Graphics card maintenance-Asus Nividia 6800 ultra

[4_Series_Scania]

Taken from a friends post on www.e30zone.net - thought it may be of interest....

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.

[GunnerMan]

Ahh yes. I did that 2 weeks ago with my card, stripped it down to the bare bones. I had previously used a can of duster on it do it was not that bad but I still got some. One thing I would never do that he did is use a vacuum cleaner to clean it. Those things create static electricity that will kill your computer in a heartbeat giving proper conditions. Use a can of duster or a air compressor. Your mouth works wonders too as a last resort. I recently visted a friend whos computer I built and found it had been in total neglect, the Zalman HSF was so caked with dust no airflow was possible through the fins. Dust bunnies were piled high around it and the gfx card was bad too. I told him we needed to clean the mess, he didn't want to but I did it anyway. Now it looks much better and runns much cooler.

  I always stress to people I build machines for they need to keep it clean. The high performance parts used can not work well if there is a open pit mine running in thier pc.

[Chris_F]

Moving air can create static dischage and damange components.  I usually pick dust bunnies out with tweezers and do my best with a soft cloth before I resort to blowing or sucking devices.  And I think that blowing things out isn't quite so bad as the air you're blowing is rather humid.  Still, I'd bet you could do a lifetime of vacuuming and blowing and never have a problem.  It is kinda low risk.

Good tip re: cleaning the card.  I'll check temps next time I run my year old 6800GT hard.  If it's getting hot I'll clean it.

[Ashton Lawson]

well, the guys who manufacture cards and such should hav sufficient protection against static discharge, if moving air creates such things.  if they dont do it, then i dont think static discharge is a major problem.  if it is however, there is a little thing called warranty.

[GunnerMan]

It dosen't have to do with the moving air, its all that stuff spining around in the vacuum that charges the air. Also most companies don't cover their parts for ESD even if it was because you were vacuuming you PC lol. I guess if you have the what they don't know wont hurt them philosiphy then how will they know.  ::)

[DizZa]

Never done that.... idling in the 60's and loads in the 100's.... still rock stable.