CPU idle temp is 60C

This computer is an HP Pavilion a735w with an Athlon XP 3000+. Recently while playing games, the game will freeze and the monitor will shut off or go into standby (I'm not sure what its actually doing) , but it won't come back on so I'm guessing something is either wrong with the card (Radeon 9550 AGP) or its a CPU overheating problem. I cleaned all the dust out and even got a new heatsink but it hasn't fixed the problem at all.

 

Athlon XP's have a problem with getting to hot. Does the pc have a case fan? its a fan that blows out hot air out of the pc case. Here is a example of one. Click the Attached Thumbnail to see it. Some HP pcs don't come with a case fan. My older HP pc did not come with one so i added one. Also check to see how hot the GPU is. That could be overheating. If you don't have a case fan you can get one form your local pc store. There cheap and make your case a lot cooler. Hope you get it fixed.

 

How do I check the temperature on the GPU? I have ATI tool but I don't see any option for checking the temperature.

 

Most GPU's don't have a probe built in, you would probably have to check using a probe. 55-65 is a good idle temp for CPU. Had a similar freeze problem with an Intel onboard graphics controller/display adapter, a driver was getting caught in a loop when I tried using Windows Update, probably due to a RAM upgrade and a Samsung SyncMaster LCD Monitor upgrade. I backed off the RAM and had no further problems, at a later date Windows Update provided a hardware update for the problem, but I haven't tried turning the RAM back up yet. Funny, I bought a laptop (Compaq Presario) with an AMD CPU just because of temp., and the built in FSB, guess I was misled.
Bug

 

Did you remove the old thermal paste and apply new, when you replaced the heatsink?

You haven't said how many case fans you have. How many, and which way are they moving air?

 

Did you mean GPU? 55-65 is NOT a good idle temp for the CPU.