cpu always at 100 celcious, why?

well for the past week or so, my cpu has been running at 100 degrees Celsius, yes that's right, and my pc just keeps freezing on me and i have to reboot but even then, it'll just keep freezing like that. so i can't use my pc because of that, right now, it's because i'm in safemode, and i have speedfan to monitor temp, always from 100 to 106.
cpu cooler- antazone as-c1000 (blows 49cfm)
cpu- intel pentium D
motherboard- ecs PA1 MVP
ram- corsair twinx 1GB ddr2
power supply- ultra x-finity 2G 600W

i do not overclock, i leave all at default. there is plenty of airspace for the cpu, all the power cables are hidden beneath my dvd drive and no air comes in from there. i want to know why it is at such an abnormal temperature like that.. and this is a custom pc just in case somebody asks

and in case anybody asks, yes i am using the ast (after spin technology) feature. yes the power cable for cpu plugged in, the way i was able to install windows and have it running for a while is that i completely took my pc apart and then put it back together. i know that if i leave it off for a long time, it will get back to those conditions, but for an odd reason it just gets to 100 Celsius and stays there, then pc freezes. i really need a solution that won't cost or will cost very very little because i have no money and this pc cost me almost 2 thousand as it is, reason for low price, tigerdirect.ca

thanks in advance for help

Reseat the HSF. Is it a pushpin? If so reseat it and clean the paste and apply some AS5.

If its a pushpin HSF then it probably just came loose.

Man I love my back plate mounted cooler.

If you have a bit of extra cash look at the Zalman 9700 (has a backplate for better holding). If not I think the TR Ultra 120 is dcent in price and is a darn good cooler too.

http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee113/gabrielleger/

here's the link to the pics

He said reseat it, not reset it. Is the CPU cooler making proper contact with the CPU? Sounds like something probably came loose.

Basically you have to take the HSF off and put it back on. While you are at it clean the thermal paste and apply new paste. Thats what reseating the HSF is.

If you don't your PC will probably fry the chip running that hot. Lucky for you though is that the Pentium D series has a high thermal area or it would be dead already. Or at least the Pentium 4 series which it is based off of can run at very high temps and live.

Get a can of air, and blow the dust out of it, then check if the fan is working. If not you'll need a replacement HSF. If the fan does indeed work, get some new thermal paste, remove the Heatsink, wipe off the old paste (or scrape it off depending on the type of TIM), clean the bottom of the heatsink, and contact point on the CPU with Rubbing Alchohol. Then re-apply something like AS5, or Ceramique.

However I have a question, do you, or anyone in your house smoke around the computer?

The problem seems to lie around this phrase.

RESEAT that cooler ASAP, I recommend reading a guide on how to do it.

I didn't want to bring that up, but seeing you already did it I'll do it too, two thousand for that set up is a complete rip off unless you have two gtx 280 or something similar, next time compare prices BEFORE you buy or you'll end up regretting it

If you bought that CPU for that price in the last two years then you did get ripped off. Badly. A Dual-core Allendale can waste most Pentium Ds and you can get those new for the same price.

The heatsink looks adequate. I think there is something else wrong with it though causing the temps to rise. Somthing is not letting the HSF do its job cuz with copper and heatpipes it should cool it just fine.

Here is a quick article on that HSF:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles1352/

So it is fine for a Pentium D.

Oh and depending on when you bought it, if it was recently you could have gotten a Pentium Dual Core for around the same price that outperforms itt easily.

uh i didn't pay 2 thousand, from an estimate, your minimum 500$ over howmuch i paid. and i can run loads fine, when i had vista everything was running perfect, and it's jsut as good on xp. and this is sorta a "budget" pc. so i'm not sticking with most of this for long it was sorta temporary cause i needed a pc.

You don't by any chance live in hell do you? But really, what are your ambient temps? What's your CPU VID? How's the airflow in your case? Could just be a bum CPU or a bum mobo.

Pentium D's do this; I had one do the same thing to me (even hit 83C Watercooled...).

If your motherboard supports one, just save the headache and get a cheap Core2. It's too hard getting Pentium D's NOT to overheat in my opinion.

alright, i can't beleive it but i figured out the prob. i did tightened the hsf, i even added another fan to it since i can jsut for the heck of it. and i connected the hsf directly to mobo instead of using the ast cables. now it's at 10-16 degrees!! pretty amazing.

what do u mean by walk in cooler and b4 it use to be at 40-50 celsius

oh nvm, i jsut got it, and not, those r full bios readings. remember, i got 2 fans on my hsf now

wow whatever kind of finality that was, good enough for me

I found this thread by typing Pentium 4 "100 degrees celsius" in to Google, and found chris's story which is virtually identical to mine. My P4 3ghz has also been idling at 98-100 degrees CELSIUS for ages now. In fact, ever since I built this system 3 years ago, it's always overheated because I never could apply the right amount of paste. From when I built it new, it was idling at about 85 degrees C and reaching over 100 under load until about a year ago when I reapplied the thermal grease (from the SAME sachet as I had originally used 2 years previously! Hardly fresh!). After that it run even hotter but I just couldn't be bothered to try and fix it again and just left it. By that time new CPUs were so cheap on eBay...

They are certainly good at taking the heat and abuse. But the performance has become annoyingly sluggish (never any crashes though). I'm just going to nip out now and get some more thermal paste, then overclock it for the first time (straight to 30% I think).