Overheating

[jellydoughnut217]

My graphics card keeps overheating. I only have a radeon 9800 pro, i dont think it should be overheating. Does anyone have any idea as how to fix this? I already tried cleaning the dust out btw. Also does anyone know of any program i can use to check just how high the temperature in my pc is?

 

[holydeadpenguins]

How's your case's airflow? Or rma , or replace it.

 

[jellydoughnut217]

its got the 1 big main fan to cool the whole system then theres 1 on my processor and 1 on my gfx card, but when playing games the card heats up. You can just feel the area on the case where the gfx card is located and its really hot. Is there any way to fix this without spending money? Im cheap, and cant justfy spending money on this out dated computer.

 

[duffers20]

what cpu are you using? The 9800 pro shouldn't get that hot, so it means its not getting very much cool air blown across it.

 

[jellydoughnut217]

im using a 2.4 GHz pentium 4. Yeah i didnt think i 9800 should get hot like this, what do i do about it? Id like to know a program to check the temperature too

 

[duffers20]

I don't think there are any temp sensors on the 9800pro's. I have looked in teh past, but I havent been able to find anything. Whats your case like, and where is the one main fan, because you should really have 1 fan blowing in the case, and 1 blowing out, to keep the air moving across the componants. If your fan isn't blowing anywhere near the card, the I would recommend spending alittle money, like $15 / £8 on a new case fan. Its not much and it will mean that your card will run cooler and reduce the chance of overheating in teh future.

 

[jellydoughnut217]

The main fan is located at the top of the system and the gfx card is at the bottom, so thats probably why. Im wondering why this is happening now though, ive had ths setup for about a year and a half now, and only recently its started overheating.

 

[EVIL]

you need atleast 2 system fans, one on the low side breathing the cool air in (so it has to blow inwards..) and one higher to breath the hot air out. (cool air sinks to the bottom, hot air rises to the top, its simple as that.) if you got one fan to breath your hot air out you suffocate your system, and it keeps overheating, if you have one fan to breath the cool air in, the cool air will still get hot and cant escape so you got the same problem.

 

[Link]

Sorry Evil, but thats just not true. Many Shop bought PCs come with a single extraction fan and thats it. In fact many have to make do with just the PSU extraction fan. I will admit more fans help, but you do not always need more than 1

jellydoughnut217 - If nothing else has changed on your setup then there is something wrong with the card. I would imagine either the fan is not working properly, or it has overheated in the past and knackered it.

I am assuming from the fact that you say it is overheating even though you have no temp meters, that you are getting artifacts, then freezes? I suggest you try it in another system if you can. As holydeadpenguins says get it RMA'ed (Exchanged as faulty) if its under warrenty, else you'll need to buy a new one.

 

[psyno]

An intake fan wouldn't be a waste of money or a bad idea at all. I too am curious how you've determined it's overheating.

That it's overheating now and hasn't before isn't really surprising. If you're in the northern hemisphere, it is, of course, the middle of summer now. On top of that, you've had the system long enough for dust, etc, to build up inside.

Evil, I'm afraid you've got the thermodynamics a bit wrong.. It has a lot more to do with the air currents the fans establish. :cheers:

 

[jellydoughnut217]

hmm...does a soundcard produce heat at all?

 

[psyno]

Yes, but so does every component in your system, including the fans! Power absorbed by the sound card is not significant next to the graphics adapter, CPU, memory, hard disk, and power supply.

 

[Reaktor4]

Might need to replace the thermal paste.

 

[jellydoughnut217]

i bought a new fan and installed it, it works fine and the system stays much cooler, but i still get geometry corruption when playing a game that really taxes the gfx card. My guess is that it probably overheated and is now messed up, wich blows btw

 

[holydeadpenguins]

Get it fixed.