Asus 9800 XT problem

[Usual Suspect]

Hello,

Im having a problem with my Asus 9800 XT. It seems to be running very hot even when nothing it running. When running games like oblivion after while you start seeing clipping. when u put ** hand on the card it is red hot. Tried to install asus smartdoctor but something strange is going on. When i run it i dont get the usual temp and volt diagonistic. Just the overclock bars. im running the latest drivers after a fresh rebuild.

Tried installing the asus enhanced driver - no change.
Tried installing later version of smart doctor - no chance

The card has run fine untill this new rebuild.
no overclock on the card. cant give u temps as i cant get smartD to work. but it must be getting really hot.

other thing ive changed since rebuilding (from default) is the AGP settings. put it on agp x8 but im sure the board and card has this ability

any help welcome

Usual

 

[Usual Suspect]

downloaded and run ati tool. Card is runnign 62 degrees idol...yes i said idol.

fans seem to be working although i have no idea how to check there speed. asus smart doctor is not working. now after installing and uninstalling many diff version it blue screens.

any other tool i can use to monitor fan speeds and increase the fans to 100%??

cheers guys

 

[Usual Suspect]

used the ati tools.. fans are running 100%. this 60 degrees is too hot correct??

any voltages i could check?

edit

the vcore is showing 1.78? is this ok??

 

[Usual Suspect]

ok.. took the cooler off.. cleaned it up best i could. cleaned up the 5 chips and the heatsink. put some artic cooler 3 on all the contacts. Now getting 52 degrees idle.

Still seems hot to me. but its an improvement. Also notice when i spun the fans with my finger one of the fans seem stiffer than the other.

Can you get replacement fans for these??? or is there an artic solution for the 9800 xt?