Hmm

I think my gfx card could be bolloxed in a major way :/

It runs fine in windows but whenever I play any game after 30 seconds the whole display just goes garbled. The fan on the card appears to be working although the card is running hot... I can touch it without scalding my fingers off tho.

I'm going to try deinstalling directX and new nvidia drivers (running old MSI jobbies atm)

:/

M

well

Not happy tbh - It will work in windowed mode but it's very unreliable -s ometimes I get artefacts on screen and other bits and bobs - My display just completely went dead - I think the card is definitely overheating...... Not sure how to fix it tho as the fan is still spinning ok

I think I might take the case off and point a fan at the card and see if that helps

Failing that - if you could choose between :

http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=24518

and

http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=24290

which would you choose? If I buy a new graphics card I'll upgrade my motherboard and go pci-e

M

Try taking the heatsink off and reseating it with a fresh dab of thermal paste, may be worth trying a new heatsink on it if cash is tight.

http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=23401

I moved away from ATI cards after my 9800pro, I wasn't happy with their approach to drivers tbh and I run a 7800GT instead now.

EN

It's always a good thought to replace the factory heatsink with a proper one, that is if u got room in your case.

Both gfx cards are outdated really, the 7600GT isnt too shabby but the X800XL :/

Just forget the upgrade to PCI-e and get http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=23272 imo

Is the case air intake blockage free? Have your big hairy legs been moulting in any filter that may be in place? If your card has a rear facing exhaust port, is it clogged up with dust? Is your motherboard chipset fan/heatsink situated right under your gfx card fan intake and is the chipset fan working (i.e. is the hot chipset creating the heat issue?)?

I wouldn't recommend an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe if you are going for a PCI-e board but I don't know if newer models are better. I have one of these and the chipset fan gets fooking hot and is situated directly under the gfx card fan intake. I had to get one of the Zalman fan brackets (which is secured via your pci card screws at the back of the case) & fan to blast air down on to the area. If taking the case off and blowing a fan on your gfx card fixes the issue then this might help and would be a very cheap fix. Also, Arctic Cooling VGA coolers are pretty cheap and are supposed to do a better job than stock fans/heatsinks.

I love you.

Tah sweetie

THe fan didn't work so last night I took the card out again and had a proper go at looking at it.

I managed to get the heatsink/fan cover off and found a solid wall of dust/fur/goosedroppings forming a barrier between the fan and the heatsink.

It's been fine since - wheee!

thanks for the advice folks - I'm still thinking of an upgrade soon :p I think I'll just add another gig of memory

M

It's gone again.

I can't play dawn of war dark crusade or company of heroes at all - I get at most 5 minutes then the whole screen goes grey pink and blue.

Wierd thing is the pc is cool when this is happening. When it goes I turn the pc back on and nothing - it's completely dead. Is it power related do you think? Or Mobo or CPU?

If I take the power lead out and replug it in on the mobo it seems to reset it and everything works. I wonder whether I have too much load on my psu and it's spiking out in games.

M

Yee I'd probably point fingers at the PSU on this one. Sounds a lot like what was happening to my brother-in-law's PC. Though he was sold a "top of the range gaming PC" with a radeon 9600, 512 MB of RAM and a 300W PSU. WoW was crashing his system so I made him upgrade the graphics card and memory and it only made it worse, that's when I noticed the woefully poor PSU Who the fuck sells a gaming PC with a 300W PSU in 2006 eh?

If you're gonna buy a PSU get a seasonic tbh, mine and my brothers have been mint plus they keep a very steady voltage and are more efficient in terms of power consumption.

EN

I see Rhys has been working on his spelling EN :p

Well I was wrong - it's definitely the graphics and it went pop last night - looks like the card is totally fucked.

M

i know i dont know anything about pcs compared to you but id stay well away from the asus a8n sli board, its been totally shite ever since i got it, the only reason it seems to work perfectly now is that all the dodgey parts have actually broken or ive unplugged them, however with the 6600gt i still have to disable the Sli feature to play some games and still get blue screens occassionally when i play something like CoH, however the 6600gt has been a really good card individually and i cant complain about the performance on any old games, seems like its gonna start to struggle loads now but maybe a decent enough cheap option to tide you over, could probably even send you one of mine if you get a pci-e board if you fancy it mate?

No thanks mate - I've replaced my card already.

I bought an ASUS 7600 GS - tis very nice

quicker than my old card too

m

oo sounds fun, what fps and suchlike are you getting out of it? ive been thinking about upgrading when i get some cash in

I was getting 75fps when windowed in Ironforge the other day - it was quiet tho

I've noticed company of heroes runs smoother

M