Video Card(s) Overheating

[Wanksta]

I have a Sony Vaio RX-550 (family's computer) and just the other day all of a sudden we lose video after 10 minutes of use, after that it wouldnt boot until it cooled down. I opened the case and the heatsink on the card (Nvidia M64 32MB Card) was terribly hot, too hot to touch. I tried another video card G4 440MX w/ a fan that i use in my system, that never overheats, and it overheated! the heatsink under the fan was too hot to touch again. I thought i might have been the power supply going bad, so i switched it out with my Antec 400w truepower(?) and same thing happened, so now i am thinking it might be the motherboard?? I also checked the CPU, cleaned out the fan, used some Artic Silver on the CPU, and the temps for it were about 42-44C. The machine came with an Asus P4b-LX intel chipset. If it is the mobo, i dont mind buying another one but i dont wanna spend money and then have it not work, this is the family computer, they use it for just basic internet and e-mail, no games, it basically overheats just sitting there idle. So does anybody have an idea? or know for sure that it is the motherboard? Any help or ideas are appreciated, thank you much in advance!

 

[amdskip]

Are there case fans in the case? What are the case temps?

 

[Wanksta]

Originally posted by: amdskip
Are there case fans in the case? What are the case temps?

Thanks for the reply amdskip, the case has no fans just the power supply one and the cpu fan, i tried running it with the case open and it will still overheat! The case temps inside with the cover closed get to about 30C before we lose video. We've had this system for about a year now and it's never done this before. Thanks.

 

[_Tron_]

humor me.
keep the case open, and put a small fan next to it, blowing in.
I can pretty much guarantee that it won't overheat anymore.
simply removing the side panel isnt going to increase airflow.
If this works, then you'll need a few case fans. one in front (intake), and one in the back(exhaust).

 

[Wanksta]

Originally posted by: _Tron_
humor me.
keep the case open, and put a small fan next to it, blowing in.
I can pretty much guarantee that it won't overheat anymore.
simply removing the side panel isnt going to increase airflow.
If this works, then you'll need a few case fans. one in front (intake), and one in the back(exhaust).

Thanks _Tron_, I tried doing that with one of the cases from my system and it worked a little longer but it still died on me, heatsink on the card was just too hot, i even took off the heatsink and replaced the stock paste which was almost completely fried(?) with some AS3. Again i had already tried it with my video card which has a heatsink and fan + some AS3. The room temperature is about 65-70, so im kinda stumped on this. I will eventually swap out the motherboard with my own systems and see if this solves anything, but thanks for your suggestion.