Thermal paste question

[Ryan]

I have a question regarding thermal paste.  Do computers from 1995-1997 need it on their CPUs?  I have my HP Pavilion 7285 still and I wonder if it could use it.  Been having occasional brief interruptions of sound when playing Doom in DOS, and I wonder if thermal paste might help any.

[BC_Programmer]

Generally, No. Even fans, in some cases, were optional.

Heatsinks showed up for later 486 120 and Pentium systems, But thermal paste didn't really become necessary until the faster Pentium II chips.

Thermal throttling behaviour would explain your symptoms, however, Thermal Throttling is relatively recent in terms of CPU capabilities. An overheating Pentium 200 Processor, like in that system, isn't going to underclock itself to lower it's voltage to protect itself. It's just going to fail.

I'm not suggesting your processor is failing, mind you. Your symptoms probably have another cause.

[Ryan]

Generally, No. Even fans, in some cases, were optional.

Heatsinks showed up for later 486 120 and Pentium systems, But thermal paste didn't really become necessary until the faster Pentium II chips.

Thermal throttling behaviour would explain your symptoms, however, Thermal Throttling is relatively recent in terms of CPU capabilities. An overheating Pentium 200 Processor, like in that system, isn't going to underclock itself to lower it's voltage to protect itself. It's just going to fail.

I'm not suggesting your processor is failing, mind you. Your symptoms probably have another cause.

Hmmm...  I wonder if it might be the RAM or the sound card.  Would having both a Sound Blaster 16 and a Sound Blaster Live installed at the same time cause this problem?  The Sound Blaster Live is currently disabled because the Sound Blaster 16 is in use.  Could the hard drives cause it?  There's an 8GB Western Digital and a 3GB Quantum Fireball.  The Quantum Fireball is the origianl hard drive to the computer, but has been drive D for years.  I could try to find unused hard drives from its time to see if that might solve the issue.