Yo. I`ve been having trouble with my gfx card lately.

First off it started making a buzzing sound because the fan had slipped and was hitting sumthing.

Then when i moved the fan to stop it making a noise it stopped functioning properly, so the card was overheating and my pc switching off.

I thought this would be solved simply by replacing the fan. I did so and this new fan appears to be working fine.
The overall effect on my pc though has been no less than a gigantic kick in the nuts.
After a period of time (which differs - the reason unknown), my screen goes black. The monitor does not go into stand by like when the computer is in sleep mode. The monitor remains switched on but displays nothing.
One final thing that has happened since my gfx card fan swap is most times when i switch it on it starts for about 1 second then gives up. The second time i switch it on it usually works.
I think it might still be a heat related issue because after it breaking and me switching off my pc, the screen stays black when i switch it on unless i wait for a while.

The last 3 or 4 times i have switched the card on the nvidia stuff on my pc said the car is not getting enough power and so will operate at a lower performance level or sumthing to stop it from breaking.
I made some attempts to solve the problem myself:

- I tried messing with some wires inside my pc so that the fan and card were on separate connections to the PSU but rather expectedly this didnt help at all.
- I tried using the CRT connection on the card instead of the DVI but again as expected it didnt help.
- Finally i tried keeping off windows and seeing if linux would be any better but the same thing happens


I`ve not got a clue what might be wrong with it other than the possibility that it suffered some damage while the fan was failing.
Any tips will be appreciated here. My aim is to avoid buying a new graphics card but if nothing else works i`ll accept that as a last resort.

I currently have a 256mb geforce 6600 (not gt or anything fancy)
made by sparkle

My pc is very important to me as i`m studying computer science at university and i use it almost every night for work. Luckily it happened over christmas break so it wont kill me to have a bit of a crappy pc.
I`ve been lucky to get all this typed up without it switching off :-)

Thanks in advance for any replies.
This is the only forum i ever use and i do so because the staff and other users are reliable and knowledgable.
Just thought i`d mention that. :-)

Hello Minted

I wasn't aware that graphics card fans were along the same thing as psu fans.
To me the whole assembly should be secured to the card yes?
How did it slip?
If it has become dislodged then it could have shorted a soldered connection on the card.

http://www.euroshop.lv/shop/images/s...0_AG43DH_b.jpg
The bit that slipped is just the fan itself.

The spinny fan thingy moved on the fixture. Dont know how but when i looked it was catching on part of the fixture, and it wasnt before so it must have moved.

Also the gfx card fan power is just a branch off the power going to the card. I just used a seperate plug from the psu to connect the little fan bit.


I just switched the wires back so that they are onthe same bit and it seems to be working a bit better, although to be honest its hard to judge whether its working any differently at all until it breaks. I didnt get the low power message when it started tho so it looks like a good sign.
Any more ideas?

There looks to be at least 4 connectors holding that fan down if not 6.
Leave the fan power connector attached to the card, don't hook it up to a wire coming from the main psu or you may have problems regarding different voltages.

There are two plastic clips holding the full fan and fixture in place on the card.
On the original fan which is shown on the picture there are 4 screws that hold the fan in position on the fixture.

The fan power doesnt come from the place shown on that picture now because the fan i bought has a kind of adapter type thing that connects the fan and card straight from the psu.

Ok so have you tried to replace the original fan with a new one at some stage before all this happened?

I only tried to replace the old fan when it stopped functioning and my pc started switching off because the card was overheating.
I burnt my hand on it :-(