Could SL be killing my computer?

Hi,

I've been having some very annoying technical problems with my main pc and everytime its happened while running SL.

What happened is the video card keeps getting killed...this is the third time now. Fortunately its all under warranty so the manufacturer replaces the parts for free but what is going on?

Can SL kill video cards? All the drivers were updated and my equipment all exceeds the minumum requirements and the reccomended requirements for most things. So whats doing this?

Here is what my specs are:

Processor: Intel Core Dou 2 6600 @ 2.4 GHz

Memory: 2.39 GHz 2.00 GB of RAM

Videocard: Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE

Op System: Windows XP Home Edition

Any ideas if this is an SL issue?

Thanks!

Well, I don't have technical facts to back it up, but my experience says it can. I had a laptop with an nVidia card that went belly up a few months ago. I should have seen the signs that the graphics board was getting damaged before the fatal meltdown, but I didn't until after it happened.

Of course, I can't say it was *specifically* SL. It just happens to be the most graphically intensive thing I do. I think in my case that it was overheating and damaging the board. I am much more careful on my new laptop to always run a cooling pad under the machine.

The simple answer is yes. Be happy that you have a warranty before you run SL. Second Life has burned out 4 of my video cards and 2 computers.

I suspect SL probably works your Graphics card hard, but I've found other games that can work them harder, it wasn't untill I swapped my 7600 up to a 8800 and cranked the graphics up playing COH that my UPS started shutting down because it couldn't handle supplying the computers current draw. SL never got to that level.
I burned out CPU's by crunching Total Anhillation with calculating 1000's of units movements over huge world sized maps

You might want to make sure that all the fans in your system are clean and spinning properly.

You might want to add some more fans or more powerful fans or both.

Does the video card stop working altogether such that nothing shows on your screen at all?

That's a fairly low spec card for running SL.

If your card is not actually burning out, but just crashing, you might try changing drivers.

I'm seeing something suggesting that may be a card without a fan, which sounds like it might be related to overheating.

The lazy approach to adding fans is a slot fan.

If that's a laptop, a cooling pad might work.

I showed this sucker off on the Undying Thread- don't know if it will extend the life of lappy but my thighs are really pleased

http://www.targus.com/us/product_Details.asp?SKU=pa248u

Heat is most likely what is "killing" your graphics card. GPU and CPU intensive programs like SL work those two hardware devices quite hard and they heat up quickly. If you are burning up your graphics card it's an indication that you probably are not getting adequate ventalation inside your computer case. Several things could be the cause but most of the time it's dust that collects in the case. A faulty case fan could also be the problem or blocked ventalation holes. It's a good preventive maintenance practice to clean the inside of your case about monthly (depending on the dust conditions in your area.........me, being in Southern California I do it about once every two weeks). Just get a can of compressed air at your local office supply store, take the side off the case and blow the dust out......being careful not to knock things loose (like cables). While you're doing that notice if the fans turn freely when you blow through them...........any dragging or grinding sound indicates a faulty fan and it sould be replaced as soon as possible. Cleaning out laptops is a little tougher since it's much harder to remove panels to get to the components......but blowing through the ventalation holes will help. For a thorough case cleaning I would take it to a reputable computer repair shop. The use a cooling pad is also a very good idea.

I use a free program that lets me monitor the tempertures of my CPU (each individual core), CPU, harddrive and my DVD drive. It also tells me the fan speed (in percentages) for the CPU and GPU fans......plus my main case fan. It's handy to have and it's free. Google "PC Wizzard 2008" if you want to try it.

I always knew SL heated things up but my eyes were really opened when I got that program and started monitoring my temps. I can be here on the forums and my temps will be near the ambient temperature of my home........launch SL and in less than a minute my graphics card temp will be 50 degrees celsius hotter. CPU will jump by about 20 degrees. And since I started monitoring those temps I now know when I have a dusty case.........a clean case my GPU temp will be about 80 celsius. A couple weeks later it will be 95 degrees.........which is time to clean my case again.

I have friend who is using nvidia 4400 who seems to have no problem, except lag.
I got tons of lag at times, recently if I turn on media and try to watch movies
I crash and I have Pentium 4 2533mhz 768 ram, nvidia geoforce 6200 video card
and it is over 3 years old nothing died on my end.
So I got no clue why your computer would being killed by SL when you obviously
got better stuff in your computer.

Yes SL can be a card eater one a year for me .But the advice on cleaning is sound ,when I banged the first card in,I got a shock at the state of the inside.At first I thought I had a bird nesting in there but it was only dust and plenty of it.

