Hrm. Your best bet would likely be to make sure that the following are true: 1) you're not overclocking the thing (even accidentally) 2) make sure the heatsink has just enough thermal goop between it and the CPU (not too much, not too little), and that the heatsink is seated correctly. 3) that the serial number on the CPU itself matches the serial number of the model, rated speed, and rated voltage. Grey-market stuff is notorious for mis-labelling, and it can wind up anywhere. Otherwise, you can consider water-cooling (not likely to help, since this sounds like a defective processor), or to simply return it and get one that works. HTH a little, /P