Preventing Graphics Card Memory Damage

I recently was forced to purchase a new graphics card because my ATI Radeon 9800 all of sudden had faulty memory. How do I prevent this on my new ATI Radeon X800XL?

 

can't , other then dont drop it, dont OC beyond capabilities, and make sure the heatsink/fan is secure if you change it. If the ram has heatsinks make sure when installing new heatsink+ fan that the ram also has a substitute.

 

Using an ESD strap when installing it is always a good thing, too.

 

well i have never overclocked my cards as i'm not even all that familiar with that term. i haven't dropped it...my ATI Radeon 9800 was fine...it just crashed all of a sudden during a game (somehow its memory was damaged in some places at that time). this is why i feel a bit powerless to stop it from happening...partly because i still don't know why it happened last time, although i did find a dead cricket in the motherboard (it may have bitten something).

 

A dead cricket? Rofl

 

It carsh because it overheat you should fix the hreatsink with ram in touch.

 

i'm not sure i understand what you guys are saying. it came with a fan only. are you suggesting that i buy a heatsink...if so, where would i have to place it.

 

Sorry about that, because Vga 9800 card here is not a 9800XT the heatsink is too big that it cover on ram of VGA card on the surface of ram,
so it must be moded more heatsink for ram to avoid ram get overheat then VGA card will be crash

 

"i'm not sure i understand what you guys are saying. it came with a fan only. are you suggesting that i buy a heatsink...if so, where would i have to place it."

No, the stock heatsink/fan that comes with the video card should be fine. As for faulty hardware, sometimes it just goes bad. Or, if the fan on the heatsink failed, the card could overheat. There probably wasn't much you could do in any case. Just make sure the fan is always spinning, and don't overclock. (just to be safe)

 

No buying new heatsink if VGA rams are so hot just put more heatsinks on them. sorry if my english make you confuse

 

i know that my ati radeon x800xl came with a fan attached to it, but i'm not sure if that is also connected to a heatsink as i'm not too familiar with heatsinks. basically, i'm saying i don't know if the graphics card came with a heatsink (i bought the card separately from the computer from compusa).

 

first there was the heatink, then the fan on the heatsink. so u definetly have a heatsink! it the metalfins under ur fan.

 

I think that you'll find a sheet or plate of metal with fins on it under the cover on your video card. That's the heatsink. Its function is to draw heat out of the video processor and memory chips. The fan's function is to blow that heat away -- that's why the fan is set up to blow air through those fins.

I think A.Son is saying (among other things) that the heat sink must be in firm contact with the video processor chip and video RAM chips. Even the smallest air gap in that contact surface has a huge impact on the heat sink's ability to remove heat from the chip. A heat-conducting paste is often used to improve that contact. Heat failure of the chip that doesn't have good contact with the heat sink is likely.

You shouldn't have to worry about a new card that you haven't messed with. The manufacturer knows what's needed for a card that isn't being overclocked. I'd suggest that you avoid alterations to the hardware unless you know what you're doing or have good advice close at hand.

One thing you might do to reduce the chances of another video card failure: check the temperature within your computer's case -- if possible, near the intake for the fan on your video card. Your case temperature should be within 7C of room temperature. If your case temperature is too high, you'll need to get more air moving through the case. It's hard to provide adequate cooling for the heat-producing components even with the best fans and heatsinks if the case temperature is too high.

The motherboard temperature reported by your system's BIOS will give you a very rough indication, but may read higher than that, depending on the location of the sensor.

An example, based on the computer equipment I've got:
Present room temp: 24.5C
Case exhaust temp: 29.6C
Motherboard temp: 36C

That said -- my video card won't throw off as much heat as yours. Your video card is a much more powerful one.

 

thanks for the information. my problem, though, is that software programs aren't able to read my cpu's temperature. they can only read fanspeed.

 

I'm using a Radio Shack indoor-outdoor electronic thermometer to monitor room and case temps. You can put the outdoor probe almost anywhere in the case that you need to.

But I can appreciate that you may not want to spend ~$20 to confirm that you don't have a problem with case temps. Your call.

 

well the card had been doing fine until today...i was playing gta: san andreas and when i was driving a car in the middle of a mission, the screen turned blue and the computer made a continuous beeping sound. this is not good considering i just bought the damn card and it is a radeon x800xl.

 

I'm not convinced that the problem is the card itself.

The first thing I'd do is find a way to check your case temperatures. If they're too high, any high-performance video card is likely to overheat. It's using case air to cool the video processor and memory; if that air is too warm, it will not be able to get adequate cooling.

The fact that you're running into trouble while gaming suggests an overheating issue. Gaming pushes a CPU and its video subsystem like nothing else does. The CPU in a Dell 8300 throws off an awful lot of heat, which will also raise your case temperatures.

