sirfatalx

I have a 7600GT video card. I've had it for about 2 years now and now I am experiencing some problems. One day at random, my screen at full resolution showed a bunch of dots around the screen. When I lowered the screen resolution, they were gone. I was guessing these were artifacts. So, I wanted to test to see if it was the video card itself, or the video card overheating. I did a test, shutting the pc down completely for a long period of time (5+ hours). I usually have my pc on 24/7. After I turned the pc on and went the the full resolution, the artifacts were not there anymore. I have a weird setup for airflow. I have a huge fan blowing in cool air from the front and 2 fans blowing out in the back of the case. When I say a big fan, I am talking about a non-pc case fan. This is extremely loud and I cannot stand it anymore. Does anyone else have any suggestions about good airflow to cool the video card down so it is more stable. I have also tried to lower the clock speed and mem speed but it just does not seem to be working. I tried everything from ATItool and other programs. I also made sure my drivers are up to date as well.

Deleted090308

Hi,

What are the temperatures inside the computer?

Monitor the temps and voltages with, for example, SensorsView (link in my signature).

Remove dust from the GPU fan/heatsink.

koala

2 good quality 120mm fans, one low down at the front and one high up at the back, are enough to keep a computer cool. Try and keep a clear airflow path between the 2 fans by moving the cables and wires out of the way. If the heatsink fan is also loud, replace it with a quality name brand like a Zalman, and replace the thermal paste with Arctic Silver.

The random dots could be caused by the video RAM overheating. Do they ever appear during POST, before Windows loads? List all your system temperatures and PSU voltages at startup and during gameplay.