Is my PC overheating or am I losing it? Or both?

[Arcex]

My primary HD crashed the other day taking my O.S. with it, I just got a new SATA WD (not a Raptor but still decent), got the O.S. back on, got the antivirus and spyware programs on today, and just reinstalled Everest, which immediately told me my CPU was hitting 90 C.

I immediately turned the PC off, changed my underwear and checked the heatsink. It didn't feel any warmer than normal, and since the PC's overheat protection didn't kick in I booted it back up into BIOS, checked the temp monitor there and it insists the CPU is holding steady at 40 C which has been the standard in my current rig (Prescott chip). But everytime I boot to Windows and check Everest (or any other temp monitor) it insists my CPU is hitting the low 90's. The other temp monitors look ok on it (fans, GPU, HD's).

Any ideas? I may not be a fireman but I'm pretty sure if my CPU was really hitting 90 I'd know about it, what with the smoke and the burning and the fire...

 

[SparkyJJO]

software bug?

 

[Arcex]

I hope so but I don't see how, fresh O.S. install, nothing installed on it other than Norton, Defender and Everest. And like I said, 2 different temp monitors. Can a software bug affect 2 different programs like that? I tried one, saw the 90 thing, uninstalled it, installed another (Everest) and it was saying the same thing. It wasn't steady at 90 like it was stuck or something, it was moving around a bit like I would expect it.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

It's most likely a software/sensor error. 90C would probably melt your computer.

 

[Arcex]

That's what I'm thinking, how would I fix this? It definitely never happened before, and I haven't made any changes to the PC. BIOS still reads the temps correctly, its only in when Windows loads that this happens.