Graphics Card overheating?

[iamamano]

Sorry if this is not the best place to post, but I'm not sure exactly where to turn and the people around here seem to know computers pretty well. I bought my computer about a year ago off ibuypower.com, i wanted to build my own custom computer but seeing as i was about to go off to school and i needed a new system, i didn't quite have the time. So I went ahead and got this one built for me, and i had no problems with it for a good while.

When I returned home this summer it started to have trouble playing the very games i had been running super smoothly all year in school. It beeps out loud and doesn't stop until i stop playing games. It mainly does this with Half-life 2, Farcry, FEAR, and Doom3. I ended up finding out the problem is that my graphics card is overheating.

What i've got: Core2duo E6300, ATI x1600xt, 2gb DDR2 Corsair PC6400 800mhz ram, 300GB SATA II hard drive. I'm not positive on the rest of my specs without looking it up (Mobo, Power supply) but i do know that my power supply is a 550 watt, with 17A and 16A for the 2 12v rails. I thought perhaps my power supply isn't strong enough for the card, but I originally thought this was more than enough. I never have problems doing anything except running hardcore games, so I was hoping one of you could help me to fix my problem. THANKS!

[CWR03]

Start by inspecting the fan to make sure it's running, and that it's not clogged with dust that could keep it from cooling properly.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Your PSU is MORE than adequate for your card. No question whatsoever. You could probably get away with less than 400 watts.

Do what CWR03 suggests. Definitely inspect the whole case, make sure all your fans are working and dust off any heatsinks. Then try updating drivers, and making sure your system is free of nasty munchy malware.

To be clear, the problem you're having is that your system beeps when you play games? Does it work smoothly otherwise while gaming, or do you experience slowdown. Can you keep playing for a long time if you ignore the beeps? (just a test)

There could be an issue with your sound card.

When you say beep, do you mean a Windows sound coming through your main speakers, or a simple beep coming from your motherboard speaker?

~MiSfit

[Dr.Khron]

Yeah, we need more details about the beep...

Usually, you will start to see graphical artifacts and anomalies WAY before you start having crashes and/or alarms going off.

[iamamano]

It's not a beep from the computer speakers. You know that sound your computer makes sometimes when you start it up? I'm not sure that all computers do it, but it makes a beep coming from the system itself, i really don't know how or why, but it makes that beep.

I have the latest Catalyst control drivers installed, and if i have the Catalyst program open while gaming, it will minimize the game, and show a message saying that my card is overheating. Once while playing i ignored the beeps and began to experience graphical glitches while playing FarCry. There was another time that I was playing FEAR, and after the beeping started i lowered all the graphics details to a point where the game got kind of ugly, and i figured that would help my card to handle it better. After a few more minutes of playing (with the beeping continuing) my computer then restarted itself. When it turned back on it gave me a message letting me know that it had gotten dangerously hot and immediately shut down due to the heat.

My fans all seem to be running. I have a fan on the side of my case, the PSU has a large fan, and my Processor is connected to a Cooler Master liquid cooling device that has a fan on it. All of these fans seem to suck air into my computer rather than blow it out, but the air from all of them feels cool to the touch. My graphics card also has a small fan which blows air down to the bottom of my case, the air from it is not nearly as cool as the air from the rest of the fans (even while running nothing but windows). Even without gaming, the G-card feels pretty hot. CCC tells me that my card is running at almost 70C just while idling! When I game it can get into extreme temperatures, 100C or more. I don't see what could be causing it. I was looking into Coolers and heatsinks for my Gcard, but i though perhaps it was just the card itself. I know that this is an extremely high temperature for any card, and i really don't know what's causing it.

One last thing. My case has a display on the front of it which is connected somehow to my Mobo i believe, it tells me how hot it is and shows whether or not the HDD and fan are running. The HDD is always showing as running, but the fan is never shown as running. I'm not sure if it's just a matter of whether or not it's connected properly to the fan to detect it, or if the fan is running slower than it should be. It seems to be working so i don't see what the deal is. Perhaps it is because i don't have a fan directly on the Mobo. Right now my computer says it is at 87F, however it usually is a little over 100F. Thanks again guys!

[CWR03]

You definitely need to concentrate on cooling the video card. I had an older system that kept having video issues, and removing the slot cover just below the video card allowed the hot air from it to exhaust out the back of the case. That alone kept it running properly.

[mr soft]

You got serious heat issues with your card.
Most can come from poor air flow.

All of these fans seem to suck air into my computer

Top tips for heating probs :)

1 Inspect all fans visually (as suggested) are working
You need some sort of intake/outtake thing happening here.
Another 120mm silent fan in the right spot can do wonders.(cheap as chips now)
2 While pc is running take off the side panel .Small program like speedfan will help you to monitor the drop in temp. If big drop then you’re getting closer.
3 check your pci slots. Always good to space them cards out as most new motherboards have ample slots. Same goes for hard drives/DVD drives all helps flow.
4 Disable stuff in device manager. Floppy/extra DVD drive, you can always re-enable when you want.
5 If you have two drives, check your hibernation settings ,set your second drive to standby, say like 5 min, less heat.
6 Check IDE ribbons are not blocking flow; those round IDE cables are pretty cheap.

My setup doesn’t have side panels and no front panels; only thing on the front is DVD drive. I live in Seville its 44 C at the moment.:eek: oh yeh I don’t have air con. :eek
Hop it helps.

[iamamano]

i reversed the fan on the side of my computer so that it is now pushing air out. the fan from my PSU is still pushing air in, as well as the one for the processor. this has not improved my situation.

