Nvidia 6600gt problems

[judge john]

i have recently got a Nvidia 6600gt and i have several problems with it. Originally it crashed my pc after about an hour of playing games like BF:vietnam. i believe this was due to the fact i had a 230watt power supply when i needed a 300+, so i bought a new 330watt power unit.
after installing the power unit i have noticed that my graphics card has been getting very hot, so hot i can smell burning! Not a good sign i feel. Also when i went back on BF:vietnam some of the graphic flickered a bit and i seemed to have graphic lag over the main bases and other places where there was a lot of action.
specs;
Pentium 4, 3.0GHz
12GB hd
windows xp professional
1GB memory
330watts power supply
any help would be appreciated, cheers

[BIG JOHN]

Hi jj, welcome to VDR, are your cooling fans working properly? You may need to install some additional fans as it definitely sounds like an overheating problem. BJ

[igual]

yep more fans most definatly sounds like u have a major heat issue also on some of the maps such as cambodian incursion at the temple the lag is always bad u are not alone on that many people get that. try setting your refresh rate on your monitor slightly higher and also dont bother trying to run bfvn on full graphics as even on a good rig it makes it slightly more laggy rendering it.
have u got anti alasing turned on as well?

battlefield vietnam player name is nexus_napalm hope that helps

[judge john]

Cheers for the replies,
If i do need a new fan i wouldn't have a clue how to fit it, is it easy? i mean i know just about enough about computers change the power supply and graphics card but have never had any experience with fans. And do you know what fan i might be needing as i don't have a clue.
also is there a specific reason why my computer may be causing the card to overheat as if there is a problem? why isn't the cards fan sufficient?

[igual]

big grphics cards chuck out alot of heat
there is 1 thing i was wondring it may sound daft but....
the heatsinks on top end cards do get quite warm now if u have any cables loose in the pc touching it that may be causing the buring smell so may dust in the pc was it nice an clean inside?
regarding the fans u can by 8cm case fans from many places http://www.aria.co.uk/productsList.a...&Submit=submit check out the case fans bout half ay down the page

regarding fitting a case fan u hopefuly have some grills on back or side of pc what have the mounting screws on for a fan simply screw it to case and conect to a powercable
if u do not have that maybe to things to consider
1 is get a new case with good ventilation
or 2 slightly less extreame get a coule of pci fans

[judge john]

well my new power unit has loads of wires. there every where now! lol. so it may be that and it is also quite dusty. and the case is starting to get quite hot now but it's not too bad. do u think it's ok to keep it running reasonably hot or will it brake it?
and i do have a vent in my case but i don't think there are and places to screw a fan in.

[BIG JOHN]

You can always remove one side of the case & set up a small house fan to blow in on the components & see if the pc runs any better, this will tell you if it's a heating problem, also buy yourself a can of compressed air from any electronics store & blow the dust out while it's open. BJ

[igual]

this is the stuff i use for cleaning pcs with etc im sure u can get similar product whicever country u are in

http://www.jessops.com/search/dointellisearch.cfm

[judge john]

Well after playing some games for the first time since i got my new power supply i have realised some more side effects. When playing various games the graphics flicker green and purple constantly getting worse and worse until the game is unplayable, and then it often crashes on me. i only have to be playing the game for a few minutes or not even that when this happens. So is that a symptom of it overheating as this still happens even when i first turn my computer on and it's still cold?

[BIG JOHN]

With the heat issues it's a possibility that something got fried on the video card, you might see if Nvidia will replace it for you if it is fairly new. That is supposed to be a high end video card & you should not be having these problems. BJ

[judge john]

Well it's been doing this since the day i got it, 4 days ago! so it's a bit stupid if it's broke already. Well as i see it i have 2 options;
1) Get a new fan and see if that works
2) Send it back and get a new one
so which one do you think i should do? And will i be able to send it back when i don't actually know if it's faulty or not?

[BIG JOHN]

Well if it was messing up from the beginning then I would definitely try & get it replaced, I have seen video cards that come from the factory with a problem, hey it happens. You also want to get some major air flow into your computer case as overheating is not a good thing. There is nothing more intensive on a computer system than running some of the latest video games. BJ

[judge john]

Well it looks like i might have to send it back, cheers for the advice.
The card is however getting very hot even though it's fan is running fine and i have opened up my entire case. Even if i were to get another fan to cool it i doubt it would be capable to cool it much as the card it's self it hot creating lots of warm air. i mean it's like a free heater in the room! at least my heating bills will go down. lol.