The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Heating issue with nVidia GO 7900

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by spritemoogle, Sep 2, 2009.

  1. spritemoogle

    spritemoogle Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I bought a Dell Inspiron E1705 a while back with a 256mb nVidia GO 7900 graphics card. The system ran games really well for the first year or so, and then started to have problems. I noticed artifacts popping up (the sort that usually indicate bad video card memory) and when the computer ran hot enough it would blue screen and give me a Memory Parity Error. I downloaded I8kfanGUI and cranked up my fans to keep the video card memory heat down, which worked for a while. Since then it has been getting progressively worse. I have to keep it on a cooling pad now with the fans cranked up all the way to keep the heat down. I've already opened it up and cleaned out the fans/heatsink. I was thinking of underclocking the video card ram to reduce heat, but I'm not sure how to do that or whether it will even help. Has anyone else dealt with this problem?
     
    spritemoogle, Sep 2, 2009
    #1
  2. BobXX

    BobXX Newbie

    Reputations:
    132
    Messages:
    1,097
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    You can always remove the heatsink from the GPU and apply new thermal paste/grease or thermal pad.

    I would also suggest posting your questions in the Dell section of this forum (and searching around here). Welcome to NBR! :D
     
    BobXX, Sep 2, 2009
    #2
  3. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

    Reputations:
    561
    Messages:
    948
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Welcome to NBR! I actually used to own an E1705 with a 7900gs...oh what a beast that was back in the day. Anyway, I ran into the same problem after a couple years of the card overclocked. Turns out what happened was the video ram went bad, was getting terrible artifacts and she'd overheat and bluescreen. Did you say you had your card OCed? Might be the same problem. It's a hard thing to diagnose I know there's diagnostic programs for the RAM but I'm unsure of the video ram.

    Edit: If you DO want to underclock there was a thread on here for OCing the 7900gs, it'd have all the instructions you need just you'd be setting the clocks lower instead of higher. Let me see if I can find that for you.
     
    spookyu, Sep 2, 2009
    #3
  4. TevashSzat

    TevashSzat Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    334
    Messages:
    1,438
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Undervolting the CPU can indirectly help GPU temps.

    Also, try undervolting the GPU via a vBIOS flash.

    Underclocking can be done through either RivaTuner or nTools
     
    TevashSzat, Sep 2, 2009
    #4
  5. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

    Reputations:
    561
    Messages:
    948
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Everything he needs is right here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64385

    The thread is about overclocking, but it's the same exact thing you're just setting the clocks lower instead of higher.
     
    spookyu, Sep 2, 2009
    #5