OT: Graphics Card Overheating

[Renegade 13]

I have a bit of an issue with my desktop computer, where my graphics card overheats, which then causes all output to my monitor to cease, forcing a hard restart. I have a 120mm case fan in addition to all the standard fans, heatsinks, etc.

Basically, what I'm wondering is if there's anything I can do to solve this heat issue. The room the computer's in isn't a particularly hot room, but with summer coming up it'll get hotter and hotter, causing more and more problems http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Injured.gif

Any suggestions? As of yet I've been dealing with it by taking off the side of the case and having a full-size fan blowing into the case, which evidently keeps it cool enough http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif However, that's not exactly a long-term solution.

[Litcube]

I had the same problem. I sent the card back to the shop and they gave me a new one. If that's not viable anymore, you can't lose by trying your own sink/fan/silver silicate solution. It might even be fun.

[Baron Munchausen]

Why is this not a long-term solution? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I've been running my system with the side panel off since only a few days after I bought it. Not only does it benefit the CPU and graphics card, but the motherboard itself will last longer for being kept at a lower ambient temperature. (Capacitors die quicker at higher temps.) If your running the machine at home, why does it matter if the case is open?

[Kana]

From my research, supposedly the cases, and the placement of fans, and equipment like the cpu, memory, video cards etc, are taken into account with airflow and cooling. If you remove the case side panel, you may be interupting the required airflow for certain components. If your computer is overheating, opening the case is only a temporary fix. You probably have a hardware issue you should look into, or find a new cooling solution. Another reason to not have the case open, is to prevent, dust, hair, lint, smoke, etc. from readily getting into and on the internal components. Of course it does make for easier cleaning at that point, just remember to turn it off and unplug the PC before you do this.

[Fyron]

Get a better heat sink for the GPU? Heat sinks are the primary method of cooling. You don't actually need a lot of airflow from fans, just airflow in the first place.

[Renegade 13]

Baron Munchausen said:
Why is this not a long-term solution? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I've been running my system with the side panel off since only a few days after I bought it. Not only does it benefit the CPU and graphics card, but the motherboard itself will last longer for being kept at a lower ambient temperature. (Capacitors die quicker at higher temps.) If your running the machine at home, why does it matter if the case is open?

Good point.


...to prevent, dust, hair, lint, smoke, etc. from readily getting into and on the internal components.

I doubt having the side panel off would really change anything, since I already have to take most of the hardware apart once every couple of months and clean all the dust out, side panel on or not! I live right next to a dusty road, so everything gets gunked up really fast, and I end up taking the CPU heatsink and cleaning it, along with the graphics card heatsink, all the various and numerous fans, etc to get them clean on a regular basis anyways. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Thanks for the various recommendations so far guys! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Could just be a bad GPU.

[se5a]

heat sinks are not that well attached right out of the factory, Overclockers prety much rip them straight off, lap them, then reapply the thermal compound and re-attach them.
out of the factorys they have a sticky foil pad which goes between the heatsink and the chip, this is dead easy and fast to apply, but is not as efficent as using thermal compound if applied correctly. (CPUs anyway, I presume it would be a simular story with GPUs)

you could possibly have a warped heatsink maybe.

[Fyron]

You might want to buy a new case that has filters in front of all the intake fan slots (or affix some filters to your existing case)... this will help reduce the intake of dust significantly.

[Kana]

I heard a quick home grown fix for filters. You can tape dryer sheets over your vents and fan openings. This will catch a vast amount of dust and debris. The article said you can use ones that have already been used in the drier, but I can see using new ones as well.

[Arralen]

Renegade, can you shoot some pics of your machine, zip them up and attach them here?

[Renegade 13]

I can probably do that, but it may take me a while (find the digital camera, recharge its batterys, take pictures, download, resize, upload, etc http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif). Should get it done sometime today.

[Renegade 13]

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/3962/c1ko4.jpg

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/5548/c2ql7.jpg
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/9845/c3ku9.jpg

[Spoo]

The space to the left of your CPU fan in the first picture looks like a nice place to add another fan.

[NullAshton]

If that doesn't work, you can always leave the computer case off. It should be fine, if you clean it regually with compressed air, and put the case back on when you'll be gone for a long period of time.

[Baron Munchausen]

They make 'slot fans' that use an open card slot and blow OUT from within the case. Putting one of those on the slot right below your card would help. The only problem is they are usually cheap 'sleeve' bearing devices that will quickly start to rattle and become very annoying.

[Atrocities]

Man dust can kill just as fast as heat. I noticed that with the onset of summer many people have more problems with their computers than they otherwise normally do at any other time of year.

Heat is a killer. I noticed today that my on board Lan keeps failing. I have to uninstall it from the control panel then reboot every few days just to be able to connect. It is a real pain. I am buying a new system, once I have the cash saved up, and that will be nice. I will ask for extra cooling fans and such to help keep it cooler.

[Caduceus]

You're missing a fan on the backside of the PC, I believe.

Looking at the picture, you need a 80-120mm fan, you just need to find the spot on the motherboard to attach it once you get it.

[Fyron]

Don't worry if you don't have a fan connector on the mobo; you can buy fans with 4pin molex connectors to connect directly to the power supply. Or you can always just tape up some wires to convert it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Atrocities]

My blue box has like six fans. It sounds like a jet engine when I turn it on. It was the system that got to hot and fried its CPU, HD, and MB. When it fried the CPU that was expensive back in the day when it was built. $400.00 for a 1.4 gig AMD. (X 2) The HD was just bad to begin with, damn Western Digitals don't hold up well to heat at all. The MB was a flawed ASUS made with inferior Chinese's chips.

I don't use it much any more as it is so very loud and it was build in 2001 and sports a $500.00 GeForce 3 card. You know the card that they released that was pretty much outdated the moment it was put into a box for sale. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

The sound card went bad, or perhaps its conflicting with the on board sound card, I am not sure, but it doesn't have any sound.

I think having a cool room to run your PC from is better than having extra fans. If the room is hot, then the air being sucked into your PC is also hot. No real cooling going on. What they need to do is sell small PC AC systems.