HD4850 suddenly started overheating

[just Scott]

Well, I'm playing the Left 4 Dead demo and after about 15 minutes of play my computer will just shut down. I know it's the video card overheating because of the error report:

I normally have the fans on 65%, but I tried them on 100% and it still overheated during play. This hasn't happened on any other game apart from the L4D demo, and I haven't changed anything since. It started happening on the 8.10 drivers, but I've went back to 8.7 and it's slightly better. I got 30 mins of play before the computer shut off on these drivers, but that might have just been a coincidence.

Idle temps seem to have went up a lot too since I installed the new drivers (went from 8.7 straight to 8.10). The idle temps are 75c right now, a lot higher than they used to be, even though I'm back on the old drivers.

Any ideas on what's going on? I really can't remember doing anything other than installing new drivers.

Rest of spec if needed:

E6320 @ 2.8GHz, Gigabyte S3 P965, 2GB GeIL PC6400, Antec SmartPower 450W, Windows XP Pro SP3.

Thanks

 

[p0rks0da]

Sounds like the cooler has come loose, take the card out and check.

 

[just Scott]

Took it out, cleaned it a bit, put it back in and now my computer crashes at POST.

Crashes at this stage with just a blinking underscore at the bottom:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/POST2.jpg

Wonderful.

 

[Final8y]

Took it out, cleaned it a bit, put it back in and now my computer crashes at POST.

Crashes at this stage with just a blinking underscore at the bottom:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/POST2.jpg

Wonderful.

Try using only 1 stick of mem & then swap the stick for the other if it still hangs.

 

[just Scott]

Try using only 1 stick of mem & then swap the stick for the other if it still hangs.

Tried that, and reset my CMOS. Nothing.

 

[Sweeney]

Got another system you can try the card in?

 

[just Scott]

Got another system you can try the card in?

Unfortunately not. I do have another card though, I will try that.

 

[p0rks0da]

Took it out, cleaned it a bit, put it back in and now my computer crashes at POST.

I meant check the actual cooler on the card to see if it's come loose. Since your temps suddenly started going through the roof it may be that there is little to no contact with the core.

 

[just Scott]

I meant check the actual cooler on the card to see if it's come loose. Since your temps suddenly started going through the roof it may be that there is little to no contact with the core.

Oh, yeah, I did that. It seemed fine, felt the same as when I first bought it.

 

[just Scott]

I just put in my 6600GT which I know works, and I'm back to the original crashing at POST problem. I also tried different RAM from a friends computer.

I'm guessing it's the motherboard now.

 

[AtaRo]

My current mobo do that after a failed overclocking.Its just stuck there whatever i do but removing all usb peripherals and using a ps2 keyboard allows me to access its bios.Its a long shot but you may as well try it.