TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Holy Rusted METAL Batman!!!

Wow I just got really excited while reading this thread:
"Computer Shut down...need cooling help"
It's in this forum somewhere, I couldn't link to it because I'm new.



You know, Schmutz, how you asked this:

"BTW, does anything happen just before it shuts down? Do you get crazy colours on the screen"

YES! YES, that's what happens to me!!

"If you get any of the first two things I've mentioned it could be your graphics card, because I've had them problems before and it was linked with the graphics card overheating or malfunctioning."

Please let it be that. Please tell me I don't have to get a new heatsink or CPU or update the BIOS...AGAIN...

But here is the kicker:

This only happens if I let the computer sit for a while, say, overnight. After such a hiatus - I turn the computer on, and after about 3 minutes, the screen goes nuts and it either freezes or shuts down and restarts, or both.

The funny thing is, once it does this freak out thing, I turn it back on and it's fine!! I will run indefinitely without a hiccup!

This was happening before Windows was installed. So it's not a Windows driver problem.

Do you think it could be my video card?

Here's what I'm running:

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor

G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory

Rosewill RP550-2 ATX12V v2.01 550W Power Supply

EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card

Western Digital Caviar 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD

ZALMAN 9500A 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler (yes, I put one, rice grain sized, drop of Arctic Silver Thermal Grease between the CPU and heatsink)


Why, oh why - does it shut down after 3 minutes and then restart and act totally fine???

Video memory is such a strange thing.
Most users work off 512Meg (or around) when in actual fact around 2 meg is all you need to run Windows (not including themes and other graphics supported, especially in Vista)
But the graphics card memory actually will use all of this memory, to give your Desktop that real deep view. (ie we can't turn down the memory)

Computers actual Ram cards, these days usually being around 1 Gig on average. Do the opposite, you only use the amount of Ram that the application requires.

Due to this; high end video cards are more subseptical to heat (ie these cards usually come with their own fans) and basically faulty Ram or processing of this ram.

Therefore, it is likely that your video card's hardware is damaged. This damage can be in the processor or memory within the physical card. Which is usually unrepairable.

In saying that. In many cases it may just be dust (that requires being blown out) or even re-thermal pasting the Video cards heatsink to the processor (which is normally not done.)

Try removing all dust, from your entire computer, and video card.
Reseat the card securely (ie the card should be fully seated in the slot) You can also electronic spray all components and the Video card slot (whilst the card is out) And then wait a day or two for it to fully dry (sometimes sooner) and then put it back together again.

This all assuming that it's not a monitor fault !

Thanks for the tip Kimsland. I doubt it's dust because I just built it about two weeks ago.
I never thought of the actual monitor being messed up. Maybe I'll swap it out and see what happens. I think I'm going to swap the video card out as well. If that doesn't work, I guess I'm back to square one.
It's just so weird that this happens during the first three minutes after it's been off for a while, and then it's fine. For instance, it's been on since Sunday morning and still running strong...
You know, I should check if the fan is running on the vid card. It's possible that because there are 4 other fans blowing in the case that they end up cooling the card down after the initial 3 minutes. The Zalman heatsink fan is actually blowing right at the video card.

Just like computer processors
Once a Video card processor has been overheated (if it has?)
The card may do strange things

Please reply back once you have confirmed monitor or card replacement