Tech Support

[selmitto]

Sorry for the delay! I was making sure to have all the "answers" before coming back.

I have good and bad news:

 

Good news:

The problem was definitely with my video card.

 

It had to be cleaned up. On the last times I removed the dust off of my computer hardware, I only used a brush on the GPU fan from the outside. I had never dismantled it, nor had I changed the thermal paste (bear in mind it was bought in 2010, so more than 3 years with the same ol' paste).

So, I finally applied a new coat of thermal paste on that shiny GPU. Everything seemed to be going great. No dust, new paste... Wow, that must've been the problem all the time! Great. Now the temperature would obviously drop significantly!

 

 

 

Bad news:

 

The problem was definitely with my video card (lol).

 

After assembling all the parts back and turning on my computer, something happened (or not, in that case). The computer boot wouldn't pass the BIOS part and it wouldn't let me to press F2 to see wtf was going on. The screen would remain black, the computer screen led would keep flashing (as if it was in stand-by mode) while the computer would sound as if everything was working normally. But it wasn't. If I tried to force a reset, it would beep twice (and repeat it for another time). Damn. My research showed me that two beeps means that there's something wrong with the graphics.

 

I took my computer to repair and the guy told me the prob was with my video card, because after changing it my computer would boot up normally. I did this test myself and I'm currently typing this message while using my brother's video card (nVidia GeForce 8600 GT). So yeah, apparently it was the time to say goodbye to my video card. But fuck! I can't afford a new fancy GPU right now. I have no idea how that broke. Shieeeeet!!1

 

---

Anyway, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, guys!

Seriously, I wasn't expecting so much support from you guys and information on how to solve that problem.

Even with my video card dying in the end, it was obvious that what you all suggested was the right thing to do (removing the dust again, changing the thermal paste, making sure that my coolers were working correctly and on the right direction, closing the case etc).

Love ya! <3

 

I'll play some games to see if I'll find any problem remaining, but I doubt I'll see those glitches again.

 

Chrome open with 15 tabs, spotify, steam also open: the CPU temp is still around 70ºC, but look at the GPU! Great, 49ºC  

 

 

Any suggestion on a video card? I'd like to try a Nvidia this time. It should be something that I'd only have to change in 4 years... Damn.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Al Anselmo~Intelect0

[Thrik]

Both my last GPU (AMD) and the one before that (NVIDIA) just died after a few years. I don't know if it's normal or what, but if I were you I'd get one from a manufacturer that offers long/lifetime warranty (BFG used to be one, was another too, might have begun with X). Those were high-end models too. I think in future I'll go for a bit more economical and just replace more often.

[dux]

Fuck me thats a shit tone of motherrucking dust on that bitch. And you wondered why it was getting hot? God daaaaamnnnnn.

 

[BaRRaKID]

That's a lot of dust!

I can take a wild guess on why the gfx card broke. You see those black squares around the GPU? That's the card RAM, notice how no part of your GPU cooler touches them, meaning that there's no way for them do dissipate heat besides the air that is flowing inside the case. With that amount of dust restricting the fan and the air flow one of those puppies probably burned.

 

For future reference there are passive coolers that make them less hot:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=136

http://www.swiftech.com/mc800smccoolingkit.aspx

They are fairly easy to install, they've an adhesive on the base so you basically just have to glue them to each RAM piece, and what they do is transfer the heat from the component to the metal that they're made of. Simple but effective.

[selmitto]

Yeah, indeed!

When I was searching Youtube for reference on how to clean my video card, I saw some dudes applying thermal paste on the card RAMs. I decided to do the same, and then I noticed how that wouldn't matter as the cooler wouldn't touch anything. 

 

Well, lesson learned! Now I'll have many more important things to pay attention to when buying the next video card.

Also, thanks for the reference on the passive coolers! I didn't know they existed.

[⌐■_■]

Both my last GPU (AMD) and the one before that (NVIDIA) just died after a few years. I don't know if it's normal or what [...]

 

I only buy my computer stuff second hand, but I've been through so many gfx cards I've lost count. so to me that sounds pretty normal tbh...

Edited July 20, 2013 by killertomato

[ZZZ]

http://lifehacker.com/5823227/save-dying-video-cards-with-a-quick-bake-in-the-oven

Ever heard about this?

Edited July 20, 2013 by 0kelvin

[selmitto]

http://lifehacker.com/5823227/save-dying-video-cards-with-a-quick-bake-in-the-oven

Ever heard about this?

Woot awesome!

I'll have something to cook tonight. Yeah!

 

(I'll try that, thank you. I already consider my card as dead, so it couldn't get worse )

[Brander_Rly]

It was in the second page of this thread:

 

 

Clean the dust and stop with the science. It fixes 95% of overheating problems.

 

 

[Brander_Rly]

It was in the second page of this thread:

 

 

Clean the dust and stop with the science.

 

 

[selmitto]

Tried the oven hack. Unsuccessful

RIP video card!

[dux]

Just buy a new card yo

[selmitto]

Just buy a new card yo

 

I'm looking forward to it.

Any suggestions?

 

I'm completely outdated about today's computer hardware   

[Sentura]

Okay, rather than just giving you suggestions on what to get, here's my teach-you-how-to-fish suggestion: Look for reviews of different cards, comparisons and all that. Look into what elements are important (e.g. usually ram amount is less important than gpu clock speeds - incidentally that is a good place to start), then compare them with graphics cards in your price range in order to find the most optimal approach.

 

This helplessness is getting tiresome.

[ZZZ]

The only thing that I've read out there is that, due to GPU manufacturing yields, there are fishy models. For ex: for a small price difference such as 30-50$ there is one model with 1GB GDDR5 and another model with GDDR3, but the GDDR5 model has fewer ROPs, fewer cores, etc. It's like they cut off on the processor and then try to compensate with overclocking the ram.