If you don't want to spend $20 on a remote thermometer, try running the system with the case open and a house fan blowing air into it. If that keeps your system from crashing, you probably have a case temperature issue.

If you have a case temperature problem, you'll need to move more air through the case, i.e., install an extra or more powerful fan if the case allows it. You'll need a remote thermometer to know whether any mods you make are having a useful effect.

 

is that really safe to use a housefan over the PC with the case open? i wouldn't want it to blow out some parts with the pressure.

 

That's not a concern unless your house fan is one h--- of a lot more powerful than any I've seen.

 

unti i find out if it's a heating problem, do you think it is safe for me to continue playing games or will this new card overheat and get damaged as well?

 

Good question, and I doubt that there are any guaranteed answers without more information -- such as the temperature within your case.

Keep in mind that gaming makes a computer work harder than almost anything else you're likely to do with it. Harder work translates to more heat thrown off by the video card, CPU, and PSU.

In the meanwhile, you could at least make sure that all of the fans in your case are operating as they should. If you haven't done that already, of course.

 

well they are spinning, but i'm not sure if they're very good.

 

That's a start. If one were not, I'd say, "Replace it -- quick!"
You'll need more data to know if they need to be upgraded. We've talked about that -- I won't belabour the point.

 

i'll try and buy something to check the temp. and ask the compusa guys about the dell 8300 in general.

 

How did you make out with the house fan blowing into the open case?

 

actually i'm a lazy bastard and i haven't done that yet...but i have played gta san andreas for a while now without any problems. of course, i'm not gonna take the risk and just keep doing that. it's just a matter of me getting out there to check the temp.

 

someone else from this forum said to install a pci fan because the dell 8300 has a poor cooling system...any input?

 

That might be a solution, or part of one. If we knew what the problem is. If it's not a cooling problem, a PCI slot fan isn't likely to make any difference.

I suspect that you have a cooling problem -- mainly because it's a likely suspect and we haven't found a reason to eliminate it as a suspect. We certainly don't know the nature of the cooling problem, if that's what it is.

If the problem actually is insufficient air moving through the case, the PCI fan might be one way to deal with that. Blowing a house fan into the open case is one way to test that theory -- if the problem goes away when you do that; insufficient airflow through the case becomes something close to a certainty. Which reminds me: what was your room temperature the last time you had the problem? Are you still dealing with a heatwave, or have room temperatures abated since the last time you had a problem? I ask that question because it's hot in a lot of places right now, and some computers don't deal well with elevated room temperatures. Check your manual -- you may find an operating temperature range specified. Go above the top end of that range only at your own peril.

But before you go to any fan, you need to figure out whether the fan needs to push more air into the case; extract more air out of the case, or just move it around more inside the case. Depending on the design, the PCI slot fan can do any of these. Pick the wrong one, and you've only wasted time, energy, and your money.

I'm also not a fan of PCI slot fans -- they tend to be relatively noisy for the amount of air they can move. But they can get moving air to places that case fans won't reach.

 

the reason i havent tried the housefan yet is because i haven't had any problems since the time the computer froze to a blue screen during GTA san andreas. as far as my room temperature...it is usually at 72 degrees or below. sometimes it gets to 78, but i usually don't let it get that high.

 

How was the room temperature the last time you got a BSOD playing GTA san andreas? Around 72F, or was that one of the days it was up to 78F?

The reason I'm asking is because the answer will help to confirm whether your problem is heat-related or not. If your problem is heat-related, it's more likely to occur when your room temperature is up.

If the BSODs happen when the room temperature is not elevated, but don't happen when the room temperature is above normal, we should probably be looking elsewhere for the fix.

So I repeat: what was your room temperature the last time you had the problem?

 

it was normal room temperature, so probably around 72. i still haven't had a problem since that one time, so it's hard for anyone to diagnose it right now.

 

You're right about that.

Well, it would still be good to have some indication of how much of a temperature rise you're getting between case intake and exhaust. It would also be good to know what the temperature rise is in the air coming off the CPU's heatsink. But the problem could be elsewhere.

If you get another BSOD, perhaps you could make a note of as much of that as you have, plus the BSOD error message itself.

That would give us more to work with.

In the meanwhile, you might want to have a look at AMD's white paper on the topic -- especially pp. 16-19.

 

i just got another blue screen when saving a GTA game...unforunately this type of blue screen has no message. it just has a blank blue screen with a beeping sound. i think the best thing for me to do at this point it buy some stuff to check the temperature. what kind of stuff would i need to do that?

