I think my video card overheated :'(
SpywareShooter
127.0.0.1
I was just on my main computer (the Athlon 3000+) when suddenly it was like the monitor shut off. The computer was still running, but the screen went black and to "standby" mode. I thought maybe some strange glitch put it into standby so I tried to wiggle the mouse, but nothing happened. I hit a few keys, still nothing. When I unplugged the monitor it lit up to blue (meaning it's working/displaying correctly) and said "please check the monitor cable", so I know it's not a problem with the monitor.
That computer has always run really hot and has been around 195ºF all summer. I am assuming that the video card overheated but I want a response from a hardware professional first. I just got the video card 3 months ago and it's an Nvidia GEForce 5500FX. My warranty on the computer and/or the card will cover this if it overheated, right? I don't want to be out $150.
Also I wasn't experiencing choppy graphics or anything, which I've heard are signs of a dying card. Just all of a sudden this happened. The computer is shut down right now to give it a chance to cool.
BTW: I dragged my old 566MHz Celeron upstairs to post this. I will be using that until I figure out what's wrong with the main computer.
That computer has always run really hot and has been around 195ºF all summer. I am assuming that the video card overheated but I want a response from a hardware professional first. I just got the video card 3 months ago and it's an Nvidia GEForce 5500FX. My warranty on the computer and/or the card will cover this if it overheated, right? I don't want to be out $150.
Also I wasn't experiencing choppy graphics or anything, which I've heard are signs of a dying card. Just all of a sudden this happened. The computer is shut down right now to give it a chance to cool.
BTW: I dragged my old 566MHz Celeron upstairs to post this. I will be using that until I figure out what's wrong with the main computer.
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Comments
Let us know how it goes, hopefully it's just 'one of those things'
Also, if you have an old PCI graphics card, you could always swap it to test.
is it possible to open the side and watch the fan?, also if u want a pretty definite cause, let the machine idle for a while, if nothing shut it down let it cool off, then start it up and run somthing like 3dmark or something like that. it'll become real obvious if it does it in a card benchmark. but take a look and make sure the fan stays at a constant speed, my 9800pro fan would slow way down and speed back up, so i replaced it before it blew.
How do I measure the rail voltage and how do I check the fan speed?
You do have a heat problem. It could be indirectly voltage related, in that heat will exacerbate low voltages. It is probably your video card overheating, but could also be the power supply unit getting too hot.
What case are you using? What is the fan(s) configuration -- size, location, number.
Case: 192º
CPU: 147º
Here are the voltage readings from MBM:
Core 0: 1.62V
+3.3: 3.30V
+5.00: 4.97V
+12.00: 10.94V
-12:00: 1.87V
-5.00: 5.11V
And the fan sensors aren't working correctly. They are staying at 5625, 33750, and 16,875 RPM.
I have three fans. One is in the PSU Box, one is at the back by the video card, and one is above the video card. I'm not sure of the fan sizes.
I have an old fan out of an AMD K6-2 machine that's about 40mm square. I was going to set it so that it was cooling the video card but I couldn't find plugs to plug it into. Would that even help?
Disregard the fan RPM indicators: 1) yours are ficticious, 2) even if the software were reporting correctly, placement and size of the fans is more important than specific rotational speed.
Do you know what brand and model of case you have? It would help us to find an image of it to suggest better case ventilation. Sounds like the case is starving for fresh air. Exhaust fans don't do much good if intake is too limited. The exhaust fans will just spin fast without removing much heat.
At this point, it is difficult to diagnose your problem not knowing whether it's caused by heat, a bad PSU, or a video card hardware problem. Can you run the system with a side of the case removed? It would be good to do that, report the temperatures, and let us know if the system is still crashing.
Also, when you say a fan at the back of the video card - do you mean mounted to the back of the case or mounted on the video card itself? As for fan sizes, they are determined by measuring the diameter. The standard measurement is metric, in millimeters, such as 60mm, 80mm, 92mm, and 120mm. If you don't have a metric ruler or tape, measure in inches (hokey 'English' measuring system!) and let us know.
We can get your computer out of its suffocation, and likely, you may not have a problem with your video card hardware.
Actually, it can be. My BIOS only reads the CPU temp and while MBM says it's 147º the BIOS changes from 147 to 152.
I have the side of my case off and had it off when the card overheated and when I posted that stuff from MBM. With the side of the case off it drops only about 2º. When I have the side of the case off and have a fan blowing one side intake one side exhaust it drops about 10º. I have three fans running in the room also.
It's mounted at the back of the case.
and the case is burning up. your are really close to the boiling temp of water if it is accurate.
you might have to mod a 120mm blowhole and fan or something to get those temps down. do you have a/c? are you living in a super hot part of the world?
Well, anyway, did you still experience crashes with the case side off?
