Friend's 7800GTX seems to be burning up...thoughts?

[Avalon]

My friend has an XFX 7800GTX 256MB that has been giving him troubles in games recently, namely game freezes and crashes after extended play. Since he lives out of state, I had to instruct him to help himself as best as possible.

One thing we noticed was that when I had him run RTHDRIBL and monitor his core temps for the video card, he was seeing insane temps. His card idles at 65C, but after 15 minutes it's running at about 115C.

I had him shut RTHDRIBL off immediately, and told him to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL but to go ahead and try to very lightly poke the heatsink of his card to see if it was hot (to see if it was transfering heat correctly). He said it was hot and he couldn't touch it for more than a few seconds or it would start to burn.

I had a theory that perhaps his heatsink wasn't seated right, but if the heatsink is hot to the touch, it must be ok and working properly...so what else might the culprit be? He verified his fan is working properly. I'm thinking his thermal goop might have dried up, as his problems seem to be heat related and this is the only thing I can think of. His heatsink isn't clogged with dust. Thoughts?

 

[potato28]

Take off the HS/F, clean the fan and fins, then change the thermal paste. If that doesn't work, there's always the X1 and V-900.

 

[Captante]

Most likely culprits are (1) heatsink is clogged with dust underneath the shroud causing heat buildup -or- (2) fan isn't turning at full speed caussing heat buildup.

You are correct in thinking that if the HS is very hot its most likely seated fine ... I suggest starting by removing the HS shroud & blasting it & the fan mechanism clean with compressed air, then re-install the card & fire up the system with the side removed to observe what happens.

 

[mealsonwheels]

If the card isn't clogged with dust, your best bet is to reseat the heatsink with some fresh AS5.

 

[blckgrffn]

hmmm... is the fan running at full speed under 3d?

Aftermarket heatsinks are a little touchy, I don't know if a 7800GTX is a great card to practice on Could he ship it to you?

I wouldn't have him do it or change the paste on an XFX card though, simply because it should be under warranty and I would have them fix it if possible.

Sorry I can't be more help! It seems like you should be narrowing it down, but what you are finding isn't pointing to an easy solution.

I see you have extended your post lead to 2,000! Darn work! :|

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn
hmmm... is the fan running at full speed under 3d?

Aftermarket heatsinks are a little touchy, I don't know if a 7800GTX is a great card to practice on Could he ship it to you?

I wouldn't have him do it or change the paste on an XFX card though, simply because it should be under warranty and I would have them fix it if possible.

Sorry I can't be more help! It seems like you should be narrowing it down, but what you are finding isn't pointing to an easy solution.

I see you have extended your post lead to 2,000! Darn work! :|

I had too much time at work
Well, used to. They cut off my net access today, citing that it was distracting me from being productive...so today I was as unproductive as possible

Should just grab a wireless router and jack it into the network, then throw a wireless card into my personal system.

Anywho...his fans are spinning up full tilt. We think the heatsink may still need reseating but more likely some new thermal grease. However, he's just going to buy a new card (8800GTS 640MB) and then RMA the 7800 and sell the RMA. Woot!

 

[Bill Brasky]

Originally posted by: mealsonwheels
If the card isn't clogged with dust, your best bet is to reseat the heatsink with some fresh AS5.

I'd bet money this fixes the problem. You might think about lapping the heatsink while its off.

edit: oops, don't lap if he's gonna rma it.

 

[MichaelD]

If the heatsink is blazing hot, then there is probably not a seating problem. But, AS5 is better than any stock white goop the manufacturer's throw on.

As has been said, remove the heatsink, blast the dust out with compressed air, replace HS using the CORRECT AMOUNT of AS5.

One thing that has NOT BEEN MENTIONED is CASE COOLING. If there's no airflow in the case, all that hot air isn't going anywhere.

I'll bet that is the problem. What does his airflow situation look like? Has he cleaned the front filter/fans/grill EVER?