AMD Athlon XP 2800+ overheats -higher vcore than supposed t

[nsostsc]

Hello. These AMDs can sometimes really complicate things. So, I have:
- an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (checked the serial number, so I'm sure) on
- an Asus K7S41GX with
- 2x256 RAM Memory Geil PC3200 DDR400;
- 40GB IDE HDD;
- ATI Radeon X550 with 256 MB memory.

A couple of days ago I tried chaning its thermal paste. Now it overheats. I mean it goes up to 60-65 Celsius degrees and then just freezes - I imagine the temp is causing it to freeze. And, that's in 3-4 minutes! And the motherboard also gets high temperature (from 30 degrees Celsius to 42 - max that I've seen).

The CPU uses the original motherboard cooler and I could see it go up to 2600 RPMs.

It can't be about the thermal paste because I've been using the same tube paste for 3 more CPUs and they work really nice, with temps of max 55 degrees -that's when it's very hot outside.

It can't also be about CPU damage since I've replaced it with an identical one (cooler too) and...get the same thing. The temperature gets too high, in less than 4 minutes. Really.

What I've tried so far:
- checked for thermal paste ratio, both on the CPU pill and cooler heatsink (over 10 times, no exaggeration);
- checkef for heatsink bad positioning - it doesn't touch anything, it's well adjusted, tight and properly applied and I know that because the heatsink has a round brown-ish/golden surface and each time I apply thermal paste on the CPU I can easily notice that the CPU pill falls on the center of the heatsink's golden surface;
- checked for external devices - I made sure there were no USBs connected, external HDD drives; it's all clear and ready to go;
- some folks recommended me rolling the fan upside down - sounded crazy but did it anyway and... nothing, same thing;
- checked the BUS speed and it's 166Mhz - and...here I'm a bit confused because CPU-WORLD tells me it's ok to see 166Mhz but the CPU is effective at 333 and I can't reach 333Mhz in BIOS (max 248Mhz) even though the motherboard is 333Mhz-ready (proper jumper position on motherboard ever since I bought it);
- removed BIOS battery;
- cleared CMOS (jumper).
Nothing. This AMD keeps overheating itself.

Where I believe I have a problem:
VCORE. This CPU's Vcore should be 1,65V. Mine, by default its's 1,69V. In BIOS I can undervolt it to -3/6/12%. Next to these options, I can also select 2,5xV, 2.6x, ~2,7x.

Now, I thought by changing the VCORE I'd end up having a VCORE of 1,6V or, at least in this range. But, I really can't do that. Whatever combination I'd try, it either goes back to 1,69V+ or as low as 1,59V.
And, even at 1,59V-1,61V the CPU's not stable because the temperature keeps rising well over 55 degrees Celsius.

Now, what else I can do? Can someone help me, please? I'd really, really appreciate it. I'm stuck with this CPU for days now and I can't figure it out.

[nsostsc]

No one had this problem before? Please?

[mavroxur]

I saw either a 2600+ or 2800+ back in the day in a laptop (a laptop that used a socket 462 chip) develop an internal short of some kind. The chip ran just fine (correct vCore, correct FSB, etc) and didn't blue screen or lock up, but it ran SUPER HOT (e.g. fan went to full speed after a couple minutes), and the battery life of the laptop went to crap. Swapped chips, and everything went back to normal. Just to confirm we tested the chip on a regular desktop board and it ran super hot on the desktop board (i'm talking couldn't even touch the heatsink at idle).

[nsostsc]

Ok. Now I'm thinking maybe another fan would help with around 10 degrees, perhaps?

[mavroxur]

[nsostsc]

[jrmunro]

If everything worked fine before you changed the thermal paste I don`t see how this could have affected the VCORE settings or has this been a problem from day 1. If this is the case maybe the board is bad.

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