Also, I'm not sure if those temp readings are accurate. MBM5's fan readings are incorrect. I had the same problem with my old ASUS board. In the settings, you can apply a divider on them (usually /4). Just fiddle with them until the rpm matches whats in the bios.
Out of curiosity, what is your ambient room temperature right now?
The outside of the case isn't but the components inside are, epecially the AGP card.
I have an AC in the other room. I'm not in a super hot part of the world... just little old New England. The temps have been in the 90s here lately though.
Not yet, I think that was the only one. I'll try again today since I left the computer on all night.
The 12V Rail goes from 10.94V to 11.24V.
Should I post the BIOS reading of the fan speed here?
I'll report back on that in a little while.
Also, I find it strange that you guys all think it's extremly hot and is going to burn through the case (end exaggeration) when I've asked people IRL and they say it's no problem. I asked the "computer expert" who fixes the public computers in town whenever something goes wrong and he said "don't waste the fan blowing into the computer, you're going to overheat by doing that before your computer does". Then I asked the guy at Best Buy and he said that there may be a little problem but that the computer can handle it and if I was concerned to bring it in and have them fix it. I don't trust either of them, and I trust you more, but it's kind of strange that two different kinds of computer experts can have different views on a hot computer.
this makes no sense. an intake fan is not going to overheat your pc. all it will do is pull fresh air into your pc which should cool it off. this guy doesn't sound like much of a computer expert IMO.
yep, i would trust the good peeps at SM over BB and a library tech anyday.
as others have suggested, i also think the psu is suspect. your can grab a multimeter for like $10 from radio shack or home depot and get an accurate reading of your 12v line and the others.
and i agree that mbm5 has to be reporting the temps wrong. check in the BIOS for a more accurate result.
He said that I would overheat, not my computer
The BIOS only reads the CPU temp and it reads the same as MBM.
Having looked at your information again, I believe your crashes are due to one of the following factors or combination thereof:
1. Out-of-tolerance low 12V power rail on the PSU. (11.7~ is usually considered the lowest safe level for components. If the PSU fluctuates between the 10.x that you specified and 12V, you WILL eventually ruin electronic components.)
2. Your high case temperatures are causing your GPU to overheat.
It would really help us help you if you were to post digital photos of your case layout, to include internal shots.
Is this computer a custom build? A brand and model? Intent is not to criticize, but to better know the architecture of the system.
I also just experienced another problem. I was just playing a game online and my screen went black. I figured "bah, someone messaged me so the game crashed". The game always crashes when someone tries to send a message. So I figured I'd just restart the game and be golden but then my computer started to reboot itself! When it loaded back to the desktop a window came up that said "Your system just recovered from a serious error. Would you like to send an error report?". What does this mean?
Should I still make a video or not?
if you want to make a video, i am sure people will check it out....not sure if it's needed though.
if not, then replace the psu with a quality unit.
i don't think unpluging anything is going to help...
this is the problem with oem computers. if something goes wrong you can a)troubleshoot it yourself and possibly void the warranty, or b) have no pc while you wait for the service dept. to troubleshoot.
i ran into a similar situation when i was still in school. i had a gateway pc my parents got me for college, but after 6 months or so it started turning itself off automatically. i troubleshooted with an online tech from gateway and we determined that it was a flaky psu, so i was told to take it in for service. well, they were so backed up that they wanted me to leave it with them for 3-4 weeks. i couldn't believe they were serious! i walked out of there with my broken pc under my arm, drove straight to microcenter and picked up an antec smartblue 350w. i replaced the piece of junk with the antec and haven't looked back. i still have that old gateway today with the same psu.
anyway, replacing that psu was my first experience with upgrading and the whole do-it-yourself thing. so thanks to them, i became much more knowledgable about pc hardware. just another reason to build it yourself, IMO.
1)Right now I'm practically broke and can't afford a new PSU. I have an old one out of an AMD K6-2 in my basement but it won't be powerfull enough to power this machine.
2)I don't want to void the warranty just in case something comes up that neither me or you can help me fix. Also the warranty was an extra $60 or something like that and I don't want to go wasting that money.
While gaming people are always wondering why I'm constantly leaving and coming back and I tell them that my system keeps randomly rebooting. One of the guys I play with is a computer techie for a large company so I asked him what he thought of the problem. He said it could be that the 512MB of RAM I just added was seated wrong, so I should try to use the computer without the extra RAM for a few days and see if it fixed anything. Do you think it is the RAM?
I wish that this computer was as problem-free as my first one (which is on and folding right now). I never had any problems with the old 566MHz Celeron. The only problem it ever had is that it had Windows ME installed when I bought it (and that's always a problem). In the whole five years I owned it and used it every day, it only blue screened maybe twice. The thing is still up and running strong without any problems. Too bad it's not powerful enough for gaming or I would use it instead. As it is I sometimes use it to post here and browse the net.