Video card burning up, system shuts down

Very similar to the many posts I've seen here about pcs shutting down while gaming.... My system has worked near perfect for the year since I built it, and never a shut down issue. Only within the past 2 weeks, after istalling, and learning to play BlackOps did the trouble start. Keep in mind that I haven't used the system for gaming in at least 6 months. Within 10 minutes of starting the game, the FPS starts to drop, and then the system shuts right down. A few times I first saw the BSOD, now I don't even see that, it just dies. Mobo, and CPU temps are moderate at aprox. 50, and 62c, but the video card is so hot I couldn't keep my fingers on it more than 2 seconds. I've shecked the obvious like blocked fan vents, slow fan speeds etc, and everything is normal, and free flowing. Is it the video card overheating that is causing the shutdowns, or is there a different issue thats causing it to overheat??? Confused & frustrated....:confused

 

8800's do run far to hot with there stock cooler. I normally add a fan to create some air flow across these cards and sometimes have to do a spot of metal work to achieve it, it maybe to late to do this with your card.

Can you try the card in another machine as it could be some other issue your having like PSU, mobo, memory, software.

 

Do you think with it getting as hot as it has, it may have permanately damaged the card? When I throw in an older GFX card with only 256mb, it runs fine & stable, but not near enough juice for any sort of modern vid game, especially Black Op. I have two of these identical 8800GTX cards, and I have the same problem with either installed, or both installed in SLI. Why would only these $700.00 cards pose a problem, and yet a card worth $150.00 seems to run cooler, and never causes the shutdowns???

 

Try OCCT as it will give you graphs on your hardware until it dies again, this stresses your system to the max. Is your fan on 'Auto' or manually set? Have you tried to manually increase the fan speed using eVGA's Precision or RivaTuner or my favourite MSI's AfterBurner where you can define fan speeds according to temps across a range.

These are all considered overclocking tools but you should only check the fan speed and see what happens to the temps when you increase it, An 8800 is getting long in the tooth too, perhaps the fan speed is slowing down with age. just like my Q6600 Intel stock HSF did recently and I had to replace it though it was clean.

BTW, what is your current fan speed when playing that game, perhaps someone with the same card can give you an idea of what it should be.

 

Just missed the timeout, update your video drivers to the latest from nVidia first just for good measure.

 

I have the very latest release drivers from Nvidia site (Oct.2010), so I doubt thats an issue. When you're speaking about fan speeds, are you referring to cpu fan, or vid card fans? I wasn't aware there was a way of controlling the vid card fan speeds, or even monitoring them, although it would be a great idea.

 

Yes, vid card fan speeds can be manually set and/or monitored. Start the slow way with one of those last 3 programs and not OCCT as of yet. Use Precision first even if your card is not an eVGA, as it should give you good results plus it's easy to install and use. Don't forget, increasing fan speed means more noise but if it stops you from burning your card, then it's worth it.:major

 

I installed the Precision control panel without an issue. The only way I saw any results was to keep the gpu fan running at 95%. That did reduce the amount of crashes, but I'm still getting both BSOD, and instant shutdowns 2-3 times per hour while in game play. The vid card is definately cooler to touch, but the FSB is baking pretty good, especially when I check it after a shutdown. My bios tells me that CPU is running at 48-52 degrees, and mobo avg. at 40c. I checked various leads coming from the PSU and the voltages are right at par, some even fractionally higher.I running out of idea's here. Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

It might be worth splitting the heatsink from the card give it a clean out and redo the heat transfer silicon, there is a video about this on youtube here.

When you come to put the screws back in tighten them evenly, put them all back finger tight then go round giving them a little pinch and again till there all pinched up but not over tight. Also take a good look for bad or cracked solder joints when the heatsink is off.