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Greetings, Dakkanauts. In recent weeks, I've been having an array of problems with my PC. It all started about a week and a half ago, when my computer just sort of randomly shut iftself off - and shut off completely without warning. Typically, immediately afterwards, the computer won't start up normally; either the computer will start to go on (the case lights up, fans start going, etc.) but then immediately shut off again. Other times I'll be able to get it to stay on, but nothing actually boots. Specifically, the computer is on, the fans are running and everything, but nothing shows up on the monitor.

Now, my friend recommended I do some temperature readings, and they seem to be ridiculously high. My motherboard has one reading of 76 C, but I've seen it as high as 124 according to my temperature monitor (CPUID HWMonitor). More concerning, however, is the processor - the four core temperatures range from 93C at the lowest up to 100 C at the highest. From what little digging I've done, even 80 is getting to be quite high, so I suspect 100 C is what's causing the random shutdowns.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do? I'm really not sure what the problem is; this thing has been running just fine for over a year. I did do a recent deep clean on the inside of my case, to try and improve airflow inside of it, but it didn't seem to do anything. I'd really appreciate some advice on what I can do here - thanks in advance.

Computer specs:
X58 ASRock Motherboard
Intel Core i7 960 Processor (Quad core)
6GB RAM (DDR3)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 Video card (1 GB memory)

I did notice that it seems to only be the processor that's overheating; the video card and hard drives both rest at a constant temperature of 30 C (my external drive is at 43, but I presume that the hotter temperature isn't of great concern, as it's not that much hotter)

Edit: Update - It seems (I could be wrong) that running games compounds the problem. My PC sat idle for a good 4-6 hours without doing anything. When I later logged onto a game and started playing something, it shut down within a few minutes. I left it off all night to let it cool down (though this never seems to help, as the temperatures are high when I start it up later anyway), and within 5 minutes of me starting up a different, more hardware-intensive game, it shut itself down again.

Oddly enough I had this problem XD. I'm pretty sure it was my processor overheating. I got a new heatsink with fresh thermal paste and I haven't had a problem since.

This however:

Other times I'll be able to get it to stay on, but nothing actually boots. Specifically, the computer is on, the fans are running and everything, but nothing shows up on the monitor.

I know this can be caused by a bad RAM card.

Also funnily enough I am in the process of planning a new desktop. And in such process I was consulting a friend of mine for processors and he said the I5 was better because it didn't do hyper-threading. Hyper threading according to him splits the cores for better processing power at half the clock speed and uses up memory to do this. This apparently is not very good for gaming.

Should that be complete balderdash I would advise getting another fan for your processor