Can anyone list for me signs that one's PC or Video card is running hot? What should I look for? Thanks.

Locking up where you have to do a hard boot, high ascii blinking on your screen (DOS looking graphics) and stuff like that (For Video Cards). Check to see if the Video card fan and PC fans are clean. 50% of PC and Video failures are from dust and overheating.

Also, if you have Omega Drivers for an ATi card, the temp meter should stsrt blinking at 90% crit, and then shtu-down and revert to on-board on 95%. I think. Never really tried to burn a vid card, lol. Processors fried: 3, Video cards: 0.

Well you could open your cse and move your hand near the card.
Usually your computer will automatically shut down if it overheats, but if it is just a card then, as Ziroc said, just clean your PC.

Open PC,

Get your self an Egg, Crack the eg and put it on the video card. If it cooks then your video card is running hot.

If it doens't cook then you have just ruined a video card and you can get a new one LOL.

:D

What a great way to make breakfast :D

What a great way to make breakfast :D </font>[/QUOTE]And if you have a fan on your card when you pour the egg on there it could whip you up an omlette!

Let me see!! What is my PC doing at the moment. Mmmmm! Balack and white vertical stripes. Lovely blocks of patterns on the screen. And it turns itself off from time to time.

I'm guessing my video card is too hot because if I turn it off for an hour it's okay for a while.

Well that would make sense, but you should make sure before you take any course of action.

Hey T-D-C, I wonder if you could make Orange juice from oranges with your fan??? :D

I think you'll soon start to see artefacts. Better invest some 15$ to buy an AGP card cooler before it's too late and you have to scrap the card.

Bozos of Bones, where can I purchase one of those AGP coolers?

Smoke is a great indicator of heat

Most computer shops sell them. There are quite a few good ones, like Arctic and Zalman(if you have money, always buy Zalman for any cooling solution. I have ;) ).

Just crashes, try running some processor/graphics card intensive apps and see if it crashes then. Also try waht hivetrant advised, and open your case white it's running, and tough the processor's heatsinc or video card heat sinc.
(this might not be good as some processors run at 30C and mine runs at 90C, but it'll give you some idea).


hahaha, that made me laugh

Whoa whoa, wait dude! 90C running temperature!? Ninety!?! Are you sure your computer is working man, that temperature is instant kill! What are you using(CPU, cooler, paste)?

When it blows up? :D Im just no help.

My videon card have a special fan blowing at it. My friend say it will cool down the video card preventing it from getting too hot. I'm not sure though.

if it get 94C + it crashes
under that it runs fine, and i don't usually have trouble with it at all

(90C is under 100% load, usually hangs around 75 ~ 80C idle)

it's also overclocked (AMD 2800+) to an AMD 3000+, but that only added around 3C, but the temperature doesn't seem to bother it much.

You should get a cooler cooler solution. I have a 2500+ Barton with Nanotherm paste and a AlCu Zalman cooler. My system temperature is around 26-29 and the CPU is between 38-45C(maximum load).

i've read the specs though, and the 2800+ barton runs around 90C. And it doesn't seem to cause any problems whatsoever, believe me, at first i was worried, but i've replaced the thermal past and everything, although i do think i should buy a new hs/f.