Political Crossfire Forums

The Grandmaster · Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:01 am Post subject:

Melcar wrote: You can install this http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/ and check if your card is overheating by scanning for artifacts.

OOOooo... *Goes and downloads*

Melcar wrote: Edit: And yes, the X1650PRO is much better than the one you have.

Excellent. Well, might go that route. Come to think of it, the overheating sounds very plausable. For example, it works fine after you restart after the computer has been off for a while (presumably letting it cool) but not when you restart ourtight without leaving it off for a while. Plus, when I come back from work, it's not too horrible for a few minutes, but gets worse after a few minutes.

The Grandmaster · Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:16 am Post subject:

Well I'll be damned...guess what?
I've got it working fine now. (But it's only a band-aid)

I put a big window fan right next to my case, and have it blowing into the case, on the graphics card (and other parts of the computer too). Now all the lines and garbage is gone. So Melcar, I think, was right. It was overheating. Now that it's cool, it's fine.

Now the next problem...

How do I find out if it's my graphics card overheating, or something else? :( (Don't have a spare graphics card to swap out right now)

Melcar · Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:20 am Post subject:

The Grandmaster wrote: Melcar wrote: You can install this http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/ and check if your card is overheating by scanning for artifacts.

OOOooo... *Goes and downloads*

Melcar wrote: Edit: And yes, the X1650PRO is much better than the one you have.

Excellent. Well, might go that route. Come to think of it, the overheating sounds very plausable. For example, it works fine after you restart after the computer has been off for a while (presumably letting it cool) but not when you restart ourtight without leaving it off for a while. Plus, when I come back from work, it's not too horrible for a few minutes, but gets worse after a few minutes.

You should check if the little fan on the heatsink is still spinning (they do sometimes fail after a while).
Another thing. If you decide to invest on a newer and "bigger" card, you may want to look into another PSU. Of course, this depends on how good your current PSU is (I would recommend a minimum of 350W). I'm not certain how the power consumption of a X1xxx card compares to a 9800, but I'm willing to bet it's a little higher. It wouldn't even be a bad investment since power supplies are an integral part in systems (specially when dealing with today's graphic cards).

Melcar · Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:28 am Post subject:

The Grandmaster wrote: Well I'll be damned...guess what?
I've got it working fine now. (But it's only a band-ait)

I put a big window fan right next to my case, and have it blowing into the case, on the graphics card (and other parts of the computer too). Now all the lines and garbage is gone. So Melcar, I think, was right. It was overheating. Now that it's cool, it's fine.

Now the next problem...

How do I find out if it's my graphics card overheating, or something else? :( (Don't have a spare graphics card to swap out right now)

Run ATITool and scan for artifacts. Leave it running for about an hour. ATITool will keep scanning until it finds artifacts, after which it will give you an audible warning and restart (it has a timmer so you can keep track how long it has been scanning without errors). You should take the extra fan you added out so you know exactly what is overheathing. Chances are that if the card is heating up really badly, it will produce artifacts within minutes of scanning.
Given that the fix you performed seemed to fix your problems, I would say that the card is overheating. This is usually due to a faulty heatsink and the only solution (besides getting a new card) is to go out and buy a new aftermarket heatsink.

The Grandmaster · Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:50 am Post subject:

Melcar wrote: The Grandmaster wrote: Well I'll be damned...guess what?
I've got it working fine now. (But it's only a band-ait)

I put a big window fan right next to my case, and have it blowing into the case, on the graphics card (and other parts of the computer too). Now all the lines and garbage is gone. So Melcar, I think, was right. It was overheating. Now that it's cool, it's fine.

Now the next problem...

How do I find out if it's my graphics card overheating, or something else? :( (Don't have a spare graphics card to swap out right now)

Run ATITool and scan for artifacts. Leave it running for about an hour. ATITool will keep scanning until it finds artifacts, after which it will give you an audible warning and restart (it has a timmer so you can keep track how long it has been scanning without errors). You should take the extra fan you added so you know exactly what is overheathing. Chances are that if the card is heating up really badly, it will produce artifacts within minutes of scanning.
Given that the fix you performed seemed to fix your problems, I would say that the card is overheating. This is usually due to a faulty heatsink and the only solution (besides getting a new card) is to go out and buy a new aftermarket heatsink.

Awesone, okay this is helpful. I'm going to go ahead and do these things, and we'll see how it goes. I'm hoping it's the graphics card, because that's a (relitively) cheap fix. Plus It's always nice to have a new graphics card.

Another clue that it might be the card, on my right monitor (I have duels) the right segment of my right monitor, when you drag windows over there, they slow down, and bog. Very bad movement over there. Sounds like a card problem.