[NTLUG:Discuss] PC Hardware Issue

[steve]

Lenrek Xunil wrote:
>> One of his graphics cards is failing...for sure.
>>
>> The only question is whether it's the card, too much heat or
>> not enough power from the powersupply.
>>
>> Until he does the tests I suggested before - he'll never know what's
>> borken.   Dinking around with moving wires, changing memory modules
>> and so forth is just changing the time when the problem happens - the
>> underlying problem will remain.
>>
> 
> Actually it's one card, dual display.  I reseated it.  There's no graphics
> out from the motherboard.  I was thinking a 470 W PS would be enough for my
> components.  What do you think?  Here's that link to my configuration again:

Oh!  OK.  You definitely said 2 graphics cards before!  Well if you only
have one card then there are many more things that could be going on.

Well, that changes everything.

I see you're using an ATI Radeon card.  Which graphics drivers are you 
using?  The OpenSource ones are pretty outdated - but I think they are
reliable.  The ones ATI provide are patchy - some revisions are quite
stable - others crash a lot.  I would definitely try upgrading (or
perhaps downgrading) your drivers...especially if you do any 3D stuff
like games.  Drivers tend to be less well tested in dual-output modes
so this is a reasonably good possibility.

That being the case, this might be nothing to do with heat or power or
hardware problems of any kind.

> What I did do is order the Arctic Silver grease from Newegg (where I've
> bought some of the other components).  This is the cheapest improvement for
> the time being.  I did notice that my CPU fan fins were cold even after
> taking the CPU to 100%.  So maybe there could be an improvement with this.

Well, be careful: That could mean one of two things:

1) Your cooling system is pulling the heat from the CPU heatsink very
efficiently so it's not getting hot.

2) Your heatsink is so badly sealed against the CPU chip that it's not
pulling heat out of the CPU fast enough to get hot.

...or a combination of the two!

So this isn't a definitive symptom.