Need Help Daignosing Computer Problem...

[Caveman]

Computer has run fantastic since the day I put it together last November. Under load, the CPU indicated 42-43 deg max. Now that it's summer, I see 46 deg C at max load. And... I'm starting to see lockups/crashes/instability at these slightly higher temps and any error messages I get usually attribute the problem to my GF3. My "max load" temp is the result of running 2 flight simulators that stress the video to the max. My theory is that it's not my CPU but my cheap HSF on the GF3 thats at fault as I've heard that some of the stock HSF were concave (junk).

The only other theory I can think of is that there is a corrupted driver or something thats causing the crash although my flight sims seemed "rock solid" until the summer time temps got here... So, I'm leaning towards a hardware issue. Anyone else have any ideas or comments? What do you think it is?

 

[Caveman]

Bump for help...

 

[Jeff7]

What you are saying about the bad heatsink on the GF3 does sound plausible. Try removing it, see how flat it is, and maybe try some Arctic Silver on the bottom of it. How warm does the room get?

 

[Caveman]

Stable wintertime room was 68 deg C. Unstable Summer room is 74-76. I think my CPU is just fine, but my guesss is that the GF3 has been marginal all along and that the 7 deg temp increase is bringing out it's weaknessess... Of course, some of my instabilities could be caused by the software too -- it just seems weird if my driver just corrupted itself or something; can this srt of thing even happen? 3DMAX2000 has a hard time running too. I assume my video card is using it's driver extensively on apps like excel, etc although only when forced to run 3D does it seem to heat up and make the card crash... That's my guess anyway. Thanks for the thoughts. Anymore?

 

[Jeff7]

Well, it probably wouldn't hurt to go ahead and (re)install the latest video and chipset drivers.

 

[Caveman]

I'm a bit paranoid about installing new drivers as I'm leary of old "residue" but I may give that a try. I got the machine to lock a few times tonight and each time it was 45-46 deg C. The last failure required a complete reboot from the flight sim (couldn't just go back to the desktop) and when I came back XP error message indicated that the fault was probably from the GF3. It said that the display driver was responsible for the error. Is it possible that the high temps are "fooling" XP into thinking its a driver related issue? Is this even possible?