GTS 8800 idles at 90c, not joking

[sw0mgt]

I have an Antec 182 case:

1 rear 120mm TriCool Fan (standard)
1 top 120mm TriCool fan (standard)
1 lower chamber 120mm TriCool Fan (standard)

I have the case open and a 3 foot house fan blowing full blast into the case
Cooler air enters from the open side and blows out through the exhaust fan at the top

Yet my graphics card is 75c after Windows XP loads with no other programs running
I run dual monitors... but turning one monitor off doesn't drop the temp.

My ambient temperature is 32c.
Without the house fan my card idles at 90c (this seems extraordinary considering my case has 3x fans in it)

Why is my card idling at 90c without this absurd house fan?

1. The cables are decent/good... they aren't horrible and there's decent room for air flow
2. The 3 fans from my P182 case are all spinning... yet 90c idle. WTF?

I bought the card a year ago so it's not like I can return/warranty it

My CPU (Q6600) cores idle at 50-60c. I used Arctic Silver and bought a giant AeroCool Dominator for it. How is my system SO HOT when I have the case off a giant fan creating some nice air-flow? 32c ambient is hot, but someone else had 37c ambient and his stuff wasn't even idling as hot as mine.

 

[Timop]

Is your PSU fan blowing out hot air on to the card?

What brand is your card? If it still has a warranty try to get a new one, if not, open it up, dust and put thermal paste on.

BTW, are you using the stock cooler for the Q6600? Is it secured tightly?

 

[sw0mgt]

Hi,

The PSU is on the bottom level, it's unlikely that's the cause.
The GPU is directly beneath the CPU

It is a eVGA. I didn't purchase a warranty or anything... what is covered in these limited 3 year standard warranties?

Yes, I am using a stock cooler.

How do I check if it's secured tightly?
Are there any guides for cleaning this GPU and applying thermal paste?

 

[sw0mgt]

The card is actually 3 years old and had a TON of dust on the fan. I cleaned it out... but I did NOT take the card apart.

 

[Helltech]

Did this just start? Is the card new or old?

If the card is new and its doing that the card may be faulty.
If the card is old and doing that the fan may be dieing or something may have blown on it.

Is the fan on the card working? When you start the computer can you see it running.

Use MSI After burner to mess with the fan control of the card.

That case has really bad intake air mangement. If i recall correctly.

 

[stevediaman]

Other than the recommendations already given, did you update drivers recently?

Ive noticed once w/ my 8800's that a driver upgrade increased my temps by 10c

Its also very possible that the fan could have something stuck in it or could be completely clogged or even dieing/broken.

I wouldnt really recommend this, but as a last resort maybe the sensor fried and you could try to touch the top center of the card to see how hot it really is. ( make sure you are touching a metal wall of the case to discharge static)

 

[descendency]

You could try removing the card's HSF and applying cooling paste, then remounting the HSF. It could have come loose if you moved your case.

I wouldnt really recommend this, but as a last resort maybe the sensor fried and you could try to touch the top center of the card to see how hot it really is. ( make sure you are touching a metal wall of the case to discharge static)

Get a digital thermometer, don't use your finger unless you need to get rid of your fingerprints.

 

[sw0mgt]

Ok, so I removed the card and unscrewed the sink/fan from the circuit board.

I saw some sticky, greasy thermal pads that I didn't mess with (I started cleaning the plain metal side until I realized I didn't have an adequate replacement for the pads... any tips? they're gross and don't conduct heat, but then again, I'm not sure they're supposed to). I scraped off the 3 year old thermal compound and applied a fresh, even coat. I couldn't get the plastic off the fins/fans, but I never-the-less got a vacuum cleaner in there and sucked out some dust barriers in the fins.

Now I am idling at 63C with or with-out the house fan. So... this knocked 15 degrees off. Ambient temperature is 30C.

The card is 3 years old. I haven't monitored my temperatures until today. I had stellar video performance for the first 2 years followed by lackluster performance. Crashes/artifacts due to over-heating. The fan works and is spinning. I have it at 80%. I wonder if it just needed some cleaning.

63C still seems SLIGHTLY warm, is it OK?
If the thermal pads are degrading, should I replace them ASAP?

 

[sw0mgt]

I applied the thermal paste to the HS instead of the chip.... OOPS.

 

[Timop]

Ok, so I removed the card and unscrewed the sink/fan from the circuit board.

I saw some sticky, greasy thermal pads that I didn't mess with (I started cleaning the plain metal side until I realized I didn't have an adequate replacement for the pads... any tips? they're gross and don't conduct heat, but then again, I'm not sure they're supposed to). I scraped off the 3 year old thermal compound and applied a fresh, even coat. I couldn't get the plastic off the fins/fans, but I never-the-less got a vacuum cleaner in there and sucked out some dust barriers in the fins.

