thebiz.movies (11/29/2010)
I am now crashing about every 5 minutes of Iclone usage.
Intel Core i7-740QM 1.73GHz Processor with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
iClone is, from what I gather, CPU intensive. Makes a CPU work its butt off. Heat, CPU panic, crash. It sounds like a cooling problem to me.
Because this problem escalated over a month, this may be your scenario:
The seal between the heat sink and the CPU may be compromised, perhaps because the heat sink wasn't seated properly. If that's the case, over a month of usage, the heat sink compound would have hardened or cooked off and left enough air between the CPU and the heat sink to cause this problem.
I hope this message finds you and your computer both doing well. I melted a computer once. It wasn't a pretty sight.
If you can, turn down the speed of your CPU and see if that makes a difference. You didn't mention a liquid cooling system, so I'm assuming you don't have one. If turning the CPU down to its rated speed stops the crashing, and turning it back up makes it misbehave again, get a technician to change the heat sink compound (BTW, it's also sometimes called thermal grease, thermal paste or thermal gel and myriad other names).
You might also consider looking into a liquid cooling system to help keep the heat under control. Cranking up the clock on a CPU to almost double its rated speed begs for liquid cooling.
- Ron T.