A little Bit Confused!

[AlexMozza]

Hello!

Basically, my spare computer seems to be playing up all of a sudden, the computer loads, works for about 10 - 15 mins then little green dots appear on the screen followed by the screen going blank, going back to desktop and then a little bubble comes up saying that the drivers for my nVidia 8800GTS had crashed. sometimes the BSOD follows

I've tried the card in another PC and the same problem.
Hopeful it may need a new heat sink perhaps but any ideas please

[vti_786]

have you tried the latest drivers at all?

could be your gpu about to go

[Splash]

I used to have this with my old 8800 GT, and it was the GPU recovering from overheating. What's your GPU temperature?

[dangel]

check your temps as splash says - but chances are it's the EOL for the card itself. You can try underclocking it to keep temps down, or manually ramping the fan higher than normal but generally it's prolonging the inevitable. Sorry

[AlexMozza]

Thats what i thought. Oh well you can pick on up on eBay for about £50. how would i under clock it.
The temp is around 48-50c under strain.

Thanks

[CrazyMonkey]

Thats what i thought. Oh well you can pick on up on eBay for about £50. how would i under clock it.
The temp is around 48-50c under strain.

Thanks

These temps arent a problem, they are far off the threshold. Looks like it's on it's last legs mate.

[Queelis]

Yup, the little green dots are artifacts, meaning it's the GPU's fault.

May we suggest the all-new nVidia GTX460?

[ehhhhhhh]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDbL5_PAjfI

;-)

[AlexMozza]

Haha, I wish.

Luckily a 8800 on Ebay aint to much, thanks for the help everyone!

[AlexMozza]

Well, ive just cooked the card, lets see how this goes....

[AlexMozza]

Well 25 minutes into a high graphics game of Vegas 2 all is fine, longer than before!

[Aard]

green dots are definate gpu problem.

i'd just get a new one

one thing to check is the thermal paste hasnt dried out and the fan is in full working order and isnt stopping. also check the heatsink is fully making contact with the gpu and one of the clips hasn't come loose

[Queelis]

Well, ive just cooked the card, lets see how this goes....

You have got to be kidding me.

How is that even supposed to be explained?..

[AlexMozza]

I've now looked into it.
When they make the cards to shorten the process the don't solder any of the parts, instead they put a solder, like an oil onto the card. This means that they can just put the card in a big oven at around 200c and the oil turns into solder, soldering all the parts together. What can happen is the solder can start to break and in turn connections are lost and the card fails. However by reheating the card it in theory should re-melt the solder oil and re-connecting everything. if it works this should have the affect of re-connecting all the chips. in my case this seams to have worked!

The solder can start to melt after say a long prolonged gaming session at a lan party.....this is what my PC was doing for a few days of 24 hour gaming before it broke!


THANK YOU YOUTUBE!

[ehhhhhhh]

I've now looked into it.
When they make the cards to shorten the process the don't solder any of the parts, instead they put a solder, like an oil onto the card. This means that they can just put the card in a big oven at around 200c and the oil turns into solder, soldering all the parts together. What can happen is the solder can start to break and in turn connections are lost and the card fails. However by reheating the card it in theory should re-melt the solder oil and re-connecting everything. if it works this should have the affect of re-connecting all the chips. in my case this seams to have worked!

The solder can start to melt after say a long prolonged gaming session at a lan party.....this is what my PC was doing for a few days of 24 hour gaming before it broke!


THANK YOU YOUTUBE!

Glad it worked.

I've been planning to try this since I first came across the video I linked, but there weren't any opportunities so far.

Anyways, it's quite an awesome fix

If you don't mind, please create a thread and update us if the card fails again.

cheers

[AlexMozza]

I sure will. I've been running 3d Mark Vantage abot 10 times a day now and monitoring temps etc.... All good still!