• PC freezing at random point during/after login... possibly broken GPU?
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[CODE]Operating System MS Windows 7 64-bit CPU Intel Core i7 870 @ 2.93GHz 26 °C Lynnfield 45nm Technology RAM 8,00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 446MHz (6-7-7-18) Motherboard ASUSTeK Computer INC. P7H55-M PRO (LGA1156) 25 °C Graphics SA300/SA350 (800x600@1Hz) 14MB Standard VGA-bildskärmskort (nVidia) [B]NEVERMIND THIS, IT'S A GTX 470, DRIVERS JUST UNINSTALLED[/B] Hard Drives 977GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device (SATA) 26 °C 117GB OCZ OCZ-AGILITY3 ATA Device (SATA) 30 °C Optical Drives Optiarc DVD RW AD-7240S ATA Device Audio Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro[/CODE] Recently I've started having issues with my computer unrecoverably freezing. It started in the middle of an ARMA II game, forcing me to pull a hard reboot. The freezing seems to have occurred on a hardware level since other peripherals cease responding (such as my mouse's on-the-fly config switching). The freezing would even with all system services and programs disabled, but never in safe mode, which led me to believe it was related to the core Windows installation. I re-installed Windows (on a fresh SSD I just bought, even), and for the first couple of hours things went smooth as I copied files, downloaded updates and installed drivers. The freezing returned right after I rebooted after installing the latest Geforce drivers for my GTX 470 and switched on the Aero theme; solid, unrecoverable freeze. I tried rolling back to an older set of Geforce drivers that I previously had working for months (196.xx) but I got the same freezing shortly after logging in. I've uninstalled all GPU drivers now, and the PC works fine again. Users in this thread on the nvidia forums seem to experience pretty much exactly what I am: [url]http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=168551[/url] From this I've drawn the conclusion that my freezing might be related to the GPU somehow. Since I bought it 1 year and 7 months ago it's been running extremely hot from time to time often exceeding 90C, in particular during that extended ARMA II session when the freezing first began. I've desperately tried to lower the temps by reapplying thermal paste, cleaning out dust regularly, installing extra fans, attempting to duct in air and more, but during this last heat wave we've been having around Sweden temps have gotten pretty mad again. Could the card simply have broken from usage? I think I might've voided my warranty by making some modifications to the card, including disassembling the darn thing when applying new thermal paste. Is there something I can try that hasn't been mentioned? If the card really is broken, what could a suitable replacement be? I'm not poor but not exactly swimming in cash. Please help, FP!
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