Help with Realtek ALC650 integrated audio

[spectrumbx]

The Realtek ALC650 on my HTPC is giving me grief.
The sound dies just after one hour of use.

I have tried different versions of the drivers, but they all show the same issue.
The motherboard is an Abit AT7 and I am running windows media center on it.

I have to restart everytime in order to regain sound.

In order to reduce noise, I help back on cooling so my temps are a bit high.
Here are temps at full load:
Athlon XP 2400+ (2ghz)
case: 45c
cpu: 54c
ACPI: 49c

Any idea as to why I am losing sound after an hour of use?

 

[TheGamerZ]

put a heatsink on the southbridge

 

[SJetski71]

put a heatsink on the southbridge

Ya, worth a shot. All of my shuttle MN31N nforce2 motherboards had hot running southbridges (had four total). The audio would cut out when the southbridge hit 50c. A small heatsink and slightly better ventilation fixed all of them right up, right away.

 

[spectrumbx]

put a heatsink on the southbridge

Wouldn't other functions fail too if the southbridge was overheating?

 

[SJetski71]

^^^

probably depends on mobo chipset and manufacturer. As i mentioned above, audio was the first (and only) thing to fail when southbridge temps hit around 50c.
I never waited around long enough to test if other functions also failed (like onboard firewire etc) since i would slap a heatsink on right away.

 

[spectrumbx]

^^^

probably depends on mobo chipset and manufacturer. As i mentioned above, audio was the first (and only) thing to fail when southbridge temps hit around 50c.
I never waited around long enough to test if other functions also failed (like onboard firewire etc) since i would slap a heatsink on right away.

I improved the cooling, which dropped temps by 6-7c all across except the cpu, but I am still having the same issue.
I guess a heatsink is needed.