OT: Graphics Card Overheating

[Litcube]

I had the same problem. I sent the card back to the shop and they gave me a new one. If that's not viable anymore, you can't lose by trying your own sink/fan/silver silicate solution. It might even be fun.

[Baron Munchausen]

Why is this not a long-term solution? I've been running my system with the side panel off since only a few days after I bought it. Not only does it benefit the CPU and graphics card, but the motherboard itself will last longer for being kept at a lower ambient temperature. (Capacitors die quicker at higher temps.) If your running the machine at home, why does it matter if the case is open?

[Renegade 13]

Baron Munchausen said:
Why is this not a long-term solution? I've been running my system with the side panel off since only a few days after I bought it. Not only does it benefit the CPU and graphics card, but the motherboard itself will last longer for being kept at a lower ambient temperature. (Capacitors die quicker at higher temps.) If your running the machine at home, why does it matter if the case is open?

Good point.

...to prevent, dust, hair, lint, smoke, etc. from readily getting into and on the internal components.

I doubt having the side panel off would really change anything, since I already have to take most of the hardware apart once every couple of months and clean all the dust out, side panel on or not! I live right next to a dusty road, so everything gets gunked up really fast, and I end up taking the CPU heatsink and cleaning it, along with the graphics card heatsink, all the various and numerous fans, etc to get them clean on a regular basis anyways.

Thanks for the various recommendations so far guys!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Could just be a bad GPU.

[se5a]

heat sinks are not that well attached right out of the factory, Overclockers prety much rip them straight off, lap them, then reapply the thermal compound and re-attach them.
out of the factorys they have a sticky foil pad which goes between the heatsink and the chip, this is dead easy and fast to apply, but is not as efficent as using thermal compound if applied correctly. (CPUs anyway, I presume it would be a simular story with GPUs)

you could possibly have a warped heatsink maybe.

[Fyron]

You might want to buy a new case that has filters in front of all the intake fan slots (or affix some filters to your existing case)... this will help reduce the intake of dust significantly.

[Kana]

I heard a quick home grown fix for filters. You can tape dryer sheets over your vents and fan openings. This will catch a vast amount of dust and debris. The article said you can use ones that have already been used in the drier, but I can see using new ones as well.

[Arralen]

Renegade, can you shoot some pics of your machine, zip them up and attach them here?