gfx cards and Thermal paste, how???

Ok fellas,

im having one last go at fixing my graphics card (ATI Sapphire Atlantis 9600XT)*waits for the scoffs.

It crashes frequently (9 times out of 10) when i run rfactor or RBR (the only games i run). It always requires me to pull the power out of the back, and leave it out for a few mins, to be able to get out of it.

I have been chasing this problem around for over 6 months now. The crash causes the game to freeze, then the screen goes blank and the standby light comes on (on the monitor).

I thought i had fixed it when i discovered that it was overclocked by 50%!!!! i reduced this to 0% and it ran fine for a few weeks, then the crashes started again.

The long and short of it is, i reckon that the chip must STILL be overheating (even with extra fan and the side of the case off).

So, i wanna take him apart and replace the thermal paste. (i think the original paste must be totally fried out after being overclocked for so long)

So, how would one go about doing this??

Chars

Peaty

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The paste will be fine. It'll be cheap natty stuff, but it'll be fine.

In short, replacing the paste isn't going to stop an overheating chip from overheating.

What does the ATI Catalyst Control Center say regarding temperature?

well, im running at 35 degrees C now with word/acrobat reader/firefox and realplayer open (doubt that last bit of info is of any use mind)

I cant find out what temp it is when it crashes because it kills my PC totally. No amount of pressing alt-tab or ctrl-alt-delete can rescue it from that stage.

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35c? Are you reading the graphics card or the CPU? 35c seems a bit on the low side for a 9600... or any graphics card now I think of it.

Yeah I think you are right Gav. My graphics card always run a few oC warmer than the CPU. My GPU is at about 63oC atm if ATI Tools is to be believed.

this is what mr.ati is telling me:

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Your card fan might be clogged up with dust and gunk, I have to clean my VGA silencer every few months when I start getting artefacts in heavy games from overheating..just a suggestion.

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i blew it out about a month ago. only with my lungs though, i don't have access to compressed air at the mo.

i don't recall it making any difference.

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No need anyway... that's mighty chilly.

You can count GPU overheating out of the equation.

ok, what other possible physical problems could there be?

i just dont get it............

last time i buy an ATi thats for sure

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Peat Wrote:
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> last time i buy an ATi thats for sure

Awesome :D

The response of someone who really doesn't have a clue. If you did, you'd know the nV drivers are currently even more unstable than the ATI ones and that the 7900 series has been plagued by "sudden death syndrome" of cards memory dying within weeks of purchase.

Anyway. Why assume it's the video card? It could be any number of things. Gaming is usually the most stressful part of a computers life, and the PSU, RAM, CPU and graphics card are all under very heavy load during 3D use. Motherboard (northbridge(s) and power regulatory mosfets) and soundcards are also under moderate to high load.

Try installing ATITool and letting it scan for artefacts for a while. If you see strange blemishes coming up, then you'll know it's the graphics card (probably the onboard memory). Even if it is, I don't see the grounds for complaint. The 9600XT was released in 2003, so it is expected that its life will be ending. There's a reason why manufactures tend to place 3 year warranties on items such as this

All i know is that ive had alot of trouble with this card and that i dont with my old nvidia.

Anyhoo, you do obviously know alot more than me, so i will take head of your advice.

tar.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2006 12:20PM by Peat.

Well, this very morn, it had 'the crash' while browsing t'interweb so yes, i guess the gfx card must not be too blame.

My housemate is dead keen on system cooling and reckons that the fan on top of the cpu is cooling that but blowing the hot air out straight onto the ram. Could this be an issue to consider?

Its certainly warm in that area, should i seek a way of getting that hot air away?

I also took the machine to bits this morning to de-dust it, the top end of the 1st ram slot was caked in dust.

***UPDATE****

HAlfway through writing this post, it crashed again. I have put in my old gfx card ans removed the stick of ram closet to the cpu. I wait with baited breath.

Here are the error reports that came up after the last 2 crashes:

C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERd579.dir00\Mini120706-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERd579.dir00\sysdata.xml

C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER2fae.dir00\Mini120706-02.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER2fae.dir00\sysdata.xml

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Those files are no use to anyone but a Microsoft employee, and the location of them is certainly no help to anyone.

I wouldn't worry too much about cooling just yet. If it was purely cooling, then you'd have had multiple crashes throughout the summer, not now that winter is on upon us.

Refer to the thread that Muks has posted for some advice. Memtest, and posting the CPU-Z screens being the most useful for us.

A couple of other things to try. Remove 1 stick of RAM (which you've done) and just boot with the 1. Now try the other stick. Any errors?

is a cpu temperature of 60+ degrees bad news?

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That depends on which CPU it is...

Depends what CPU you have. What is it?

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

Yes then, that is bad news.

Follow the instructions I gave Muks in the other thread regarding Prime95 and report back,

Ideal temperature for Barton CPUs is anywhere below 40C, so either crank up the fan speed, clean the heatsink, or do both!

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.