8800GTX overheating

[coldmeat]

Ever since I upgraded to Windows 7 I've had issues with my games crashing and/or freezing. It would go to a black screen for a little while and sometimes would recover and the game would continue as if nothing happened.

I downloaded speedfan because I figured the maybe my gpu was overheating. Right now, idling, it is reading 75C. When I take the side off my case and put my hand beside it, there is no doubt that this is an accurate reading.

I didn't do anything to the card when I upgraded, except blow the entire computer with a can of air to get rid of dust. With a quick google I can see a few other people having the same issue.

Other than the freezing, the games are running fine.

P5K deluxe
Q6600 @ stock speeds
8800GTX (latest drivers)
4gb ram
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

 

[thilanliyan]

What brand is the card? You could maybe take it apart and blow out any dust in the heatsink and/or remove the heatsink and replace the thermal interface material.

 

[Seero]

Try to clean off the dust within the heatsink. There are 4 screws holding the heatsink cover, remove it and you should see the dust.

 

[coldmeat]

It's an EVGA card. I just finished about 2 hours of TF2, and it never went above 85C. When I finished it was about 79.

 

[coldmeat]

Ok, so I took it out of the case to see if I could take it apart, but there are some screws holding the plastic cover on that I can't get to. They are behind the cover. I don't know how they got them in there, but I can't get them out.

edit: nevermind, I managed to get them out. I had to peel back the sticker though.

 

[coldmeat]

Well, I may have found the problem haha.

 

[Visaoni]

Yikes. I should probably pull my 8800gtx and see how bad it is. I've noticed the fan getting louder than usual recently as soon as it starts getting much of a load.

 

[NIGELG]

WOW.....That's a lot of gunk there.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Well, I may have found the problem haha.

That's very likely your problem, but I wouldn't be surprised if your thermal compound has dried up on the GPU core now as well. If you can, try to take off the heastsink and reapply some thermal compound like Arctic Silver Ceramique or whatever they're selling these days (the non-electrically conductive stuff).
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Are you a smoker? Or do you play in a humid/moist room (ie. a basement?)

That thick clumpy dust looks like the heatsink from a friend of mine's computer - he was a smoker who smoked around his computer and the dust in the heatsink mixed with the tar in the cigarettes to make big clumps like that.

That could also be caused by dust mixing with moisture from the air. Usually dust doesn't get that thick in computer cases - even after years. Your dust density isn't too bad - I've seen heatsinks with a LOT more dust, but it's much thicker than usual. That wall of dust right blocking the air from the blower to the heatsinks is undoubtedly causing your temperatures to rise.

 

[coldmeat]

No, I don't smoke and the room is on the main floor. I have been living at home for the last 8 months while I take a break from school though, and my dad smokes in the basement. There is also no return air on the furnace so the air is drawn directly from the furnace room which is where he smokes, and my computer is right next to the vent. (there's no return air, yet he is a tin smith and installs duct work for a living, go figure) So smoking could be the cause.

Also, I've been idling here for about an hour at a steady 53C.

I think when I blew the computer out with the air I must have pushed the dirt into the heatsink rather than away from the card.

 

[Bl0cks]

Yeah thats what my 8800gt with an Akimbo cooler looked like after a year and a half of use. Only got concerned when my temps were 10C higher than when I got the card, and I tried to make myself believe it was driver related. I used Arctic Silver Ceramique on the memory and the gpu but it didn't make a difference in temps compared to stock.

 

[Kroze]

that is discusting

 

[coldmeat]

Reminds me of when I built my brother a new computer a few months ago. We were reusing his old case, so I had to take all of the old parts out. When I pulled out his old heatsink, the whole thing was packed full of dust. It was like a brick of dust, there wasn't any space between the fins, or even in the middle of the heat sink. I don't know how he didn't have any problems.

 

[Schmide]

That looks like pet dander. I clean my sisters computers and her dogs produce crap like that.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

That is what my 7800gt looked like after many years of service. I have 2 cats.. the hair plus dust clumps like crazy. I also live in a house that is 100+ years old so it is a tad bit dusty. I try to clean my case once every other month, especially now with my HAF 932, so much air moving through that case means so much dust.

 

[DominionSeraph]

You crack open the case to upgrade OS?

 

[coldmeat]

You crack open the case to upgrade OS?

No. I went from a 32bit to 64bit OS, so I installed 2 more gbs of memory, and I took the opportunity to clean it out.

 

[nitromullet]

Well, at least you found out your problem and it's an easy fix. I guess it's a good reminder to occasionally check the fan blades for build up.

On a slight tangent, I wonder if EVGA would have have followed Apple's lead if you had RMA'ed?

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=21300

 

[tviceman]

Holy crap I am now going to check my video card. LOL.

 

[Borealis7]

that happened to me too. my BFG 8800GTS died. i've since bought an HD4850 with an exposed round heatsink. i will not be buying cards with a full shroud cooler in the future.

 

[Painman]

Well, your dad might think he's clever for smoking in the basement, but if that's where the furnace draws, then the whole house is breathing smoke. Cigarette, solder, whatever.

I've seen cigarette tar deposits on components before (I used to smoke around my gear) and the telltale brown, caky nature of that gunk suggests the presence of tar. Plain old dust is usually grey and fluffy.

 

[tigersty1e]

I was gonna say even before I saw your picture that 85C is too high for TF2. TF2 is not a demanding game at all. Just imagine the heat from Dead Space or Crysis.