Games Crashing/ Graphical Corruption

91jolson

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Hi everyone. I know there a lot of technologically gifted people on this forum so I figured this would be a good place to start looking for a solution =).

Anyways.. Quick background story. I purchased my computer new about a year and a half ago. I don;t have any experience actually assembling the hardware, so I let the techies at the website do it for me. The rough specs include a quad core, 4gb ram (ddr2 i think), GTX 280 (stock), and fans, power supply, etc. Ill grab the exact specs when I get home.

Anyway, a few months ago, my computer crashed out of nowhere ( as soon as I logged in I was met with a pink green and blue pixelated screen that I later found out was graphics corruption. My computer guy told me the config files for vista were corrupted something, so $170, win7, and two months later, I had my baby back.

Unfortunately, now the fan on the side of the computer ( I have one on the side, one in back, and a large on the front) near the gpu stopped functioning, and only spun intermittently with a squeaking noise, and now barely moves at all. I figured that with two other fans I could do without.

I was wrong though. I can play less graphically intensive games like an older splinter cell, but when I load up crysis ( a game my computer was able to spank at max settings not a few months ago), i can get through the start menu, through the first cutscene, and past the first load scree, but as soon as I initiate the actual game, it freezes, and crashes. I put a widget on my desktop to tell me the temp of the gpu, and I get a reading of 73 c after the computer crashes. Just idle it reads ~50c. Now the latest trick the computer decided to pull was the same scary graphic corruption (pink and blue and green pixels) when I tried Left 4 Dead at max settings. A hard reboot fixed it, but Im terrified of running programs until I get the problem sorted out.

I live in a high dust enviroment (arizona) with a few large and hairy dogs that just attract dust, so I'm curious if a dust buildup along with the shifting of the computer when I was transporting it is what nis causing the problems.

Any other ideas? thanks to any who even take the time to read this.
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Dave12308

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First question - is the actual fan on the GTX280 spinning? If that fan is dead as well, it could very well cause the GPU to overheat. If it's still at 73c AFTER crashing to the desktop, that means it could be exceeding 100c in the game as these things start cooling down VERY quickly once they are not under load.
 
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91jolson

91jolson

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Thanks for the response :)

And no its not the gpu's internal fan, its the larger fan that is actually bolted to the case, near the gpu.

And wow I figured the fan was cooling down somewhat, but not to that degree.
 
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