GFX-Overheat?

[Gorion]

recently a problem is developing..ime just playing and all of a sudden my monitor switches off and everything freezes, ive asked some ppl and it seems its a gfx heating problem.

ive got a xaser3 with a watercooling system, only attached to the cpu. radiator and reserviour are on the inside of the case, then i have an other reserviour on the outside.

my gfx- x800xt all in wonder.

i was thinking about some fan/heat spreader.. or maybe some watercool upgrade so it cools the gfx too, tho atm my "browsing" temp is around 43 (with the room ac+fans on) so the watercool might have some problems cooling that too. (currently using distilled water)

any ideas?

bdw, space in the case is very limited. and so are power connectors, its not a sata

[BigFatCat]

I'd guess that if you've already got water, a GPU block would be most cost and heat effective. No extra power to run but you'd have to be careful about hose routes.

Zalman are good aircoolers. but they can be a little awkward to fit on some cards, like mine.:angry:

[Gorion]

ive got an aquarius2 from thermaltake atm

bdw, it happened again, and i was playing D2.. could it really be a heat problem... cos D2 doesnt have that much polygons to process...?

[DarkAngel]

Yeah get a GPU block m8, and it will just connect onto your current system.

[delanvital]

TBH I think it is a power problem. When the card does not get enough amps the screen goes black and the system is sort out dead when you can't get it back on How many total amps does your PSU put out?

Run a voltage monitor program and check your 3.3v and 5v (use fx. SpeedFan). If they look fine, then spin up your DVD-drive, start a game, and put some cycles on the CPU and see if it drops. If it is around 4.7 on the 5V and 3.2 on your 3.3 you are in trouble. Check how much it fluctuates when you pressure it and when you don't.

[Gorion]

when ime just browsing, +3.3V - 3.20V    +5V - 4.81V    speedfan

same identical reading with aida32

psu - 420V


seems that with just browsing ime in trouble already?

[kregoron]

can you try look what they are when you are gaming ?

[Gorion]

3.3V - 3.17V
5V - 4.78V

on D2 will post further info during bwl tonight, since its working hard during that

[Barley]

What are tthe specs of the rest of the PC?

[delanvital]

3.3V - 3.17V
5V - 4.78V
on D2 will post further info during bwl tonight, since its working hard during that

The ATX official tolerance for these are 4.75 and 3.14. This means that hardware you plug in your mobo should be able to function as long as they receive within these levels. However, that is no guarantee; hardware can fail when close to the limit. The less amps, the more the voltage will fluctuate under pressure.

If it has worked fine before, and only fails under pressure like tough games, this might be the summer heat. The hotter the PSU is, lesser the output, due to exceeding best operating temperature for the components.

If you are getting trouble with the PSU, then try and take off the sides of your case and put up a big desk fan to cool the PSU. Give a some time to cool down and try again. If this helps, you know where the problem is Also, try and unplug all hardware that you can. Hard drives, DVD-drives etc. share the 5V rail with the graphics card, I think.

[Gorion]

What are tthe specs of the rest of the PC?

CPU Type   AMD Athlon XP-A, 2100 MHz (6.25 x 336) 2800+
Motherboard Name   Gigabyte GA-7VT600(-L)  (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DIMM, Audio)
Motherboard Chipset   VIA VT8377 Apollo KT600
System Memory   3072 MB  (DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter   ALL-IN-WONDER X800 Series  (256 MB)
Audio Adapter   Creative SB X-Fi Elite Pro   
Disk Drive   Maxtor 4D040H2  (40 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive   ST3160021A  (160 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive   PIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-105  (16x/40x DVD-ROM)
Optical Drive   TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552U


regarding heat, its going up everyday, this happens with the ac on too.
will try further tests, will need an upgrade soon neways

[sheepy]

Gorion,
 
I think that this is power issue more than a heat issue, when i saw ur rig it was well spaces and u got a lot of cooling in there.
 
If u want to check if its a heat issue on the cheep, take the side pannel off the computer and put a household fan blowing at the grafix card. if it still happens then u have a power issue

[delanvital]

Maybe this could guide you:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

What are your +12v under pressure?

[Gorion]

ok peeps, this is a shameless bump with a big update

this week ive changed:

psu- Hiper power 580w
vga- new cooler + copper heatsinks on the cips (front and backside) (artic silver3 used as thermal conductor on the main cooler, the heatsinks came with thermal tape thingys)
northbridge- added a fan to its heatsink

latest upgrade was done yesterday.. and its was perfect..

now today it the goddamed blackscreen(monitor looks exectly like when you shutdown your system, led is red(sound crashes, while the pc is still switched on)) popped back :ranting2:

i seriousely dont know what in the nine hells is wrong, (ive been having impulses of grabbing the bloody tower and throwing it at the floor:help: )

[outofsync]

are you overclocking your cpu? perhaps you could try running at stock speeds and see if it still crashes.