However, i called ibuypower and they told me my video card is defective. they said to send it in and they will send me back a new and working card. it took them very little time to determine that as the problem, so i decided im going to test a different pci-e card to see what temperature its idling and running at when i play games. but i'll have to wait awhile before i can test a different card, because the one i have is the only pci-e card i own... i'll have to find someone to borrow a card from. luckily, my brother has a ati x800 series card, but i'm not sure how soon i'll be able to try it.

do you think this is probably the case, or was ibuypower just trying to get me off the line? i'd rather not waste my time and money sending in my card and waiting for a new one if its going to have the same problem. thanks again

[Shinigami-Sama]

why is your PSU fan blowing in? o.O

and good luck on the swap

[mc2man]

sounds like all your fans are blowing the opposite to what you'd expect.
all mine have blown away device/ out of case except for side case fans and cpu in.

[CWR03]

The PSU should not pull air in, because it moves air through itself to cool it. There's no reason for that hot air to enter the case instead of venting out - if yours is really pulling air in you should reverse the fan.

Take the side cover off and let a plug-in fan blow on the video card, then play a high-draw game and see if it still gets hot. If it doesn't, you'll know it's just a ventilation problem. You should have good cross-ventilation in the case - my preference is to have several fans in the front pulling in cool air, and some at reduced RPM in the rear to pull the hot air out. As I mentioned above, I leave out the slot cover directly below the video card, and my fan arrangement lets a lot of the hot air from the video card blow out there.

[iamamano]

Hmm, well the PSU fan is located on the bottom of it, not the back. I'm afraid to reverse the fan and send air back into itself, it doesnt seem like it's meant to be that way. But I could be wrong. I'm not sure how much trouble it would be to reverse that fan but if you think it should be them maybe I'll give it a go.

As for the fan on my CPU, it is located on the liquid cooling for my CPU. I'm afraid to reverse that one as well because I don't know much about the device and I'm not sure if it needs to face the way it does. I suppose I could try to reverse that one as well.

If I reverse those fans I'll probably set the one on the side of the case to blow out again. The front of my case has no fans on it, so I think I should probably get one for the front, however I'm not sure if the task would be very easy, it's kind of in an awkward place. Maybe I could do that if I took the front off of my case, I've never tried doing that.

[Shinigami-Sama]

Hmm, well the PSU fan is located on the bottom of it, not the back. I'm afraid to reverse the fan and send air back into itself, it doesnt seem like it's meant to be that way. But I could be wrong. I'm not sure how much trouble it would be to reverse that fan but if you think it should be them maybe I'll give it a go.

As for the fan on my CPU, it is located on the liquid cooling for my CPU. I'm afraid to reverse that one as well because I don't know much about the device and I'm not sure if it needs to face the way it does. I suppose I could try to reverse that one as well.

If I reverse those fans I'll probably set the one on the side of the case to blow out again. The front of my case has no fans on it, so I think I should probably get one for the front, however I'm not sure if the task would be very easy, it's kind of in an awkward place. Maybe I could do that if I took the front off of my case, I've never tried doing that.
PSUs should always blow out
transformers(PSUs) throw a lot of heat

[squid_80]

PSUs should always blow out
transformers(PSUs) throw a lot of heat
Not if the fan is on the bottom of the PSU. Air is pulled into the PSU from inside the case and goes out the vent at the rear. Don't reverse it, that's how it should be.

[Shinigami-Sama]

Not if the fan is on the bottom of the PSU. Air is pulled into the PSU from inside the case and goes out the vent at the rear. Don't reverse it, that's how it should be.

thats still blowing out of the case is it not?
which is what I'm sayings

[iamamano]

you know i actually think the PSU fan is blowing upwards, I believe it is ventilating the air outwards, otherwise it really just wouldn't make sense. The fan located on the cooling device, however, I'm pretty sure is still facing into my computer though, but it is cool air coming from it. Reversing the fan on the side of my case helped to lower the temperature a bit, the front of my computer now reads in the higher 80's rather than 90 or 100. I also took the PCI slot off directly below my g-card, which is now running at about 63C while idle. I know this is still pretty hot.

I took the face off of my case just to check it out. I'm pretty sure I can get a 120mm fan to suck air into my computer through the front, which will help to ventilate the graphics card a bit. I think i'll still have to send the card into ibuypower, after about a year of using it I may have damaged it with improper ventilation and such. Although I don't see why they'd send me a system with poor ventilation.. you'd think they would try to avoid something like that to prevent damaging the parts. Either way.. i have still yet to try another card, hoping to do that before the week begins.

[graysky]

does your 1600 have an onboard thermal sensor? You can test it out by downloading atitool and seeing what the temp readings are on idle and load.

[mr soft]

I'm not sure how much trouble it would be to reverse that fan but if you think it should be them maybe I'll give it a go.
I wouldn’t.

As for the fan on my CPU, it is located on the liquid cooling for my CPU. I'm afraid to reverse that one as well because I don't know much about the device and I'm not sure if it needs to face the way it does. I suppose I could try to reverse that one as well.
I wouldn’t do that either. I’m sure your CPU and psu are fine. Download pc wizard or speedfan, both free and will give you psu and CPU temps, hard drive and motherboard temps. I would stay with swapping the card; if it’s the same temp then you haven’t lost anything.
Although I don't see why they'd send me a system with poor ventilation..
I picked every part for my pc
except for case, CPU fan, and psu. I have replaced two of the three so far, as the shop that built mine had put cheap garbage in to save a buck. :mad: