Strange GTX 260 Problem

[Bobo888]

I think this is a bit of an odd problem as I can't find any info about it so I'll try and be as clear as possible.

I have a Gainward GTX 260 216 core Golden Sample which I've had for about 2 years.

For a few months I have been having a problem where both screens go black and the fans go full power (I can hear them), I'm not sure if the computer remains responsive when this happens, I have to hit the pwer button to turn it off. This happens fairly randomly, sometimes while playing a game/web browsing.

Also sometimes the fans go full power without crashing the computer, and I have to restart to reset the fan speed. This happened this morning straight after the computer had booted into windows before I had even turned the screens on.

I Recently cleaned all of the dust out of the card's heatsink to see if overheating was the problem and the crashing definitely reduced, from multiple times a day to only once every few days, but it is still a problem.

I don't think the driver is to blame because It didn't start around a driver update. I think it started on the last driver and updating to the latest didn't help.

I think that is everything but I will edit the post with more info if I think of anything. Thanks in advance for any help

 

[pgi947]

Can you keep an eye on your temps and report back what highs its hitting under load?

 

[Bobo888]

It Idles around 50. I just had a quick go on Crysis 2 and it reached 76. It used to go over 80 before I cleaned the dust off though.

 

[ReAPeR101]

Sounds like to me it was getting a little to hot and shut itself down, then the fans went into overdrive to cool the GPU.

What case do you have ?? Is there enough ventilation in your case ??

Personally i would start looking to maybe upgrade in the very near future.

I used to have a EVGA GTX260 SSC card, servered me really well, great GPUs in there day, unfortunatley outdated now.

 

[Bobo888]

Overheating was my 1st thought too. But why would it still do it when it's pretty much idle? I'm hoping I don't need to upgrade anything because I can't afford to. I guess I will just have to live with it

 

[pgi947]

You could try a spot cool solution, pretty sure OCUK sell them, should drop your load temps by 10-15c

 

[ReAPeR101]

1 thing i have always done when faced with issues like this, update all drivers, if that doesnt take away the issue, then remove some of the parts that are not working and literally give them a good blow job LOL.