apology to Uber, blackscreen hardlocks "spreading"

Not going to dredge up my whining last week, but I think my issue was indeed heat/damaged GPU combined with bad timing that the first time I experienced the crashes were under MNC - and for a while were ONLY under MNC. This last week has shown me that it is not *only* MNC, and thus I apologize the devs for speaking out against the software without doing due diligence of testing my own hardware.

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Since we had an "ice day" here on the Gulf coast, and since I've been getting blackscreen hard crashes more recently in relatively non-taxing graphics engines (e.g. WoW not even on ultra settings ?! ouch...), I whipped out a temp monitor and started to log what's going on in a MSI kombustor / afterburner (rivatuner).

In the benchmark test I found that I could consistently crash the box in the same way that I had been experiencing by running it until it hit 89-90c . Now as far as I've been able to tell, this is actually within the normal operating temperature range of the already known-hot 9800GT (1gig) that I'm running. Because I knew it wasn't reaching 100+ temps, I was suspicious that it was a heat issue, but finding that it is crashing consistently at these lower temps confirms that the hardware is likely damaged to some degree. (though not as badly as I've burned out a card before with the technicolor desktop tearing, etc.)

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In an effort to experiment further, and try to get a little playtime out of MNC knowing what's going on (until replacement hardware arrives next week from newegg), I pulled the card and blew any dust out (it was actually quite clean inside the case) and put it back in leaving the side of the case off. Nevermind that there is a huge open grate over the expansion slots, now there is a huge gaping side to provide ambient circulation.

The results? I was able to play an exhibition all the way through, as well as the next level of Blitz, without a crash. I was getting a little concerned during the last few rounds of the game as I had a GPU temperature monitor overlayed and it was hanging dangerously close to the meltdown temp, but it managed.

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So now with the side open, I idle at 65c (which seems hot, and which has too high a fan speed for my taste - but whatever, it remains stable) and in 3d games, including MNC, it peaks at 85.

I've got a new power supply coming in next week in case that caused any issue (I think I am underpowered), as well as making a kind of scary switch from nvidia to ATI for a while with a 5770 chipset from MSI with two huge fans right on the GPU. Until I can replace the case (and hey, mobo/cpu/mem) with something that has way more cool air intake, the side is remaining off. So next week maybe my issues will be what I'm reading about ATI driver problems, but at least it won't be heat.

So again, I am sorry for ripping into Uber about this - I should have tested the card despite my confidence that it could not possibly be a hardware problem. It isn't that I didn't know how to test, but I'm just lazy. :/ Looking forward to running it again on a new card next week.

ums

(ps: i have been an nvidia guy at heart, but just want to try ATI out again. It's been a long time. I don't mean to trigger any further GPU debates. this thread is not about nvidia vs. ati, but about me eating my proper crow.)