Graphics Card issue.

[Delta]

Early last year I bought a graphics card for the new PC I was building. All was well and good, and it blew the pre-built one I'd been managing with out of the water.

However, the fan always made such a terrible racket at seemingly random intervals. Moving the PC slightly seemed to fix it, and resting anything of any weight to be considered on the case could potentially set it loud again.

I thought nothing of it, and the person who built my computer couldn't seem to source it, so we just left what wasn't broken.

Problem is, now it is broken.

From a restful 60 degrees celsius, it will gradually work its way up into the 80's. When the fan starts spinning at between 85-100% to cope with this temperature, it will suddenly just stop. Then it will start again for 5-ish seconds, then stop again. Repeat ad nauseum. While it's doing this, my GPU gets hotter and hotter. If I don't hear the fan's alternating silence and whirring, it will escalate to about 115 degrees celsius, whereupon my computer will auto-shutdown in what I presume is a defensive measure to avoid frying the hardware.

Also, when I first boot the PC, the fan makes a horrid jarring sound and can stutter(starting and stopping rapidly) for 3-4 minutes after startup.

I've searched high and low for an answer as to what could be wrong, and narrowed it down to a few things I think it could be:

1) Faulty power supply, not delivering enough power to the GPU fan:
But if this is the case, why are my GPU, harddrive and other two fans working fine? It's 550w, it should and always has been plenty of power for the rig.

I also have no way of testing this, since I can't put the card in another machine.
If I bought a new graphics card and the same thing started to happen...

2) Faulty GPU:
It's what I suspect, but don't want to believe. It's out of warranty, and even if I could send it back to the manufacturer, I don't have a spare computer to use in the meantime. Plus, I think AMD would have me pay for S&H.

3) Bad GPU fan:
Again, I've got no way of testing this. It would be the cheapest and easiest route to fix, but I don't have the knowledge to do it, nor do I ever know if this is the case. It's not as though I've an assortment of PC components to switch out and replace.

---

Ah, what else...

OS: Windows XP Media Center Edition
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4800 (489X says the serial) Series
CPU: Intel Core i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (Quad core)
RAM: 3.49GB
PS: Corsair VX550w
...and if it matters any...
HD: 465GB

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I regularly take the whole thing apart and dust it out with compressed air, so it's nothing to do with fluff getting caught in there (and that was a suggested fix at one point).

So, if there's nothing I can do by way of a DIY fix and the card needs replacing... any suggests on an upgrade?

I'd rather not have to replace anything else if I can help it, so keeping to my specs if possible.

[Xigo]

Have you considered acquiring a superior cooling system?

This used to happen to me for a long time. The cooling was, for some reason, F'd up.

Then it magically got better. I have no idea how.

I do believe it's something with your cooling, or maybe you have too many processes running and your computer's going crazy over it.

EDIT: Chances are your fan has somehow been... altered. Nudged the wrongway. Something. So that instead of blowing hot air out, some is still staying in the computer, causing things to get hotter and hotter. This is just a shot in the dark from me, though.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6880195_lower-cp...ature.html

[Delta]

I had 'water cooling' suggested to me, and at the time, I wondered how bright an idea it was to have water in the midst of an electrical system.

I have fully inspected the fan. I got it out, unplugged everything, would have taken it apart had I the necessary screwdrivers on hand. Someone mentioned the bearings being knocked out of place when I inquired about it, but I wouldn't know a bearing from a bolt at a glance, so if that's the case, I'm not sure how to check.

As for the fan getting hotter? It just heats up naturally when I run intensive processes. However, I have run more intensive things that WoW for a lot longer, without any issues prior to this. The problem begins when the fan starts speeding up.

Although, I'm pretty sure this doesn't affect my processor in any way.

[hiddengecko]

I don't know about ATI software, but with nVidia it's possible to 'cap' the speed of the fan--I believe so, anyway. It could be that your fan simply cannot handle the high speeds anymore and stops spinning properly.

Does this happen only when playing WoW, but not with other, more intensive games?

[Delta]

You can manually adjust the speed of the fan, but it's actually necessary for me to run it at a constant 100% after the problem starts, or the stuttering lets the temperature shoot up into the critical levels. I do think you're spot on there; the fan isn't getting the power it needs. Although, with that said, I can run the fan at 100% when the problem isn't occurring, and the power doesn't cut out. It only seems to happen when coupled with playing a game.

Dragon Age 2 and Mirror's Edge are the only other games I've got installed at the moment, and running those has the same effect after a very short while.