BleepingComputer.com: Graphics causing system instability?

Hi,
My computer has been experiencing random shutdown issues, so I downloaded a temperature gauge. I noticed my graphics card might be running a little hot at around 90 degrees Celsius idle. I downloaded a GPU stress test and my graphics card failed after 40 minutes. Could it be a heat problem?

Computer: Gateway gt5628
Graphics card: NVIDIA 8500 GT

I ran a gpu stress test and my GPU I guess failed the stability test after 40 minutes. The temperature started at about 90 degrees Celsius, and climbed up till it hit 125 degrees Celsius. Then, it decelerated or something?

Is my GPU running too hot? If so, could it be causing my computer to shut down randomly?

Thanks for reading.

This post has been edited by Luke L: 22 May 2010 - 10:46 AM

Hi Luke L to BC

Yes that is definitely a heat issue with the graphics card in no way should it get that hot, it should be around 65C MAX, I would open up the case and locate the card and get a can of compressed/dry air/ canned air what ever you want to call it and use that to blow any dust and gunk out of it. post back with the temps.

Hi,
thanks for the advice. I opened up the case and found that the graphics card heatsink was clogged with dust. More importantly, the fan somehow melted into an unusable state and was just hanging there at an odd angle, not spinning at all. So, I have a graphics card with no fan. My plan is to run the graphics card without a fan and keep it alive for as long as possible. The following steps were taken to reduce heat:
1) I blew all dust out of the heat sink, and the whole computer as well, for better ventilation. The once clogged vents are no more.
2) I completely took the fan off the heat sink, as to expose more surface area.
3) I took out the modem below the graphics card for it might produce a tiny bit of heat, maybe.
4) I went into windows and disabled all aero features. Everything doesn't look pretty but it's still functional.

I don't do heavy gaming so it's ok. I just hope my graphics card hangs in there.
As for temps, before my graphics card idled at 90-93 degrees Celsius. Now it idles at 87 degrees Celsius.

Please warn me if this is a bad idea.

Thanks again

You can purchase inexpensive cooling fans for video cards.
If you want my opinion.
I would try replacing the fan and get continued long use out of the card then to let it run without one and wait for it to fail.

Thanks for the advice. The only thing that is holding me back is what caused so much overheating that my fan melted. No graphics card should do that, right? One possibility is that the fan just stopped working randomly and THEN it overheated enough to which the fan melted.