 

well some good news in that this dell representative somehow read my PC's temperature stats just throw the dell.com chat...before you read them though, realize that i had finished playing san andreas and restarted an hour ago:

Wattage : 305 W
Heat dissipation : 853 BTU (fully-loaded computer without monitor)
Temperature:
Operating: 10º to 35ºC (50º to 95ºF)
Please make sure : At 35ºC (95ºF), the maximum operating altitude is 914 m (3000 ft).
Storage : –40º to 65ºC (–40º to 149ºF)

 

hmmm actually...this dude only gave me the standard dell 8300's stats. apparently he didn't understand that i wanted my own PC's stats. i guess he can't find that out.

 

What he has provided are the operating specifications for a Dell 8300. They are probably in your manual. They tell you the conditions under which it should be safe to use your computer. They are not statistics; they do not tell you anything about how well your computer is handling the conditions under which it is being used. Of course he has no way of knowing what your machine is doing.

At 853 BTUs, your machine produces a lot of heat. "BTU" is defined here. You can think of it this way: 853 BTUs is enough heat energy to raise the temperature of a 1-pound jar of water by 853 degrees Fahrenheit if none of the heat energy is lost to the environment. The job of your cooling system is to make sure that all that heat is lost to the environment. If the design is marginal or insufficient, the components cook -- and will often do things such as throw blue screens.

Fortunately, today's CPUs can usually shut themselves down before they get hot enough to be damaged. Video cards sometimes aren't that smart. Check your new card's manual to see if it has that capability.

What you need is information that will indicate how well your system is getting rid of all that heat. For a start: what was the room temperature when you got that blue screen yesterday?

Some other answers that would be useful:

• what is the difference between room temperature and the temperature of the air at the case exhaust?
• what is the difference between room temperature and the temperature of the air coming out of your CPU's heatsink?
• What is the difference between room temperature and the temperature of the air coming off your video card?

If you read the AMD white paper I pointed you to yesterday, you'll have seen that the temperature rise in any of those should not be more than 7C (12F). If you get a greater temperature rise than that, you'll need to find a way to move more air through the unit that gave that rise.

For these measurements, a remote sensor is needed. An indoor/outdoor thermometer works well enough if the remote sensor is small enough. Circuit City has this; but anything of the kind will do.

Also helpful to have would be:

• Your CPU's usual operating temperature at idle and when you're gaming
• Your video card's usual operating temperature at idle and when you're gaming
• Your motherboard's usual operating temperature at idle and when you're gaming
• The temperature of all of those as soon as possible after a crash

It may be possible to get most or all of that information from your system's BIOS chip by going into your computer's CMOS setup. I'll let somebody who knows the Dell 8300 better than I do tell you what software would retrieve that information most easily for you.

 

first of all, the temperature is always around 72 degrees in my room nowadays, so that's what it was during the blue screen. also, i am not sure what the CMOS setup is, but i have gone to the system setup screen during bootup and none of those temperature check options is available.

 

See my post of 1410 July 31. That observation does not support the theory that your problem is heat-related, especially if you did not get a failure when your room temperature was up. Anybody want to offer another theory or possibility?

I'm surprised that your CMOS setup doesn't show any temperatures. Maybe somebody who knows the Dell 8300 can confirm that the BIOS does not have the wherewithal to provide that information, even if the CPU/motherboard has the sensors.

 

Actually...dell's bios is very simple, as in...not too many features (or atleast they used to be!!!!!!!)

What is the location of the tower?? i.e. up on the desk/table...out in the middle of the living room floor...down in the bottom cabinet of your desk with the door closed (and probably a backside on that cabinet)?????

What I'm getting at here...if the tower is ...for example...down in the cabinet with the door closed half of the time and there is also a backside to the hole that it is in...then your room temp can be 32 below 0 and the heat coming out of the tower is going to fill up that cabinet/hole and then...what fans that are circulating air inside the tower...will pull that hot air right back into the tower, and it keeps circulating, and the next thing you know...it's boiling over!!

To make a long sroty short...the tower has to have a plentiful access to FRESHair..in order fro the whole cooling theory to work!! Unless ofcourse you are doing water cooling...but we won't get into that right now!!!!

Roger

 

the tower is beneath the computer desk in the place where my legs go. the back of the tower is turned the wall.

 

How about your CPU t* ?
do you have side fan and back fan?

 

How close is the back of the tower to the wall?

I don't know what the experts would say is a sufficient clearance, but I'd say if you haven't got at least 6" clearance, your machine will not be able to cool itself sufficiently. The heat blown out of the case by the exhaust fans has to have room to get away from the case -- especially when tucked under a desk.

 

it has six inches, and as far as the cpu's fans...it does have a back fan, but i'm not sure if it has a side fan.