overheating video card messing up DVI?

TacoBellDog · Post by **TacoBellDog** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 9:13 pm

OK I got a new LCD monitor and after hooking it up to the DVI, it starts acting all funky - screen blanks out momentarily, shakes, has some lines going across like interference, dims and brightens again... all only with the DVI connection (VGA is OK).. and mostly when there are a lot of things moving/changing on the screen... like in games or when switching windows. I tried another monitor, DVI cable, drivers, BIOS settings, everything you can think of.. etc.. Then I opened up the case and felt the vid card heat sink.. which burned my finger a few minutes after the system was turned off.. so when I turned it back on I underclocked the video card as much as Powerstrip would allow and had my desk fan on Hi blow onto the card so it became cool to the touch while running Battlefield 1942.. It still blanked out occasionally though much less often.. and it didn't exhibit any of the other problems.. could the card have been damaged by heat previously? I don't have much cooling in my case.. err.. I have zero case fans actually.. albeit I live in a place where the ambient temp is pretty cool all year round.

ianken_ms · Post by **ianken_ms** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 8:29 pm

I cannot imagine the kind of interference you describe comming from the card. When DVI starts to fail you get "sparklies" on the screen. If VGA still looks good then I would look to the monitor.

IMHO, your next troubleshooting move should be to obtain anotehr monitor /w DVI in and see if the condition repros.

Edit: you should also run with the top off the case, see if added ventillation makes the problem go away. Even with low ambient temps not getting the heat out of the case can be bad.

-Ian