BFG Geforce 9800 GX2 Overheating Problem

[brenkehoe]

I seem to have been getting some recent crashes (Well pc just hangs or at least the display signal does) that i never used to get. I looked at my GPU temperatures and they seemed to be very high. I used rivatuner to encrease the fan speed to 100% and installed 2 fans in the case above the card which has not realy done a lot.

Below is a shot of my GPU temperatures. These are idle !!

I have heard that not enough power to the GPU can cause it to overheat ? Could this be a sign my power supply is failing ? I have checked the fan and it is definatly functioning and running at max rpm. I also see that from the great mobo design the southbridge chip sits directly under the card. It gets that hot you cannot even touch the card and go's over 110c when playing games.

Any help appreciated

 

[Greebo]

Way too hot. No wonder you are having problems.

Suggest you blow out the heatsinks just to be sure.

After that time to RMA it.

 

[thehitmen]

Try using another GFX card, with the same power, if this card overheats you know its your PSU.

Also, the fans may be spinning but are they spinning fast enough to cool the card?

is there any Dust on the card/between fans and grills etc... Dust is a very good insulator of heat! so this could be casuing the card to overheat.

Could it be time to add some new/more thermal compound ? This lowers
temperatures amazingly well

Try other software to detect the temperature! This could be just a software error, try some other software and see what results you get.

 

[brenkehoe]

I have tried quite a few bits of software GPUZ etc and they all reckon the cards GPU's are idling between 85c and 90c. I took the card out yesterday and it was too hot to hold. I cleaned all the dust away etc. I am sure it never used to get this hot but i have never realy bothered checking the temps until i started getting crashes. Does it look like it might be a fault with the actual card then ?

 

[brenkehoe]

 

[thehitmen]

Id say so, I mean the card is extremely Hot, this could be anything, down to a faulty transistor. I would recommend RMA it.

 

[gt_junkie]

I know you said you 'cleaned all the dust away' but does that mean a surface wipe or a full dismantle to get to the heatsink to clean it properly?

The GX2 really needs to breathe so any dust is bad.

gt

 

[brenkehoe]

Just gave it a bit of a blow out with some compressed air. Are they easy to take apart ?

 

[steve258]

It's straight forward enough. There are video guides on the net showing how to do it. You need to at least take the shroud off to get most of the dust out.

 

[gt_junkie]

Just gave it a bit of a blow out with some compressed air. Are they easy to take apart ?

I think it's a little more involved than the average single PCB'd GPU - just take your time.

Alternatively, have a good close look - can you see the heatsink through the louvres?

My old GX2 went up to 105c when rivatuner locked the fan @ 30% - hopefully it's just an airflow issue for you.

Do you have another machine you could test it in?

gt

 

[Senture]

91 idle is far too hot for the cards. They're a bit fiddly to open for the first time, I used this video as a guide to open up the cards. You don't need the glue gun or the replacement screws as the guide shows. Removing the second casing is a bit tough, a little force may be needed but not excessive ammounts. Be very careful when seperating the cards as those SLI bridges come off very easy and are a pain to get back on.

 

[brenkehoe]

Thanks for all the help i'll give it a try when i get home.

 

[brenkehoe]

Ill have a go at taking it apart clean it out add some artic silver to the GPus then let you know what the temps are

 

[brenkehoe]

I replaced the thermal compound and removed all the dust from the heat sinks and here are my new idle temperatures.

.

These are far better than before and i hope in the right ball park. Thanks for the help.

 

[spleenharvester]

What airflow/case fans etc you got? and has this only just started happening?

 

[brenkehoe]

Got 4 80mm fans drawing air in and 1 blowing out. I haven't really been checking the temperatures until my pc started to bomb out a couple of weeks ago. So hard to say when exactly it started happening.