4
all upto date drivers
Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat Distiller
MS Office 2000 pro + Outlook 2003

problem, machine freezes for no apparent reason, nothing in the event logs, screen goes black (no blue screen) - no hard disk faults, doesn't reset, just freezes. It generally happens under intensive Indesign actions like exporting to 200mb PDF's - but not always, sometimes its just reading an email.

I'm stumped, replaced every part i can, every part of the machine is new or has been test replaced, including HD's, motherboards, ram, graphics cards, processors, operating systems, power supply.. (and case now has 8 fans in it and creates a stream of air powerful enough to move an aeroplane)

Any ideas because I'm stuck..

[lonzuk]

Sounds like a problem in the transfer speed between memory and CPU.

Trying checking for a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard, may be a known issue with bus speeds?

[Nutski]

Have you checked the quality of the past between the CPU and heatsink?

Under extreme conditions i.e graphic intense or large files the cpu heats up and can cause the pc to freeze.

Now just lately most cpu's come with a sticker pad instead of paste.  These are not very good.  Always best to use paste.

Also if you do have paste you do not need to load it on the thinest of layers is best.  A dob of it in the centre and use a old credit card to thinly scrape it across surface.  Its about 100 hrs of use b4 the paste is at its optimum.

[nmr]

Cheers for the help lads, I think the heatsink may be the cause. I can remember at the time seating it slightly squint, taking it back off and applying some more thermal paste, so possibly too much on there. Will change it today and hopefully it'll remedy the situation.

Can't believe I didn't think of it myself! talk about a memory blank.

Once again thanks,

nathan