E6600 2.4ghz heat + frequency problem

[Hoovie]

Hey i recently encountered a problem with my cpu. I had been having some huge lag spikes and noticed that my processer was running at 100%, weird considering i have 4gs of ram and its a dual core 2.4ghz. I excited the game and had it idle for a few mins, still at 100%. I downloaded a program to tell me the core temp, and it said both cores were at a full load at 85*C. I shutdown my computer and replaced the the thermal paste. I restarted again only to see that when ever i started a game, the temp would jump from about 55C to about 75C. and even worse, the Frequency would randomly change from the normal 2400MHz to 1600MHz. I checked my bios seeing that my cpu was overclocked to 3600MHz, so I loaded the fail safe settings and that changed back to 24MHz.

But still, it overheats quickly and still the frequency changes between 2400MHz and 1600MHz. right now it idles at a much lower temperature and the load is back down to a normal about 10-15%.
Heres the CPU i have
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
and heres my mobo in case you wanted to know
Newegg.com - MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

anything i can do? i bought the CPU back in February but i was considering upgrading anyway. any idea??

[Hoovie]

ok well i just bought a 2.4Ghz quad core, the Q6600 i think and its still having the frequency problem. where it switches from 2400.08MHz to 1600.05MHz randomly and often. Although it doesnt switch when im playing a game, is this normal? Should i overclock it a little bit to get it to stay at a higher level? If so what is a good overclocking and monitoring program
thx

[EXreaction]

The speed is controlled internally. When it decides that the full speed is not needed it downclocks to save power and to save on the thermal output.

It does sound like it is having to downclock from heat or something though. Mine idles at 40C (and that sounds to be on the high side for idling). I'd guess it is from incorrectly applied thermal paste as the most likely cause.

[ldrancer]

check your motherboard for thermal throttling. if you computers getting too hot. find out how its getting hot and fix it. if it gets hot it might make the computer die. if your computers not getting hot, and it doesnt throttle until, it gets at a high temperature but not hot. its thermal throttling. its a seting in the motherboard. when your computer gets so hot, it downclocks it, to keep it from getting hot. it makes it cooler so it doesnt get hot. ok see ya

[tgxiii]

That motherboard might have SpeedStep enabled.

Not sure what you're using now, but try using Speedfan to monitor your temps.

[KarmaKiller]

tg is right.
SpeedStep and CE1 will throttle down your CPU when it's not under heavy loads. Disable those in your BIOS, and it will stay at whatever frequency you set it too.
Coretemp is a good program to use for temps though.