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Some background: I have had my computer for over 2 years. After I tried to clean it, my CPU started to go over 80ºC idle. I managed to reduce it to 60ºC and used it for a long time, almost 9 months, before it started to make a weird noise. I took it to a technician, and they cleaned it and took off the side cooler, which wasn't working anyway. For 2 weeks, everything was fine.

Today, when I tried to play Team Fortress 2, I noticed strange drops FPS after a little time. When I opened Speed fan, the temperature of the GPU was 120ºC! Now, with nothing running except Chrome, with the side panel of the cabinet opened, the GPU is still 99ºC. What can I do before it starts melting?

The GPU is an Nvidia Geforce 8500GT. The system temperature reads at 38ºC, the CPU at 47ºC. There is nothing overclocked in this machine. The ventilation is a single fan at the back.

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What do you mean by "side cooler"? Is the fan on the 8500GT working? – techie007 Aug 25 '11 at 21:54
What @techie007 said. Also, this might be a red herring, but when the CPU was so hot before, how did you get it back down? What is the ambient temperature in the room? – Shinrai Aug 25 '11 at 21:56
I have a fanless 8500GT, but I don't play video games and do not have overheating issues. If your 8500GT also does not have a fan, then you will most certainly have to add a fan facing the graphics adapter. – sawdust Aug 25 '11 at 22:27
I don't have any fan on the graphics-card, only in the back of the gabinet. When my CPU started to get to over 80ºC, I sent my computer to the technical assistance, and they fixed it. The Graphics card only have a sink. – Vitor Rangel Aug 27 '11 at 14:56

1 Answer

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It sounds like your video card is overheating. You say "only a fan in the back". Do you mean the back of your video card? Is the fan working? If the fan is working, it could be that the thermal paste has dried up. You could remove the fan and/or heatsink and reapply some thermal paste, though this can be a bit tricky. If the fan is not functioning and you have tried blowing out the dust, you could replace the fan.

However, given how old your video card is, it's probably easier and may in fact be cheaper simply to replace it with a new, low-end video card.

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Note that some video cards, particularly those as old as yours, did not have a fan on the video card. If true, the case's ventilation is more important (and seems to be broken for you). What I said about the thermal paste would still apply. – ChrisInEdmonton Aug 25 '11 at 21:56
My video card only have a sink. Some friends told me to buy a water cooler, but I do not know if it compensates, or it's better to buy a whole new computer. – Vitor Rangel Aug 27 '11 at 15:00
Buying a water cooler is a complete waste of money in this situation. Either fix the fan on your case or buy a new video card with a fan. Both are likely to be cheaper than adding water cooling. – ChrisInEdmonton Aug 30 '11 at 14:34

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