# HIS X800XL gpu temperature are >70 degrees when idle



## sevnate (Aug 21, 2005)

I installed a new HIS X800XL 256MB AGP card yesterday. When I run a game, artifacts start appearing within 30 seconds, then eventually the computer locks up and the screen goes black as if the computer was shut down (but it is still running).  


Therefore I installed ATITool to see if downclocking the card would help, and that's when I noticed that the GPU temperature is ~76 degrees and the GPU environment is ~48 degrees when idle. Isn't 76 degrees very high?

That's when the card is running at default speeds (400 and 490).

When I start the 3D View in ATITool the GPU temperature soon rises to 128 degrees, and if I dont close the 3D View fast enough, then the computer locks up again like when I try to run a game. If I turn on scanning for artifacts then it doesn't seem to find any. If I close the 3D View in time, then the GPU tempreature falls back down to ~76 degrees.

If I downclock to 300 and 300, then the GPU temperaute falls to 72 degrees (idle). If I open the 3D View the temperature still goes up to 128 degrees, and eventually the computer locks up.

The card has never been overclocked, it's brand new. The retail box it came in has a iTurbo-sticker claiming the engine can be overclocked to 432Mhz, and the memory to 1Ghz.


So, what could be causing the constantly high temperature, artifacts and lockups? 
Thanks for reading


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## djbbenn (Aug 21, 2005)

you hit a 128C!! OMG, don't even use your card if you go that high, you'll damage it. Take off the heatsink and get some new thremal paste and put it back on. If that doesn't help, get a new a card. If ti does help a bit like, say you get a 30-40 or temp drop, then get a new cooler. Cause that should mean the card isn't defective. It just sounds like the cooler is not on properly though. Also, hows the air flow in you case? The pretty bad if you idle at those temps, my X800 is running 540/560 with stock cooler and it goes up to 64 full load after an hour in Atitool. O ya, and the one othere thing, make sure the fan is working. 

-Dan


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## sevnate (Aug 22, 2005)

I've replaced the card with the old one for now.


When I look at it I see that the whole cooling part (fans and heatsink) is slightly tilted... Looking closer, I see that most of the would be contact points between the cooling and the card are not even touching   There is also a small (~2mm at most) space between the gpu and the cooling piece, with paste (or whatever) stretching between them. Clearly this is the cause of the problems, thanks for pointing it out .

There also seems to be missing something like a screw one the back of the card (there are two others elsewhere) that would be holding the cooling/heatsinks and card firmly together.


I've sent an email to the shop I bought it from to see if I can get a replacement, otherwise I may have to try to fix it myself.


Btw how likely is it that the card is damaged beyond repair due to it running at 70C for about a day (and >128C a few times for less than 30 seconds)? It seems that the card stopped responding everytime, which hopefully means that it stopped "working" because it detected the overheating.


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## djbbenn (Aug 22, 2005)

The card should be ok. But the failing point of ATI cards is around 120. They say 95 is ok, but you iwll get a lot of artifacts and freezing. I say, if your over 70-75C load, you should invest in a better cooler. When you said you hit 128, I almost choked. Cause thats friggen hot! But the card should be ok, if not, you'll just have to return it becuase its not your fault that the cooler wasn't working properly.

-Dan


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## yipming (Aug 22, 2005)

130 shouldn't kill your card.

Most processors nowadays crash/hangs up/freeze when they reach too high temp and that actually saves it from really overheating itself. So you see pepole overclocked their card/cpu way too high but it doesn't die. Unless you overvolt it, that might kill the card.

As a side note, if your processor approaches 180, you should get worried. That's the typical boiling point of solders. As an experinment, you can chuck your card into an oven and set it to 200C. You will see the caps, chips, etc starting to fall off. The PCB should servive though.

Oh, and you will end up with a dead card too.


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## djbbenn (Aug 22, 2005)

> The ATI's official X800 GPU temp specs remain the same for these cores:
> 
> Thermal Parameter Value	temperature
> Maximum recommended ASIC case (or center of die backside for flip chip)	105°C
> ...




They are the temp specs from ATI.

-Dan


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## sevnate (Aug 22, 2005)

So I suppose it's probably still ok. I won't do anything to it though until I hear back from the shop, as I don't want to risk voiding the warranty if it's not voided already


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