weird ATI GPU temp problem

yoda · 29 Dec 2008 at 00:27

ok, i have a radeon X1650
The stock heat sink has been replaced with a water block.
over the last 2 months my PC has been turning itself off... and I don't mean shutting down, i mean 'tripping' off randomly...
The only way i can power my PC back up again is to unplug the power supply and plug back in...

Here is the interesting bit...
It does not turn off when playing a game...
It also does not turn off when i have the ati tray tools open in the overclocking panel with the 3D renderer open...
At idle, my GPU temp acording to tray tools is 35 deg C... under full load it's 55 deg C (i don't have compound on my water block atm)
Water temp is between 10 and 15 deg C when it enters the GPU water block from the bay res...

So, the question is... why does it turn off randomly if my GPU temp is below 40 deg C, but not if it's in the BIOS?

Any help appreciated

:edit
I'm using radeon omega drivers

Conan257 · 29 Dec 2008 at 08:29

You dont have any thermal material??? Get that thing off until you have

Try the regular drivers to see if the problem is a driver issue...

yoda · 29 Dec 2008 at 14:59

i havn't got any AS5 on because i was having problems with it, as in it was insulating the heat not transfering it...

I've got some cheep white stuff, but i just can't be bothered to undo all my temp sensors and cabling and water pipes in order to pull out my GFX...
I need a new PSU so it can wait till then...

Will try drivers later on... I'll switch back to the windows drivers and close tray tools and then try it...

I'm also wondering about condensation, could this be a factor?

Thanks

Conan257 · 29 Dec 2008 at 16:36

You'll not have any condensation unless your card is running below ambient.. This isn't possible with watercooling, you'd need to have some sort of extra-cooling (TEC's etc).

If AS5 is insulating your gpu, then chances are you've either got too much on, or its contaminated. You need a tiny layer to fill in gaps between the surfaces of the metals, you dont need a layer to transfer heat itself, its just meant to fill the gaps when you dont get metal on metal contact.