PC taken a serious hit

[Castout]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Im almost positive it was the heatsink/fan on your cpu not properly seated.

Ive seen these symptoms before and thats what it usually is.

You did carefully clean and put down new heatsink paste right?

Was afraid of that too. I didn't put on new heatsink paste perhaps I'll buy those and apply new paste later(Yea I know that's a bit sloppy haven't got the chance to visit the PC shop). I made sure that the heatsink was properly attached. It was a bit of a hassle though. CPU core temperatures are always at acceptable limits idling at 35-36 degree with room temperature at 29-30 degree Celcius.

NO crashes since I repositioned the memory sticks and reattached the CPU heatsink and fan and cleaned the motherboard area surrounding it.