Ugh, my bad computer luck.

Sai wrote:Also is it true I possibly might not notice static electricity damage until months later? (don't ask me why I have to ask this. I'll just say: it wasn't me ._. )

You might not notice the damage until much later, sure. For instance if a RAM module is damaged you might not notice it until a certain memory chip is asked to perform a specific operation. But if all of a sudden nothing works anymore it shouldn't be the ESD of past that's causing it. Electric circuitry is tricky business though.

Cleaned out my Geforce 6800 GT the other day. It was running approx. 80-90°C IDLE 35-60°C is about normal. I took it out, unscrewed about 12 screws holding on the funnel, fan, heatsink and backplate and blew the dust out the window.
Ever brush a furry pet in summer? Imagine the moult of 8 persian cats stuffed into a 4x5 inch square of pcb and you get a general idea of what came out.

It's not helped by the fact that a lot of comp chips these days have WAY too much thermal compound between the chip and conduit (only a light film over the chip's surface will be enough. Too much and you have an nice hot insulator). My gfx card was no exception. There was mountains of the stuff all over the GPU and memory chips and I had to scrape most it off carefully with floss and wipe the conduits over with white spirit.
After plugging it back in and installing an extra case fan, it now runs about 65°C idle in this summer weather. Not bad.

One other thing I'll mention while I'm here is I was getting random lockups when the PC was perfoming hard disk activities. The hard drive would be reading/writing large chunks of data and the whole computer would freeze up, needing a hard reset. The HDD light was always on when it froze, leading me to believe something was amiss with the hard disk (or related). Being a new drive, I guessed it might have been the IDE cable on the fritz. Turns out the modern gfx cards requiring 4-pin molex power inputs like their own cable - no sharing. Same goes for disk drives. I reckon this is because I had both the card, and my hard drive on the same molex cable and when the drive needed the extra power the system crapped out. 2 months after splitting the power to them, no lockups at all. So it wasn't the heat, the drive, or anything else to worry about, thankfully.

Is that the time? *whistles*

I have joined the computer woes club.

My Pc, after spontaneously shutting down every time I try and play a video or anything graphically intensive, is about to get a new video card.

Whenever I move a window around I get a clicking/buzzing noise which seems to correspond with the frame rate. Not to mention artifacts on my screen in certain cases. So I ordered a new video card (a 6800 GS 512MB to replace my FX-5950 Ultra 256MB)...

...and then I found out that the buzzing noise is coming from my PSU... but I don't think the PSU is the issue... because the PC tends to lock up and shut down whenever it needs to do anything graphically intense, I think the video card has developed a power fault which is causing the PSU to go bonkers and shut itself down to prevent damage...

I will find out soon enough.

-Cub. =o)

What are the temperatures listed in your Geforce's temp settings (display properties), Cub?

37 Degrees Celcius for the core when it decides to die on me... which has lead me to beleive it is not a temperature issue... it is winter here BTW.

-Cub. =o)

Have you checked the voltages in the BIOS? It usually lists voltage outputs for the 12v rail, 5v rail, etc, as well as fan speeds, system and CPU temperatures and so on.

Yep, checked all that... seems to be stable an sufficient at the following (albeit with some minor fluctuations):

Vcore: 1.880 (notched up from 1.788 intentionally)
3.3v = 3.340
5v = 4.770 - 4.880
12v = 12.220
5v = 5.020

So it all seems pretty stable. Fans spaads are stable, and temps are withing acceptable ranges (42-50 degrees). So, What are you thinking?

-Cub. =o)

Cubase wrote:Vcore: 1.880 (notched up from 1.788 intentionally)

What do you mean here? Are you overclocking?

Sounds like a decent enough reason to buy a new graphics card.

But my guess would be it's the PSU. When you are doing graphic intensive stuff the graphics card drains much more juice from the PSU. Perhaps it cannot handle the load. Oh well, I might be wrong, and PSUs aren't that expensive anyway.

i'm_melting_i'm_melting wrote:

Cubase wrote:Vcore: 1.880 (notched up from 1.788 intentionally)

What do you mean here? Are you overclocking?

ONly been overclockingfor the past 2 days.

Had been at 1.788 (default) for the majority of the duration of the problems... notched up the v-core voltage only yesterday to hopefully increase stability... thus increasing my clock from 2150 to 2300. Has ntohing to do with the issues though.

-Cub. =o)

Cubase wrote: notched up the v-core voltage only yesterday to hopefully increase stability.

First I've heard of that method.

Cubase wrote:...and then I found out that the buzzing noise is coming from my PSU... but I don't think the PSU is the issue... because the PC tends to lock up and shut down whenever it needs to do anything graphically intense, I think the video card has developed a power fault which is causing the PSU to go bonkers and shut itself down to prevent damage...

Still sounds like the PSU to me, man. The buzzing/excess noise is a BIG clue. Is the gfx card directly attatched to it via a 4-pin molex connector (like mine is)? What's the wattage of the PSU?

i'm_melting_i'm_melting wrote:

Cubase wrote: notched up the v-core voltage only yesterday to hopefully increase stability.

First I've heard of that method.

When you overclock you increase voltages to strengthen stability. either way, it does not matter in this case.

i'm_melting_i'm_melting wrote:

Cubase wrote:...and then I found out that the buzzing noise is coming from my PSU... but I don't think the PSU is the issue... because the PC tends to lock up and shut down whenever it needs to do anything graphically intense, I think the video card has developed a power fault which is causing the PSU to go bonkers and shut itself down to prevent damage...

Still sounds like the PSU to me, man. The buzzing/excess noise is a BIG clue. Is the gfx card directly attatched to it via a 4-pin molex connector (like mine is)? What's the wattage of the PSU?

The GPU is 450 Watts... Vid card is connected via a 4-pin molex, no other devices are connected to that particular string of connectors.

Molex configuration is as follows:

X=====[CD-Rom]===[SoundCard]===[fan]===[fan]
X=====[HDD]===[HDD]===[HDD]
X=====[GPU]

-Cub. =o)

Cubase wrote:The GPU is 450 Watts

You mean the PSU, right? 450 should cover it, providing it's working OK.

Have you tried putting in a spare PSU? By the way, what's your sound card? I've never heard of an audio card needing a direct PSU connection for extra power.

Yeah... 450 Watt PSU sorry.

And the Soundcard is an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro... the power connector is a mini 4-pin (same as the ones featured on FDDs)... which is plugged into the card to provide power through to the break-out-box.

My firewire card has the same power connector, but I have never needed to use it... and it works fine without it.

Anyway, I have other PSUs but they are all 250-300 Watt budget buggers which would more than likely bork my machine. I will be getting the 6800 GS in the mail soon and will see if the problem persists when I put it in... if the noise is still there I will invest in a decent PSU.... (a 550W Cottagen is one that I have my eyes on... as I don't fancy spending over $150 on an Antec or Thermaltake one).

Thanks for your help though... anything else I can prick your brain about?

-Cub. =o)