[Lithium44]

A few days ago my computer started crashing if I played on it for a long period of time. The actual 'crash' would come in the form of the monitor freezing and a random screeching sound would emit constantly from my headset, it would stay this way until I would press the reset/power button.

The PC specs are in my sig.

I've wanted to format into another copy of windows as it was, so I did it because I thought it might solve the problem but the problem persisted. (switched back from Vista Ultimate 64bit to XP Pro 32bit)

I have no idea what would cause such a problem, as a normal CPU problem should be in the form of a blue screen (unstable) or the PC simply reseting itself (overheating) and graphics card problems should be artifacts (unstable/overheat) or VPU-recovery/black-screen (overheat), but this is something I've never even heard of before!

I've done a stress test on the CPU (E7200) and it wouldn't go higher then 55C/131F on 3.85GHz, and about 46C/115F on stock value bios which still didnt fix the problem.

The graphics card however, an HD4870 512MB with a Zalman GV-1000 and a few more fans around it, has shown some strange results:

The pictures shows the analysis of GPUz while graphics card is stressed by rthdribl.


the problem is, I think its obvious - the VDDC #1/2/3 temps reaching as high as 115C/240F!
ambient temps are high and I would say they're atleast 25C/77F.

The problem in short:
When playing games for a long period the computer sometimes gets stuck, the picture on the monitor freezes and the computer stops responding, a screeching noise comes out of the headset constantly afterwards. This stays the same until I reset/shut-down the PC.

A short check showed the graphics card VDDCs reach 115C/240F and higher on load.

The questions:
1) What are the VDDC Slaves?
2) Can this be the cause of this strange problem?
3) Is this dangerous to the graphics card?
4) If it is indeed not a normal situation and/or the cause of the problem, how can it be fixed?


thanks in advance , this is extremely annoying...

[Badbonji]

Seems a bit high to me lol...

Anyway I noticed that it says the fan isn't spinning? Does it spin up at all? Might want to manually set it to 70% or something to see if this helps.

[yeh_boi]

How come i cant see my voltage :S

[Lithium44]

it is spinning, the GV1000 is simply connected to the PSU via fan controller. (the VDDC temps are basically the same with fan at 3600RPM and at 1200RPM...)
There's another 120mm fan right on top of it and 3 more fans on its side. (2x120 + 250)

anyway, I've seen some people in this and in other forums complaining about their VDDC reaching 150C/300F+, but their HD4870 was simply artifacting... on the other hand I've noticed others having around 60C/140F with their stock cooling! I mean wth, the GV1000 is supposed to be much better then that crappy ol' stock cooler, especially with all these damn fans right on it!

[Badbonji]

Originally Posted by Lithium44

it is spinning, the GV1000 is simply connected to the PSU via fan controller. (the VDDC temps are basically the same with fan at 3600RPM and at 1200RPM...)
There's another 120mm fan right on top of it and 3 more fans on its side. (2x120 + 250)

anyway, I've seen some people in this and in other forums complaining about their VDDC reaching 150C/300F+, but their HD4870 was simply artifacting... on the other hand I've noticed others having around 60C/140F with their stock cooling! I mean wth, the GV1000 is supposed to be much better then that crappy ol' stock cooler, especially with all these damn fans right on it!

Ask your manufacturer about it, possibly consider an RMA.

[Lithium44]

Originally Posted by Badbonji

Ask your manufacturer about it, possibly consider an RMA.

Doesn't that mean I'll have to put the stock cooler back on?
Removing the cooler voids the warrenty, does it not?

[evilrad]

Did you put sinks on those voltage regs? Looking at Zalman's website on the product, it doesn't look like it comes with sinks for the voltage regs (only sinks for the ram). If you don't have sinks on them, then this explains your high temps. Even so, those temps shouldn't be a problem if those temps are the max reached (how long did you run the stress test?). I believe the regs are rated for 125C. Also, temps will not get near those that you are seeing when playing an actual game (as opposed to stress test). Let GPU-Z run in the back ground and play an actual game for 10-15 mins. Exit the game and click on one of the VDDCs and select max to see the highest temp that it reached.

[grunion]

You need to sink them when using an after market cooler, see thread.

[Lithium44]

I'm not sure how heatsinks will hold unto such small parts... but will try it, those things are cheap.

thanks, will report if it helps.

[Lithium44]

Originally Posted by Lithium44

I'm not sure how heatsinks will hold unto such small parts... but will try it, those things are cheap.

thanks, will report if it helps.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=603659

as you can see here, by VDDC 1/2/3 I mean the voltage regulators.
the GPU temp never reaches over 60C/140F and the MEMIO/Shadercore never go above 70C/160F even when all the fans are on low and the ambient is very high.

I have a GV1000 with another 120mm fan right on top of it and 3 more fans (2x120+250) on the side of it.