Graphics Card overheating?

[whattaguy]

I just moved from a VGA Samsung 955df to a DVI 2005 fpw. The monitor is great, but every now and then, the screen scrambles up. This happened before with my CRT, but I took out the card and re-applied the thermal paste to take care of the problem. I'm thinking that it's my video card (MSI 9800pro 360 core). I'm trying to narrow it down thinking that it's overheating (I don't OC, and I installed a Zalman heasink on it vf700(?)).

Could the DVI connection cause this problem as well?
Any other thoughts on how I should fix this?

Thanks.

 

[whattaguy]

anyone?

 

[Goi]

What do you mean by scrambles up? Got a screenshot/photo of th problem?
I'd say try another graphics card on the monitor, or another monitor with the graphics card.

 

[Ricemarine]

If its blurs... its AA...
Otherwise set your crt to the max refresh rate, or lower then raise it back.

 

[Atheus]

What does the glitch look like? Does it happen only in games and benchmarks? Thrash the card with 3Dmark 2005 or something and see if it happens.

 

[whattaguy]

It doesn't just happen in games. It just randomly happens, one time in Windows when I was doing a virus scan, one time during a text box screensaver, and one time when nothing was going on. The glitch looks like a whole bunch of jumbled colors and lines. I'll try a benchmark. Thanks.

 

[whattaguy]

Well, it survived the benchmark. I have no clue...could it be the monitor?

 

[Goi]

I'm guessing it's the graphics card.

 

[whattaguy]

It seems to happen when my computer's been running for awhile.

 

[phisrow]

Try the "Desk Fan Test". Take your computer's side off, point a big fan at the innards(desk or box type fan) and give it some extreme cooling. If the problem still occurs, it probably isn't thermal or is a really ghastly thermal problem that is either unfixable(regulators melting down) or easy to spot by other means(air gap under the heatsink). If it does go away it was almost certainly a thermal bug.

 

[whattaguy]

Originally posted by: phisrow
Try the "Desk Fan Test". Take your computer's side off, point a big fan at the innards(desk or box type fan) and give it some extreme cooling. If the problem still occurs, it probably isn't thermal or is a really ghastly thermal problem that is either unfixable(regulators melting down) or easy to spot by other means(air gap under the heatsink). If it does go away it was almost certainly a thermal bug.

Thanks for the idea. I will try that.

Any chance the problem will "go away" if I switched back to VGA since I've never used the DVI before?

 

[theslickvik]

This is a common problem with the graphics card. Obviously it is overheating because it is either running to fast or not recieving adequate powersupply. Check your powersupply and make sure that it is over 350w because your running a 9800 pro. I was running my 7800 GTX when my computer screen started to make these colored dots as I call it. I changed the powersupply from the suggested 400w to an Antec 550w. It works w/o glitch.