geforce4 ti4200 overheating problems...

[eklass]

i'l be short and quick with this one... i've got a buddy that has a gainward geforce4ti 4200 that CONSTANTLY overheats... his screen goes all funky, but the computer continues to run. a warm boot won't do it... he has to turn off/turn on the computer for the screen to come back... i took his card and threw it in my comp and got exact same results... only happens when in a game, and despite a fan blowing directly over the card (in addition to the HS/fan on the chipset itself), it continues to die... any suggestions on this? i thought about maybe trying some ram HS's... but i'm not sure how much those would help... is this problem common?

p.s. this is the 64MB version... both times the card was ron on AMD systems with ASUS mobos... thanks...

 

[Megatomic]

Is the card overclocked? Have you verified that the GPU fan is operational? What is the case temp (yours or his)?

 

[eklass]

not overclocked at all... nothing in either system was (not even processor)... the GPU fan is running... i just let it tap my finger when the system was booting up to make sure it was spinning... i'm not sure ofthe ambient temperature, however it isn't hotby any means in my system. i've got a fan on my side panel that blows over the vid card and then two in the back that blow air back out. the air comming out ofthe back is quite cool, although i haven't tracked that actualy flow of air. my buddy had also tried placing a small desk fan directly in front of his case with the side panel off and he says it still checkerboarded... i'm stumped besides the possibility he got a bad card...

 

[Rankor]

Have the card returned to the vendor for replacement or if the period to replace with the vendor has passed, RMA direct to Gainward.

 

[Megatomic]

Either this is part of the whole Gainward Ti 4200 fiasco or maybe the GPU cooler isn't cooling the chip properly. Maybe you could pop the GPU cooler off and check to see if there is any thermal compound between the chip and the cooler. If not, add some. If there is, then I say do as Rankor says and RMA the card. Lots of people are having trouble with their Gainward Ti 4200 cards.

 

[Peter D]

couldnt you always tryin buying one of those ThermalTake gf4 coolers? i hear they work good and they're cheap. good luck to your friend

 

[eklass]

...and how exactly would i do that? I got the two studs poking through the board dislodged, but the HS/fan doesn't want to come off. the only reason I can see (possibly) is there are three tiny screws holding the fan assembley to the heatsink. other than that, i can't see anything obstructing it from coming off. i pulled, and twisted... nothing...

 

[Megatomic]

I guess the thermal compound is like a glue... My VisionTek is the same way only there are no spring loaded studs helping to hold the GPU cooler on.

I would RMA in this case. There is probably nothing you can do to fix this problem.

 

[Fekkesh]

I have the same problem with my Inno3D Tornado GeForce4 Ti-4200 128MB. When I play games, the screen freezes for several seconds. The memory chips on the card gets very very hot. I placed a 80mm fan at the side of the card running at full speed, then the card worked fine. The minute I shut down the side fan it began "freezing" again. I work in a computer store so I have tested many Inno3D Tornado GeForce4 Ti-4200 cards. Many of them have a overheating problem, maybe all I haven't tested them all. A lot of customers come back complaining about choppy game performance, picture freezing. Standard programs run fine, it's only games that makes them overheat. We assembled about 20 PCs with Gigabytes 8SG800 motherboard, and games wouldn't even start! This was not a overheating problem, it was something else. Then we tried with Inno3D GeForce4 MX440, no problem, excellent gameplay, also with Gainward Ti-4200 128MB, no problems! I'm surprised to not see anything about this problem on the web. Maybe people don't buy Inno3D cards elsewhere in the world, I'm not going to anymore.