bikerdude on 2/6/2013 at 08:17
Quote Posted by Muzman
* Being a bit worried about biker's idea I shifted everything thing around and reseated/rewired what I could and nothing was wrong for a time, But then it started happening again. * I've been steering clear of suspending the machine ever since, just in case.
* And the next turn up is that the GPU is an 8800 GTS and this kind of thing is a known problem for the 8800 series towards the end of their life, i've recently seen people claiming you can "fix" them by sticking them in the oven at like 200 degrees for ten minutes.
* what idea was that?
* Suspend/hibernate mode under windows is notoriously unreliable, now that SSD are cheap enough get a 64/128Gb as your C drive as it will substancially reduce boot time (ie my win8 machine boots to windows from 'cold' in 15s.
* Yes you can resurrect a dead/faulty video card, I did it twice on my old HD3850 and got 6 months out of it before it was properly dead -
GUIDE:* remove heatsink and thermal paste
* preheat oven to 385F/400F -190/200c( NO HIGHER!) ( gas mark 6)
* lay foil over the oven rack wide/long enough to accomodate the gfx card.
* make 4 balls of foil, about 3-4cm high and placer under each corner of the gfx card - this is to stop it touching the hot grill.
* Pre-warm the oven for 5-10mins to its correct temperature (as stated above), and put the graphics card on the 4 balls.
* leave for around 6-10 mins, NO MORE THAN that or the card will overheat and/or burn components on the board.
* This fix will not last, its a stop-gap until you can get the cash together for a new or replacement card. (The 800GTS is ancient now so even a $(£)75 will spank it)
* ENOJOY!!!
Muzman on 3/6/2013 at 05:06
Just the idea that it might be a RAM or power fault.
Suspending sort of became a habit because I would be in the middle of listening to or watching something and 'continuing' was fairly unreliable. It's gotten better on youtube for instance though. But yeah, an SSD would be nice.
Anyway, I might give it a try if the problem gets worse. I'd probably want to buy a replacement first anyway, since our oven is a bit of a relic without very consistent or accurate temperature. But it sounds amusing to try.
bikerdude on 3/6/2013 at 09:43
Quote Posted by Muzman
Just the idea that it might be a RAM or power fault.
Memtext_x86 for the ram and a PSU tester for the power supply.
