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[Melodic]

For awhile now I've suspected my GPU of grossly overheating during everyday situations, and I've managed to confirm this with two different programs: ATi Tray Tools, and the discontinued Everest Home Edition.

Both register an initial GPU heat of approximately 55C, but this almost IMMEDIATELY spikes to ~115C, during everyday stress load. I'm not entirely sure if this has anything do with anything, but it does worry me.

Are there any simple things I could test or do to get this temperature below room-heat-sustaining levels? My GPU is a Sapphire Radeon X1900XTX, and has not been overclocked, nor have any other key system components. My case is an Antec SONATA II.

NB: Uh oh, may have found the problem. ATi Tray Tools says the only fan working is "Fan 2", which is spinning at 1042 RPM. Everest confirms that only one fan is working, and says it's the CPU fan. This could definitely be a problem, but I don't fix fans often enough to know what to do.

[celticgeek]

Usually fans can be replaced fairly easily.  However, make sure that you have the proper replacement fan, interms of size, airflow, and so forth. 

Maybe you would have a friend that could do this for you.  Or even take it to a repair place.

[Scytale]

Fans are usually pretty trivial to replace as Celtic geek suggested.

If you need to keep using your computer, you may be able to underclock your card until it becomes usable. I'm not sure what OS your running and I'm not all that familiar with ATI cards but it might possibly ship with some peice of software that will let you do this.

[Melodic]

I repair PCs for a living, but I've never actually had to replace a fan before, and I'm still curious if this is the problem (without taking my PC apart because I am a lazy bastard). It might be, even, a disconnected wire, as I recently (read: a month ago) moved my PC to a different room.

[celticgeek]

A disconnected wire is a possibility since you moved your computer recently.

And I understand being a lazy bastard (sort of describes me, too).

My computer operates with one side panel off, since I swap out hard drives frequently (OS testing of new distros), so I can check out other things pretty easily.

Good luck.

[Scytale]

I'm another person who usually operates with the side panel off.

I don't think I've ever screwed anything into the case, I'm just eternally lazy, also much easier to swap out Hard drives I have 6 SATA drives but only 4 slots on the motherboard so I'm constantly swapping hard drives.

edit: forum doesn't seem to like starting posts with a + 1

[schimmy]

What OS are you using? When I used windows, I found that CPU Eat n Cool was very useful. It's a small app that keeps your computer cool by limiting processes. I found that it was very useful, since my computer frequently overheated, and I could run most games without any major performance hit, just occasional drop in frame rate. Careful not to use it on Vista, though, it crashes your system as soon as it runs.

[Melodic]

Maybe my sensors are borked? I have a friend that breeds snakes, and I've borrowed his TempGun, essentially a long-range thermometer that uses infrared light to measure heat. I've tested EVERYTHING inside my case, including the GPU, the PSU, the motherboard, and the soundcard, and all of them come back under 70C.

[celticgeek]

That does sound like the sensors are borked.  Or perhaps the software isn't running right.

What other symptoms is your computer exhibiting that makes you think it is overheating?

[Cernunnos]

Beware, though. I have seen thermometers like that that were very inaccurate (not that i would know whether or not they are universally weird, it may very well have just been the one). You may want to double-check with something else.