PeeperStorm on 10/6/2006 at 02:19
I was in the process of clearing out a nest of necromancers, when one of them ran up to me with a glass mace and whacked me with it. At that precise moment my PC started making a gawdawful racket, like two chainsaws trying to mate. I killed the guy, saved and shut down, then opened up my PC to take a look. That mace swinging jerk had broken my video card's cooling fan in half!
So, my hotrod PC is down while I RMA the card (I told the support people that it broke by itself). Looks like I get to spend a week or so playing Morrowind on my creaky old dinosaur PC while I'm waiting. Friggin' necromancers...:mad:
Epos Nix on 10/6/2006 at 06:47
Happened to me once also. Was it a Radeon? Those cards have notoriously bad fans attached to them. My solution was to attach a full size case fan to the card which not only did the job but kept the sucker so cool I was able to overclock it rather tremendously :cheeky:
RyushiBlade on 10/6/2006 at 12:21
The fan from my Radeon 9600 Pro broke whilst playing Rome Total War. I was not happy. Fortunately, my 850xt PE is running fine. Well, I say fine, but I actually mean "Like a piece of crap." But it plays Oblivion very nearly fine.
PeeperStorm on 11/6/2006 at 04:15
Nah, it's a GeForce. Too bad my other card can't run Oblivion, not even with the "Oldblivion" mod. I'm going to do horrible, evil things to those necromancers for breaking my card. Probably something involving John Tesh albums and thirty gallons of lutefisk.
Mr.Duck on 11/6/2006 at 21:03
Saaaaay....a bit out of topic, but...
I've been having a problem with my PC from day one. Since it was custom built and I emigrated some of the old faithful hardware to this new one, I don't see why this wouldn't be an unreasonable answer as to wtf...
In short: when my PC runs sexy sexy beefy games (graphically) sooner or later (depending on the game and the ambient temperature) it crashes, then gives me a blue screen (plain blue screen, not a BSoD) and I have to manually reboot. So, I decided one day to take the side-panel of my PC case and use a normal fan blowing directly into the PC to see if overheating was the case. Well...what can I say?, I sure can play a Hell of a lot more when I use it
I tried changing my power source and CPU fan, thinking originally that was the problem, as it turned out, it didn't solved it until I started using the fan. And since it's an oldie Radeon 9700, I wonder if the fan gave up the ghost.
So, yer thoughts?
PeeperStorm on 11/6/2006 at 22:00
Sounds like you've found the problem (heat), but I dunno whether it's the card's fan or not. Since you said it's an oldie, you might want to try blowing the dust out with a can of compressed air. Also check to make sure the fan actually runs when the PC is on.
Epos Nix on 11/6/2006 at 23:25
I've always wondered why video cards were made the way they are. Sitting in a tower case they're upside-down. Problem: heat rises!! It's far too easy for heat to just sit trapped below the video card if your system ventilation isn't up to snuff, and most computers aren't.
Upon my last big system overhaul a couple months ago I bought a case which has ventilation holes on the side panel where you can install a fan directly across from the video card which helps remedy this problem. My GeForce 7900gt overclocked 75mhz idles at about 47º C and 60 while under load. That's not too bad considering my previous card in my old case (with crappy ventilation) would get up in the 90º area and often overheat, even with a working fan.
Remember: even if all the fans in your system work properly, all they are doing is blowing air around. If they have no source of cool air coming from outside the case they are just gonna blow hot air around the inside. That doesn't solve anything. So make sure the PC is in an area where it can get cool air pumped into it and your system ventilation is up to snuff. Or you could opt to just use a large fan with the side panel off, works just as good ;)
Mr.Duck on 12/6/2006 at 00:46
I can't complain with the large fan ;)
Still...wonder if a new vid card might be the solution (and I'm thinking of buying one soon :D).
Still...with games like Rome: TW even with the fan it does end up crashing after prolonged play sessions...hrrmmm...
The Woodsie Lord on 8/9/2006 at 21:20
Luckily, I have to videocards who can work seperately and together at the same time :P Though I overclocked it 80%, which is a lot, and my computer shut down every time I started Rome Total War. I actually think it was doing too little to stay on :D
