Radeon x1950 Overheat Issue

[masop]

I have an overheating situation with my system when trying to play games. I need to plug in and turn on a rectangular (1ft x 2ft in size) window fan to blow into my computer (with the side panel off) in order to get any of my games to open up and not freeze. This started happening in the last week or two. The gpu fan spins quietly and has been cleaned recently of all dust build up, including what was inside of the chamber.

Any ideas why I'm having these issues? The ambient temp of my mb is in the mid 40's C and the cpu is in the mid 50's C during game play. The only way to keep my mb, cpu and video card running cool without the fan is to push the ambient temperature of the office into the low 60's F at most which is uncomfortable to work in and uses alot of electricity for the a/c. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

-- MaSoP

NOTE: My system (cpu, memory and gpu) is not overclocked and never has been. Old and new video drivers have been tried including the latest catalyst drivers currently installed.

SYSTEM SPECS:

Antec Full Tower Case
Ultra 700 Watt PSU
Asus M2N-E Deluxe Mainboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Processor with OEM Heatsink/Fan and Arctic Silver 5
OCZ 4GB (1GB x 4) PC2-6400 Platinum Revision 2 Memory (CL5 due to voltage limitations on Mainboard)
Western Digital 640GB WD6400AAKS Hard Drive (3)
Western Digital 250GB WD2500AAKS Hard Drive (1)
Asus Radeon x1950 Pro 256MB PCI-E Graphics Card
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Sound Card

Windows XP Professional SP3 (boots of of one of the 640's)

Any other specs missing?

 

[ravenware]

First you need to isolate the overheating problem.


Install the ASUS probe software if you haven't already. Monitor the temps and see what rises faster.

If you are sure its the video card than you need to pick up a cooler for it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186016
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/product_vga_cooler.html

 

[jaguarskx]

It is possible that the thermal compound has degraded / dried to the point where it is no longer effective. Therefore, even with a properly working fan the video card can still overheat. You need to remove the heatsink clean it as well as the GPU of all thermal compound and then apply a fresh layer.

 

[ravenware]

^suspected the same, the new heatsinks should cool better and come with thermal compound.

 

[rangers]

what temp is the GPU, i would re-seat the cooler with some good thermal compound

 

[masop]

what temp is the GPU, i would re-seat the cooler with some good thermal compound

I may check that out. I've had the card for between 1.5 and 2 years now. The current idle temp is 40c while having a fan blow into the case. While I was playing bfme 2 rise of the witch king for the last 1.5 hrs, I had the ati tool running and set it to keep the gpu at 45c. I don't think it went above that temp. That made the fan on the card speed up to keep it cool. I'm going to see if I can play the game with just that tool running. I will also check out the heatsink as well. When I checked the card, the fan was running at a steady 20% which is weak, until I used the ati tool. Thanks for all the input.

-- MaSoP

 

[rangers]

at 45c the card is running cool i think that card can hit 100c b4 it starts to have problems, although i wouldn't test that out