Troubleshooting Random Reboots and Overheating Graphics Card

[vladimir69]

hi there
i have been having trouble with my pc randomly rebooting (about once every 2 days) during any aspect of my windows session whether it be in games, playing music, surfing the web, using office and even while sitting idle. it is just like the reboot switch has been pressed. it also sometimes happens when i plug in usb devices such as my mp3 player and flash drive. and also occasionally after the random reboot, once windows starts back up a message will come up and say windows has recovered from a serious error.

now i had problems with my radeon 9800xt as the original fan died so i had to install a new one.

when the fan died the card was running at about 116 degrees celsius but now it is running at 63 degrees with the newly installed fan.

now I'm not sure of the reason behind the usb/reboot problem but i suspect the main cause of my problems is a faulty graphics card. i visited a website recently and noticed a difference between my card and a card on the review site found here

http://www.digital-daily.com/video/gexcube-radeon9800xt/
my card is the same as the link above
if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see a screenshot of the overdrive settings and i have also included a screenshot of mine for comparison
http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/wcardow/9800xt.JPG
my overdrive thingy is way into the red and is running a lot slower mhz (about12mhz) than the one on the review site.
perhaps the card is still overheating?
is there any way to check to see if the card is faulty (ie graphics card equivalent of memtest) without having to rip open the computer and fiddle around inserting a new card.

note things i have tried:
format hard disk, reinstall OS and graphics card driver
install all windows updates (including sp2)
tried new power cord
new PSU

 

[KataKoniK]

Hmm, when the card was running at 116 degrees, you may have minorly damaged your gpu, which may be the reason behind your random restarts. If you are on Windows XP, try disabling the option to automatically reboot whenever your computer crashes. You can do so by doing the following:

Start>Settings>Control Panel>System>Advanced Tab>Startup and Recovery>Settings>Uncheck "Automatically Restart"

When your comp does crash, a BSOD would show detailing the error, which may tell you the real reason behind your random resets.

 

[ravenprp]

Hi there,

It sounds like you have already taken some good steps in trying to troubleshoot this issue. However, it does seem likely that your graphics card is the source of the problem. Overheating can definitely cause random reboots and other issues, and the fact that your card was previously running at such a high temperature is concerning.

One thing you can try is to use a program like GPU-Z to monitor the temperature and usage of your graphics card in real-time. This can help you determine if the card is still running too hot, even with the new fan. You can also try running a benchmark or stress test on your graphics card to see if it causes any issues or crashes.

If you do determine that the graphics card is still overheating, you may need to consider replacing it. You can try contacting the manufacturer for a warranty replacement if it is still covered, or look into purchasing a new card.

In terms of the USB/reboot issue, it's possible that it is related to the graphics card or overheating, but it could also be a separate issue. You may want to try updating drivers for your USB devices or checking for any conflicts in the Device Manager.

I hope this helps and that you are able to resolve the issue with your graphics card. If not, it may be worth seeking further assistance from a computer technician or the manufacturer. Good luck!