My system has been randomly freezing on me every so often lately. Today I noticed that when it froze there was a new LED lit up red on the mobo that normally is not on (located right under the CPU). After checking my mobo (EVGA Z270) manual, the LED stands for "CATERR" (Catastrophic Error on the processor). What can cause the CPU to have this error? Does it mean that my CPU is dying and I should be ready to replace it soon? Or can something like overheating cause this error and maybe just need to apply fresh thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink? I was only web surfing when the system froze and CPU temp was only in the 33° - 38° range...but it has been 3 or 4 years since I applied new thermal paste. CPU is an i7 7700K.
Z270 Classified K
GTX 1070 FTW
7700K 4.2 GHz
32GB DDR4