GeForce 6600GT overheating problem

pushpop

Im having a big problem with a new AGP 6600GT i bought on tuesday. When idle the card is fine, but it runs games fine for about ten minutes, then the whole system locks and is completely unresponsive, requiring a reboot. I ran the thermometer utility provided in the Nvidia tools that come with the driver and it reported my card running at 75-80 degrees C. I took it back to where I bought it (Peats, Parnell St.) and a very helpful chap tried to solve my problem. On the system he tested the card on the temperature never rose above 50 degrees, so I was wondering what the problem could be?

There is more than adequate cooling in my system (3 rear exhaust fans, one side exh. fan, CPU fan, and the card itself has a heatsink and fan on it. I have 3-4 inches clearance between my AGP slot and my soundcard and PCI USB controller. The chap who I was dealing with in Peats said that there is a remote possibility that the fact I installed the new drivers from Nvidia's website, and not the ones on the accompanying CD may have something to do with it. He emphasised the remote part though!!

PC SPEC:

2.8 gHz Pentium 4 HT 800mHz FSB.
1 GB DDR RAM
200 GB HD

I ran the card on Half-Life 2 and Battlefield 2 in 1280x1024 32-bit, 4X anti-aliasing, other settings set to high. The card can go as high and 1920x 1768 so resolution shouldn't be a problem.


Any ideas?

Thanks

GrumPy

your PSU might not be giving it enough power, the card as far as i know requires at least a 350W PSU, but running a few hdds, and dvd drives etc... wont help, 450wPSU might be an idea, but im not really sure, just an idea.

pushpop

I thought of that too, but i have a 400w PSU. Besides, the Nvidia sentinel warns you when the power goes down too low.

joshcork

I simply sounds like there's a flow problem have you actually tried seeing if the cards own fan is working and or providing the cooling necessary. It does sound like you have enough cooling so the problem must be some obstruction. The driver thing does sound a bit unlikely if its the correct driver for the card it shouldn't really matter if it came from a CD or the website. Other than that I'm a bit stumped.

GreeBo

pushpop wrote:

(3 rear exhaust fans, one side exh. fan, CPU fan, and the card itself has a heatsink and fan on it.

Ok, so how is the air getting *into* your case?
Ou probbaly have negative pressure in your case with all those exhaust fans.
Try running with the front (not side) off your case and see what happens?
Also try switch the side fan to blow in not out.

If still not joy run with the side panel off and see what happens.

pushpop

Is there a way to to 'switch' the fans without physically unscrewing them and turning them 180 degrees?

airetam_storm

Rivatuner can turn on and off the fan of most nVidia and ATi cards, vdangerous though

GreeBo

pushpop wrote:

Is there a way to to 'switch' the fans without physically unscrewing them and turning them 180 degrees?

Nah, but its not difficult...
Have you tried running with the front or side off?