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Noob level questions and problems with 8800 GTS

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Well,first off a fair warning.I'm just a simple user,not some power over clocker.
My PC is aprox 3 years old and up until now I've had no problems what so ever.
Config is:
AMD 6000+
Asus M2N-E motherboard
XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB
2 GB OCZ Gold DDR2
Chieftec 650W power supply
and 1TB Hitachi + 300GB + 250GB Maxtor HDD
OS is WinXP professional SP3
Forceware version is 260.89
DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Case,if this helps,is Chieftec CX-01B-B-SL
I've place two small fans on HDD racks and one big on the back of the case

And now the PROBLEM:
In games red dots start to appear and shortly after the game crashes and dots remain for few seconds on screen.
And it grew worse,dots were replace with orange/green/red lines,and soon after it all went to hell.
I thought that drivers/DirectX were causing the problems so I restored/re installed but it didn't help.
So I formated and re installed Windows and it was ok.But after few hours it came back with a vengeance.
I tried the graphic card at friend's PC and it was the same thing.
I replaced the XFX with used ASUS 8800GTS 320MB,and it works just fine.
But something bothers me.XFX,according to speedfan had a idle temp of 65-70 C,and full load temp of 80-85 C.
ASUS idles at 80 C and full load is 90 C.Is this temperature difference normal or is something wrong with ASUS card?!
Dust isn't an issue,both card are clean.And I'm a bit puzzled about fan readings in speedfan compared to rivatuner.
Speed says it works at 3000+rpm all the time,while riva gives me 1700+rpm idle.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance

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What are the ambient temps like where you live?

The problems you had are definately overheating issues.

The things that come to mind as to why you have high idle temps are:

1) Your fans in your case are either not working, or they are not configured in a push pull configuration. Usually you want the fans in the front to suck air in, and the fans at the back to push air out.

2) The cables in your case are messy and blocking air flow. Or your drives are possibly blocking air flow. You need to tie off the cables if you can, and configure the drives in areas that do not restrict air flow.

3) High ambient temps will cause the whole system to be hotter.

4) Do you have some other card just below the video card blocking the fans air flow?

5) A fan on the video card could be going bad, or the thermal compound on the heatsink.

6) Dust bunnies. Although you said they were clean. If you just cleaned the outside, that might not be enough. The dust could be in the heatsink. You'll want to blow air through the heat sink to clear it out.

As far as the ASUS vs. XFX, sometimes different cards do have better cooling methods. The same brands sometimes have different versions of the same card. Sometimes they even have overclocked versions as well. All these effect how cool they run.

Quote:
Well,first off a fair warning.I'm just a simple user,not some power over clocker.


LOL the correct term would be 'tech savvy' or super computer nerd...
but anyway your problem is definitely either a heat issue OR your graphics card has gone bad

Ambient temp is 20-25 C.
1.Fans are OK,large fan on the back pulls the hot air out,and the smaller one on the HDD sucks the air in.I have few unused fan slot all over the case so I might add some more.
2.I'm a tidy freak when it comes to this.All unused power cables are above the fans,so the clutter is not he issue.
3.I've noticed that even with XFX.But XFX tops at 85-87max,even in the summer.
4.Nope,just video,sound is integrated(not much of a audio freak)
5.Cleaned the fan,as for the compound on the heatsink I can't say.I might do a test removal on the XFX with the help of my "tech savvy" friend,as he advised me to do this in the first place.
6.I've cleaned all I could without removing the heatsink,but as before this is a job for an expert(and it will cost me a fair amount of beer :D  )

I've noticed something as the temp hits 90 C,fan goes berserk an the temp falls to 80-85 C on full load (Fallout Nev Vegas,High details),so you might be right about this difference in manufactures.

THANKS for all the help mate,much appreciated!
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alhanelem said:
Quote:
Well,first off a fair warning.I'm just a simple user,not some power over clocker.


LOL the correct term would be 'tech savvy' or super computer nerd...
but anyway your problem is definitely either a heat issue OR your graphics card has gone bad


Tech savvy,I'll have to remember that!!!!!!
As for ASUS it might be normal,but I'm more puzzled about XFX.What happened?
Now,even in BIOS letters are replaced with Matrix code like symbols and Windows loads(I can hear the ding sound)but GUI is,well....destroyed in the lack of a better word.
No mouse pointer,no taskbar,nothing just random lines and dot in all colors.
Hope ASUS doesn't meet the same fate,and that's why this heating issue is freaking me out.

Thanks mate!

And no.6 is the correct answer!
I removed the plastic cover,and removed all the dust clutter from heat sink.
No wonder it was overheating :pfff:  :pfff:  :pfff: 
Now it idles at 50-55 C,and max is about 75-80 C,just like XFX :wahoo: 
Thanks bystander ;)  ,ASUS is saved!


Yeah, dust can really build up in those heatsinks. A good investment is a can of compressed air to flush out the dust every few months before it builds up into an issue that requires you to take the card apart.
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