Gosh surely not, think OP said a 7300LE, I running a 7600GS. This replaced a 5000 series which ran SL ok. I think the 5000 series is the lowest recomended by Linden.

Fans, Fans, Fans, and More Fans. Always good to have more than not enough. SL runs your CPU almost 100% and The GPU runs high as well. 2 things creating high amounts of heat to process. If you dont have serious fan support you could fry out GPU's and CPU's a lot. I always get an after market fan aND never rely on the stock fan that comes with the Vido card. they are always the bare minimum and fail early. Ive been using the same video card for SL for 2 years . Knock on wood. Nividia 6800GT

And as those say above Cleaning ever 3 months is ideal. maybe ever 2 months for heavy use (runs 27/7)

Just remember more fans = more dust pumped inside, so try to get temperature activated ones

Fans and fitting.
Any web links showing these?

It appears to me that the OP said "Videocard: Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE".

The 7300 le has 4 pixel shader pipelines, half that of a 6600 gt, a slower clock than a 6600 gt, a memory clock speed of 333 mhz compared to 900 or a 1000 mhz for a 6600 gt and shows a price of 50 dollars manufacturer's suggested compared to between 129 and 235 market price for a 6600 gt.

Here's a quote from the review where the figures I quoted came from: "I can foresee the 7300 LE being a slow-poke in all of today's games, so I'm willing to bet that its market focus is more towards the HTPC crowd", and another, "The 7300 LE is the lowest-end card that NVIDIA will be offering".

The OP didn't identify the exact model of 7300 LE. Some of them have fans, some don't.

Also ... make sure your power supply is up to the task.

SL is not killing your card. Running SL, or any other 3D game for that matter, stresses the system. If you have a weak point, that's when it will break.

Wow, I just posted something related to this on another thread, so I guess I'll just post this link here http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-10020782-33.html. This article was written before the issue started showing up with Apple systems and desktop systems, as well. If you have an Nvidia graphics card, check if it's one of the ones now known to be defective and overheating due to inadequate insulation.

A poor choice of solder in the chip packaging, not insulation. They changed the solder they were using in the middle of a chip run, so that chips that were made during the change may have a different solder than the surface they're being mounted on, so when the chip heats up the solder expands differently on the chip and on the package, which leads to cracks.

@ the title of the thread:
between graphics requirements causing lots of heat, HD thrashing from large inventories nad caches, and sometimes excessive processor utilization, SL or any other intensive app can cause failures, or at least reducethe lifespanof your computer.

biggest things are proper ventilation, components that can handle the load, and treating them nicely (little things like turning them off when not in use and defragmenting hard drives go a long ways)

I have a Pentium 4 with a GeForce 7600GS and an upgraded power supply (can't remember what it is but it's HUGE). With the computer running normal stuff - like this - it's fine. Log into Second Life and within 5 - 10 minutes the fan's cranking up and after 20 mins or so it's practically trying to climb out of the box. So I think we can safely say SL does put your machine under quite a bit of pressure.

SL works my graphics card, but it is still primarily about cooling. I was checking the temp of the card on my new computer, while running SL but not really doing much in SL. My card temp jumped 20 degrees celcius. I took the side off of the case, until I could get another fan installed, and SL still managed to jump the temp about 8-10 degrees.

I have no doubt that it was a lack of adequate cooling and too small of a power supply that fried my last computer.

I think SL is killing ME...

I have had 3 computers during my time in SL and all 3 had more hard drive issues than graphics issues. I really do not like how SL tears up a hard drive.

Processor: AMD 1.6 GHz
Memory: 1.50 GB of RAM, I think 1200 GHz
Videocard: Nvidia GeForce 5700 LE
Op System: Windows XP Home Edition
Big wonking case for the desktop system, probably twice what I need.

No video or overheat problems with SL (run it at the 2nd lowest default setting). Age of Kings makes this thing lock up once in a while but never SL. I have extra fans on the system and some redundancy, my IDE cables are the round ones that allow improved air flow, and I have the side of the case removed with a room fan blasting air right at the motherboard.

that 7300 LE is a pretty low end card I would imagine its heating up and melting! if it has a fan on it make sure to blow it out every week or 2.. same with all the other fans. is the case (tower) small? if its really packed in ther e... watch all the wires make sure its got breathing room (my 2 old box's FX5200 and some old nvidia POS run with the cases OPEN no sides to help cool them)

if I remember right as well "LE" is a OEM issued card that is kind of the bottom of the pile under specs of the card... and 7300 is the slowest in the 7xxx series as well..

I'm surprised my X300 is still going after all this time. I can't remember the last time I had my machine opened, probabaly when I put in the extra memorial a year and a half ago. I'm afraid to look in there.