Do the 8800 series of cards have a temperature cut off protection or something like it? I was installing a Thermaltake Duorb on to my 88GT, and I was following the directions. Well the kit comes with two stand offs, one set is taller then the other. The directions state for the 88GTS/GTX and Ultra to use the taller standoffs. It doesn't even list the 88GT as being a choice to use. So I used the taller stand offs. :bang: Well I got the card all together I thought I plugged everything together, and I started it up. I was wrong. I heard this unbelievably loud screech! And no picture except for the bios post and the windows loading screen then a green square that appeared for a second. I shut down and opened my PC to see that the power connector was plugged in. I've done that before to my X1950XT, and I figured no biggie just plug and go. Well I started it up again, saw the bios post and system information show then Windows started to load. Then Nothing but Black, and the sound of Windows starting. But no pictrue besides a black LCD screen and a flashing on buttons which means that the screen is on, but no picture. Then I thought that some how I had shocked my card when I was installing it. I have used a wrist band, and was wearing a pair of shoes while I worked at my desk on carpet, but I thought that had done it. I had re seated the card triple checked the power, every thing. SO I figured great now I have to replace the card. So I took it out, and gave it a closer look. Remember those stands? Remember how for all of the other 88-series the directions said to use the taller stands? For the 8800GT you must you the shorter stands! The heat sink's only connection tot he card was a thin strand of AS5 hanging between the sink and the core! Well I figured why not see if the shorter stands work. At least I'll know for my new card. So I took off the sink, even took off two ram sinks off the VRM because I thought maybe some how those were shorting things out. Well the short stands worked, and I popped the card back in. Powered it up, and It worked! Now I don't know why its working, logic says that with out the sink making contact that even at 2D in idle, the heat would have killed it for sure. But Its working. 182K in AM3 at pretty much stock settings. 35C idle and 45C load. But did nVidia include a temp cut off or something? Or did I just get REALLY lucky? PS. I WILL be writing Thermaltake about the stand offs!
All VGA cards have overtemp "shutdown" protection ! However it usually only gets triggered by people doing things they shouldn't ---> so maybe it would be better calling it a protection against people ?
I'm curious. Why didn't my card fry then? True I had the heatsink installed, but it wasn't making any contact with the core. How does the thermal protection work? I would think that my card would be toast!
I'm pretty sure when the card gets above a specific threshold of temperature, it just turns off in order to preserve itself. Therefore, it wont get hot enough to fry it.
gpu's need to get pretty damn hot for them to short out, the 8800's can with stand something like 85 - 100c before it shuts down. CPU;s like intel core 2 have a 65c cut off point but the newer penryn cores wont need to cut off until they reach 75c. What was probably happening was that the PC was running but because the card was getting too hot the card shut itself down preventing it from frying or getting damaged.
I know that my system was running because I heard windows load up. But the video card shut off just after the loading bar screen for Windows XP.
