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Might Be Overheating Videocard

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by Reaper_Unreal, 8 Jul 2006.

  1. Reaper_Unreal

    Reaper_Unreal Minimodder

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    My computer has been acting fairly erratically lately. During fairly intensive scenes in my videogames, such as near the end of a heated race of Need For Speed: Most Wanted, or in an espescially packed scene in World of Warcraft, my computer will start spuriously beeping from the PC speaker, not even from my real speakers. I'm not quite sure why this is happening, but I'm thinking it has to do with heat as it only happens when I'm working my computer fairly hard. I know my processor isn't overheating as MBM says that it's at 56C, which is hot, but not that terrible. I don't really have any way of checking the temp on my vidcard, but I'm pretty sure that's the problem, I'm just looking for other opinions as to what it might be. Here's my system specs:

    Athlon 64 4000+ cooled w/ Thermaltake XP120
    Asus A8N-E
    Corsair TWINX 1024 PC3200 XLL (2-2-2-5)
    ATI Radeon X850XTPE (stock cooling)
    HDs: 2x300GB (not raid) + 80GB + 30GB
    Coolermaster Wavemaster case w/ most fans swapped for Arctic Cooling TC3 fans
    Antec NeoPower 480 (I'm thinking that 480W is enough for this system)

    So also, if it is the videocard overheating, should I swap out the cooling for an Arctic Cooling ATI Rev 5 unit, or should I buy a new 7900GT (I can get it at cost from Dell)?
     
  2. zr_ox

    zr_ox Whooolapoook

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    The number and frequency of beeps from the MotherBoard speaker are designed specifically to pin-point the error.

    Your MotherBoard manual should have a section on error codes. Count the number of beeps next time and then look this up in the manual. It would be a shame to think its the GPU and start spending monney when it could be something else entirely.
     
  3. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

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    Install ATi Tool and that will tell you your GPU temps.
     
  4. Reaper_Unreal

    Reaper_Unreal Minimodder

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    No, this isn't a startup issue, the beep codes you're referring to are startup error issues. There isn't any set number of beeps, it just starts beeping about once every 1 or 2 seconds and doesn't stop until I turn off the game.

    I will check out ATITool though. Does ATITool have an overlay function? That's really what I'm looking for, something to overlay the display temperature on top of my game.
     
  5. EliteMark

    EliteMark What's a Dremel?

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  6. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

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    Are the beeps uniform, or simply random?

    ATI-tool doesn't have an overlay feature afaik.

    Next time the problem starts, whip your case open and do the classic touch-test. If it burns your hand, it's too hot. Test all the heatsinks in your system, graphics chips get rather hot, upto 60'C is ok - any higher isn't good.

    Load up ATI-tool, and it should tell you your temps pretty quickly anyway, switch the logging on, then see what kind of temp it gets to when you play.

    As for buying a new graphics card, don't ask dell if they'll fit one - buy one and fit it yourself, it's a piece of piss, and it'll save you a bundle of money. :)
     
  7. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

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    You can log ATiTools temperatures to a file every x seconds, just select that and if you get a problem, not the time and check it out.
     
  8. Reaper_Unreal

    Reaper_Unreal Minimodder

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    I'll do that thanks. Though surprisingly, it didn't do it in world of warcraft last night, must've been because I turned off full-screen glow and that eased the load quite a bit.

    To clarify for Krikkit, the sound is uniform, about once every second when it does start.

    The reason I'd get a dell graphics card is that I have a friend that works at dell and can get me one for nearly at cost. I don't actually own a dell, I've always built my own computer and always will.
     
  9. oasked

    oasked Stuck in (better) mud

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    That beeping sounds like a warning that your system (i.e. CPU) is getting hot. You should be able to change the warning sounds etc (and monitor your system temperatures) in the BIOS. :)
     
  10. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

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    Look the beeping up in an error-code table for your mobo, that'll tell you what's going on. :)
     
  11. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

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    If I can read what you're saying correctly the beeps are happening during a game or computer useage not on boot?
     
  12. Reaper_Unreal

    Reaper_Unreal Minimodder

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    So I checked it out, and it was indeed my videocard overheating. It was hitting 95C somehow. So I've used ATITool to change the fan settings so that it kicks in much earlier. Since then I've had no overheating problems. Of course it's a bit louder now which doesn't really suit me, but I'll deal with it for now, just turn my speakers up a bit.
     
  13. wharrad

    wharrad Minimodder

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    This might be wrong,

    but doesn't MBM automatically beep when a temp rises above 50c? It doesn't know your CPU could go higher than that...

    Maybe that, might be I'm thinking of Speenfan.
     
  14. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

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    MBM5 if set to detect the GFX temp (you need to set ATitool to send it out) will beep at 70C
     

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