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gdf

Male, 18, GSOH, seeks advice on PC graphics issue

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Google wasn't as helpful as I'd have liked, so I came here!

Right, so I was on the internet the other day and the graphics went all scrambly. I could glitchily move the mouse around but it had clearly crashed completely, so I restarted. Twenty minutes later, same thing happens. I thought it was the graphics card, so I turned it off to do my essay yesterday - fine the whole day, no issues at all. This morning I played Far Cry 2 for half an hour and smugly thought I had solved it by doing nothing. I got back to Windows, opened the browser and it did the same weird thing. I restarted and during startup it did it again. I tried again, opened the control panel to turn off the card, but it did the weird thing again before I could.

Opened the case up and it was seriously roasting. I suspect it may be dust buildup, because I haven't done anything about dust since I got it a year and a half ago. The problem is I don't know where it's going wrong, and because I didn't build it I'm scared to remove the card. Alternatives I've thought of are 1) a fan isn't kicking in when not in a game 2) a fan is clogged with dust 3) the card is busted. It could be number one, because it was fine playing the game.

Anyone have advice? What's it most likely to be? I think I'll get some compressed air and have a blast around the case with it, and if that doesn't work I'll have call up the people who built it for me. I was thinking of reinstalling Windows in case it's some kind of fan killing virus or software issue, or maybe even some kind of OCing programme (though I never really pushed the card, just put it slightly above clockspeed) that I've left lying somewhere, but I'm really scared it would do the thing during the fresh install and die forever.

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Get rid of the dust. All of it.

After that, unscew anything that needs unscrewing, and gently pull the card out then reseat it. Check the fans while you're at it too.

If it's been overheating badly, damage might have been done. Some chips have clever bits that shut them down in the event of overheating though.

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Sounds like something similar I experienced. My videocard kept overheating and when I checked the fan, it was completely clogged with dust. The way I solved it was by buying a different fan for my card, but I don't know how comfortable you'd be with removing the stock cooler and putting a new one on there. I'm sure you can pay a dude to do it for you, though.

Edit: Wait, it didn't glitch when you were playing Far Cry 2 for 30 minutes?

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Compressed air is awesome. I have five cans at home. If you can, take the computer outside and airblast the fuck out of it. Just fucking spray that shit in every hole. Pump it deep and hard into every little fan, nook and screwhole. Blow that shit clean. If you have to do it inside, use a vacuum, blowing with one hand and sucking with the other.

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I'm aroused.

Okay, so spray the shit out of it basically. If we get a day soon that isn't freezing or rainy I'll do that. Anyone know a shop I can get some cans from? Oh, and do I need to worry about static while blasting it?

Thanks guys :tup:

I'm fairly sure the card is fine. It was pretty hot but not melting shit hot, unless some stuff has been cracked in the cool down, but it was in an warm box, you know?

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Blow that shit clean. If you have to do it inside, use a vacuum, blowing with one hand and sucking with the other.

Don't forget to spit on it.

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"Warm box?" Now you are sending your own thread off the rails.

I feel like a loser buying compressed air cans but after toblix's intense description and myself having similar problems with dust getting in my case (but not leading to overheating yet), maybe I should. I have used a vacuum on my computer before, but it was cumbersome.

I think if you are still seeing graphics and no serious difference between how certain games or programs played before the incident, I think you may be fine gdf. Hope so, at least.

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Overheating is an issue I've been suffering from recently.

I recently installed a e8400 dual core 2 duo and it seems to be over heating like a beast.

Somedays it'll idle at 40 degrees and sometimes randomly jump to 60 for a second. If playing a game it can go up to around 70 degrees.

I've heard that the fan that comes with Intel processors is a bit crap but I can't seem to get the bastard off the motherboard to replace it!

The graphics card (9800GT bought in Jan this year) also easily hits 70 degress when playing a game, the fan is currently set at 35% and can easily cope if I up it to about 60% but i don't want to wear the fan out.

The scary thing is that I'm only playing games at 1024x768 too as my monitor is crap.

Any advice? I don't want to buy a full on water cooled unit as I'm enough of a geek as it is.

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You really do not have to worry about wearing your fan down. Besides, I'm pretty sure that in the long run, having a cooler chip lengthens its life. A fan can easily be replaced if it does break.

Still, 70°C isn't too hot, but it could definitely be about 10°C cooler. Unless you're running into artifacts while playing, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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