Now I am idling at 63C with or with-out the house fan. So... this knocked 15 degrees off. Ambient temperature is 30C.

The card is 3 years old. I haven't monitored my temperatures until today. I had stellar video performance for the first 2 years followed by lackluster performance. Crashes/artifacts due to over-heating. The fan works and is spinning. I have it at 80%. I wonder if it just needed some cleaning.

63C still seems SLIGHTLY warm, is it OK?
If the thermal pads are degrading, should I replace them ASAP?

What do you mean?
Some alcohol should get rid of any TIM residue.

 

[stevediaman]

my 8800gts512 right now is idle at 47c but i do have about 8 or so 120mm fans in my case as well as an Ultra KAZE blowin right onto the card... and the AC is on... with the card at 70%...

i dunno... did you clean out the back vents on the card? try to get some compressed air into it and make sure you hold the fan blades while you do that. Sucking dust isnt enough, you need to blow it out.

And which 8800 is it exactly? what manufacturer? could just be some cheap quality cooler on it

oh yea ur q6600 is running hot too btw.

is that 60c the case temp or the core temp?

if its the core temp its running too hot and you really need more fans in the case...

again my idle temps right now for my q6600 @3.2 is 28-34c core temps

 

[sw0mgt]

What do you mean?
Some alcohol should get rid of any TIM residue.

I meant the plastic cover over the fins/fan. I couldn't remove it from the steel frame to get deep into the fins.

i dunno... did you clean out the back vents on the card? try to get some compressed air into it and make sure you hold the fan blades while you do that. Sucking dust isnt enough, you need to blow it out.

I couldn't get the plastic cover off... but I definitely cleaned the inside fins and the fan blades with a vaccuum. Knocked 10 degrees off.

And which 8800 is it exactly? what manufacturer? could just be some cheap quality cooler on it

eVGA

oh yea ur q6600 is running hot too btw. is that 60c the case temp or the core temp?

Right now my core temps are around 50c. It goes from 45-60c depending on the ambient temperature.

again my idle temps right now for my q6600 @3.2 is 28-34c core temps

What is your ambient temperature?

I have the P182 case... how do I go about beefing up the fans? I only have 3x120mm fans.

I probably need to clean the heat-sink better and re-apply some thermal paste. And re-seat the heat sink. It's been 3 years. And then add some more fans. I bet I can shave 10-20C off the core temps. yea it's running too hot

 

[sw0mgt]

The CPU temperature in BIOS is 44c
Hmonitor says the CPU is 44c and the CPU0 core is 50C, the other cores are slightly cooler

 

[stevediaman]

ok at times like these ide suggest a strip down of the computer and a rebuild... you need to open everything up find all the intakes and make sure everything is clean in every little corner. if there is a place to mount a fan, mount one just try to keep it to like 2/3 intake and 1/3 exhaut.

(After looking at that case the damn thing looks like an oven...) umm its old right? yo u dont care anymore? rip the front door off lol

remove the hard drive racks to get a better flow goin to the card and install the biggest fan you can possibly find in the front slot

ignore the bottom powersupply half of the computer as it seems separated and probably wont effect anything

cut a hole in the side panel and buy a 120mm Ultra KAZE fan and sit it right ontop of the video card

BUT if you are going to go that far... you could just buy a new like $60 case and it be better out of the box than that...

but try reseating the processor heatsing, put the paste directly onto the chip and apply enough to just cover it and get every corner. remember that when you press down the heatsink to not have put enough for it to squeeze out every side and make a huge mess

you need compressed air.

do you have like a compressor for a nail gun? anything that can shoot air

sucking air does not clean a computer...

dust gets stuck in the most tiny spaces in the coils of the heatsinks especially on the processor

look with a flash light and you will probably see what im talking about

oh and my ambient temp is about 24-25c right now w/ the AC runnin

and remember, cooling a computer aint easy or cheap... you can only do so much with cleaning and eventually you gotta start spendin some money... but well you said its been like this for 3 years now so well the damage is probably already done... so just clean it the best you can and start lookin for new parts cause those aint gonna last very long (or atleast their full lifetime)

* oh i forgot to add a little side story... i built my brother a computer. He didnt clean it for 6 months for 1 year. I went over and saw it and told him he has to clean it, but before he did i ran a stress test and temp monitors on it just to see how the temps were... the same q6600's cores started hitting 80c and wouldnt stop rising. I didnt check the video card temperatures at the time and i regretted it because 2 weeks later the video card died on him (8800gts 512)and im 100% sure it was from the excessive heat and probably running at 80-90c non stop

* another thing i forgot to tell you, download CPU-Z and check what stepping yous q6600 is. should stay it at the near top of the window

mine is a g0 stepping which is basically built w/ better parts or something and runs the coolest of all q6600's

theres also b2 stepping and b3 stepping which run much hotter. you probably have one of and will never reach my numbers.