Nvidia 8800 gt graphic card, whats this?

[daviyow]

Hello! my nvidia card started to give weird colours and start freezing my computer when i was playing games, now it even gives a BSOD with startup of windows so i baked it, but when i was getting everything off it i found a very weird tape, i dont know if this is thermal tape because its not on the GPU chip, heres where the tape is, its under the golden ASUS thing.

And oh yeah, why is my computer so slow, my CPU is 70%+ with skype, i dont know if its skype but its veryy laggy

http://i42.tinypic.com/2zgufqf.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/4qmziu.jpg

also, now it feels very loose, first you couldnt move it, now it can move a bit to the right & left, beneath the thing theres 3 seperate black tiny squares, i have no idea what that is.

 

[coozie7]

The Asus thing is the voltage regulator heatsink and the tape was, or is, indeed thermal tape, the little squares are the VRM parts.
I can't see from the photo how it's held on but they're usually retained by spring loaded plastic pins. If the tape has been removed or badly damaged you should remove the heatsink clean its contact surface, apply a thin film of thermal paste to the it and then reassemble. It's normal for thermal tape to be loose when new or reapplied, it takes a few hours operation for it to settle down fully.
First suspect for the high CPU use would be a virus or malware infection so first run sweeps for both then install Ccleaner and use it regularly to keep the internet cache and temp folders clear of unwanted garbage.

 

[daviyow]

Thanks for answering!!! Is this badly damaged? http://i44.tinypic.com/2exbxc5.jpg , if yes i will go to a shop to buy it, and whats the risk of putting damaged paste on it?

have a nice day

 

[coozie7]

Yep, it's damaged, the missing areas will limit how much cooling the parts underneath get, increasing the chance they'll overheat and VRMs usually run hot anyway so it'll be a good idea to do something quickly.
There is two options:
1; It is still possible to find thermal tape/pads, some stores still sell it but you may need to hunt it down, the phone book is your best friend here. Or you could go here: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12681233
2; Use normal, but good quality thermal paste, remove the old thermal tape then just spread a thin layer of paste over the contact area of the heatsink and reassemble.
And antivirus software will not usually scan for, nor remove, malware BTW.