Simviation Forums

Short story.

Two and a half years down the road with what has basically a good and very overworked pci-e en6800 ultra card. I have three pc's and this is my main machine basically. Been thrashing Battlefield 2 and GTR 2 to death on it. Lately has been behaving badly with graphics hanging in GTR2 typically after a short time while driving. I do keep my machines in good order and clean em quarterly and usually clean the exteriors of components etc bla bla.

The 6800 Nvidia cards have a plate which covers the cooling venturi and fins assembly. The plate is retained by a set of tiny screws hence I kinda put off removing it. You can guess the rest lol. I finally remove said plate and discover a micro climate encapsulated in a mire of dust the likes of which I never thought could exist in a pc. Get soft brush and hoover, loosen the dust, blast it all out and hoover the offending crap off the floor/desk. It is clear to me that cooling with this range of cards is quite critical in the sense that a little dust can bring forth a multitude of problems which may have you jumping through all sorts of hoops to try and fix. (see also defreagging regularly, driver updating, driver roll back, driver re-updating, re-seating the card etc etc waffle waffle you know...)

So folks don't be afraid of those little screws, and if your cards similar, sure as eggs are vaguely oval shaped you'll find a mess in there. Get em undone and get under that thing. It's cheaper than a 400 quid replacement. The card has since been perfect and performing like it did when new.