Motherboard and graphics card overheating and causing cFreezing

Question

My computer of about 3 years has recently started having major performance problems, and freezing. It was broken for about 5 Months until windows was repaired, Then it ran fine for a couple of weeks until yesterday when the freezing started. The case sits open on my desk so i reached in and the Motherboard heatsink and graphics card were extremely hot, while the hardrive was at normal operating temperature. Now when i reboot it I get some beeping. It starts with a more pronounced beep then continues on to 60-8 short beeps. After the short beeps stop there is about a one second pause then the cycle restarts.

Asus P5B-E Motherboard

XFX GeForce 7900 GS graphics card.

Answer 1

Beep codes are relatively consistent accross a wide range of motherboards. Unfortunately, your beep pattern sounds like the FUBAR beep code — it could be the memory, or the graphics card, or the RAM.

Try booting without a graphics card. If only the graphics card is broken, it should work.

Try booting with no RAM either, or with different RAM sticks if you have some handy. With no RAM, if the motherboard is ok, you should get only a few short beeps.

By the way, a heatsink that's too hot to touch is not in itself abnormal. But note that an open case often makes your components run hotter, because (good) cases are designed to make the air flow in the right places, whereas there's not much airflow in an open case.

Answer 2

I would suggest you try running it with the case closed and see if it does exhibit the same problems. Running with the case open can affect the airflow inside the case in such a way that motherboard or graphics card actually get less airflow that way.

I'd also very much check if you're breeding dust bunnies in any of the heat sinks.