Is my FX3000 about to die?

[SeanMT]

I have an Nvidia FX 3000 graphics card and in the last couple of days it has started to fail on Quake III. After about half a minute the card shuts down and the computer 'stops'. All the fans stop (cpu, chassis etc), the monitor shuts down, but the on light stays on and an indicator led on the motherboard stays on. There is no way of switching it off to reboot without disconnecting the mains power. When it reboots everything seems to run fine, and as far as I can tell the computer functions fine (running photoshop, Rhino, Word etc) but as soon as it tries anything with intensive real time 3d, it shuts down again. A week ago it was running these apps fine. Do these symptoms indicate that the GPU is about to fail, or could it be something less catastrophic like the power supply unit?

Nvidia FX3000, MB Asus A7N8X, Athlon XP3200+, 2 gig PC2100 ram, PSU 550 W
Thanks in anticipation

[SeanMT]

Was advised it may be a PSU problem on another NV forum, fitted new 600W PSU and that seems to have worked. Hooked up the FX3000 to one 4-pin cable with only the floppy and a case fan in addition, with all the other stuff (2 HDD's, CD and DVD) on the other. Assuming the problem was the FX3000 exceeding the peak Amp draw of the PSU, hopefully having one 4-pin cable pretty much to its self will prevent this happening in future. I've run the problem apps for a few minutes each and previously the system would shut down within half a minute (sometimes only a few seconds) so I'm cautiously optimistic for the time being. Going to leave off stress testing for a little while, as my personal stress levels are pretty high right now!

[Redeemed]

Was advised it may be a PSU problem on another NV forum, fitted new 600W PSU and that seems to have worked. Hooked up the FX3000 to one 4-pin cable with only the floppy and a case fan in addition, with all the other stuff (2 HDD's, CD and DVD) on the other. Assuming the problem was the FX3000 exceeding the peak Amp draw of the PSU, hopefully having one 4-pin cable pretty much to its self will prevent this happening in future. I've run the problem apps for a few minutes each and previously the system would shut down within half a minute (sometimes only a few seconds) so I'm cautiously optimistic for the time being. Going to leave off stress testing for a little while, as my personal stress levels are pretty high right now!

So... how's it working now? Still working fine?

[SeanMT]

Yep, to my enormous relief the card seems fine and appears to have plenty more life left in it! I've had a PSU die on me before but never one 'trip out' occasionally like that. I guess the FX3000 has a hefty current draw when it's pushed hard.

[Redeemed]

Yep, to my enormous relief the card seems fine and appears to have plenty more life left in it! I've had a PSU die on me before but never one 'trip out' occasionally like that. I guess the FX3000 has a hefty current draw when it's pushed hard.

Glad to hear that. ;)