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General discussion

video card overheating?

May 26, 2005 5:02AM PDT

My mother's computer has been having problems. She runs XP and only uses it for surfing the net, but after having it on for about 15 minutes the graphics become very distorted, and the whole thing just freezes soon after that. It sounds like the video card is overheating, but I haven't inspected it myself, but I can only assume that the fan isn't working properly (she mentions that she sometimes hears the fan and sometimes doesn't).

The video card is a Geforce 4 TI 4600, and I'd like to get a replacement fan, but nVidia doesn't have any info about this on their site. Does anyone know of any place that has a list of fans that are compatible with this card? Or can anyone provide any other advice at all? Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Video card overheating?
May 26, 2005 7:13AM PDT
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Video Card Overheat?
May 28, 2005 12:53AM PDT

Another place to look is at the monitor itself. Either the Card or the Monitor can do the same thing if they overheat. I had the same problem with the display, spent $ to cool the case/video card to no effect. Then on a wild hair idea, took a vacuum cleaner and put it to the vents on top of the monitor, and the problem temporarily (approx 15 min) stopped. The solution, new monitor or increase ventilation.

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Got the same card....
May 28, 2005 2:53AM PDT

Hey,I got the same card and a few months back games kept crashing so I took it to this guy. He said it was overheating, but I sent it to Albatron, the vendor. They said it was fine. They said the card gets very hot. I tried looking for a Nvidia fan, but they don't sell any. You'd have to buy one from a third-party. BUT, that is assuming that the card is actually overheating. You wouldn't know the temperature of your PC, when its idle? Then we could know if its you GPU/and or something in the computer OR the monitor, as Villycarl suggests. You can find the temp in your BIOS, or if you have a utility.
Hth
Ibrahim