http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/7595/dsc03799kg7.jpg

This picture shows what I believe to be my vid card overheating. It has happened twice, but never before the Come fly with me quest and has happened in the exact same spot in the Repconn basemant.

I'm standing at the top of the stairs after just going throught the basemant door with the key. I walk down the stairs and open the first door going to the first room with the makshift bedding and an open door to a hallway with a Nightkin walking up and down it. The very first actual room. Now, the first time this graphical glitch happened I was hearing a rather loud whirring, "machine shop" sound and I thought this was fine becasue I'm in a basemant. :shrug:

I sneak past the Nightkin and am just about to go around the first corner and this glitch happens. Can only reset the computer from the case.

Now I try again thinking this might have been a one time occurence, and this time there was no whirring sound. The exact same thing happened at the same spot going around the first corner in the hallway.

I say overheating because I thought this artifacting (don't know the term for it) was associated with overheating and have seen the same thing when I tried overclocking a diiferent card. I have a gtx 260 black edition. Everything was fine until this quest. Searched for it but mainly the problems are for save corruption. Nothing about my problem. Can't post a dxdiag as of now, am on a different computer away from home.

Only one way to tell overheating or not. Run the game and stick your hand on the card's heatsink.

If the card isnt producing heat, then it isnt overheating. Chances are your card is just simply dieing of old age or some other manufacture fault.

There are many easily used thermal monitors and every game player (using PCs) should have one running. I use Speedfan to keep track for me, but you can look through the selection at Major Geeks and pick whatever strikes your fancy.

( http://majorgeeks.com/google_search.html?domains=MajorGeeks.com&x=0&y=0&q=monitoring+temps&sitesearch=MajorGeeks.com&client=pub-6960825562757852&forid=1&channel=6517887233&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23ccc99%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23665522%3BVLC%3A78B749%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3Acccc99%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A11593C%3BLC%3A11593C%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A940F04%3BGIMP%3A940F04%3BLH%3A0%3BLW%3A0%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fmajorgeeks.com%2FEric%2F404.gif%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fmajorgeeks.com%3BLP%3A1%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en ).

Thanks for the reply, but then why did it only happen at this certain point and never before in the life of the card? I'm betting it will happen again at this same spot so it must be this quest. Right?

Silly advice. A card running to spec can produce enough heat to burn you regardless. Plus you shouldn't touch your PC's internals for one of several reasons for your sake and its. Static discharge is a silent killer of PC parts.

What card is it specifically? Did you overclock it or any other component at all? Have you kept your computer's interior dust free and cable tidy?

Using a temperature monitoring software such as http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php can glean you a lot of useful information, particularly if you have high temps at idle.

To be frank that looks like something is dying. Likely suspects are your GPU, Power supply unit or motherboard.

Ah ha! That's two for Speedfan!

Rivatuner also keeps track right? I already have that. I don't use it at the moment though. This is the black edition xfx gtx 260. No, no overclocking on this system ever.

Card specs:
Model
Brand XFX
Model GX260NADBF
Interface
Interface PCI Express 2.0 x16

Chipset
Chipset Manufacturer NVIDIA
GPU GeForce GTX 260
Core Clock 666MHz
Stream Processors 216 Processor Cores

Memory
Effective Memory Clock 2300MHz
Memory Size 896MB
Memory Interface 448-bit
Memory Type GDDR3

3D API
DirectX DirectX 10
OpenGL OpenGL 2.1

Ports
HDMI 1 x HDMI (via Adapter)
DVI 2 x DVI
TV-Out HDTV / S-Video Out

General
RAMDAC 400 MHz
Max Resolution 2560 x 1600
RoHS Compliant Yes
SLI Support 3-Way SLI
Cooler With Fan
System Requirements Non-SLI: 630W Minimum Power Supply
SLI: 680W Minimum Power Supply
Power Connector 2 x 6 Pin
Dual-Link DVI Supported Yes
HDCP Ready Yes

Is that 260 the Black Edition by any chance? That's the same one I used before I upgraded to a 470. If it is dying, you would be hard pressed to find another of that kind, I don't believe that they are made anymore.

Anyway more to my point. I have been using http://www.evga.com/precision/ to monitor and control my fan speed for my GPU for some time now. I only wish that I had found it sooner than I did, It has worked great for me.
Also you do have the option to have the GPU temp and fan speed displayed while you are playing your game, It's really handy.

EDIT: I see now that it is the black edition. Hope it isn't dying.

A shame, the 260 is still a good little card. Does overclock well. Doubly strange since XFX cards usually have good cooling on them. You sure it's not dust blocking things up? 5 minutes with a can of compressed air might be all you need to get things running smoothly again.

Holy cow, don't do that. Some cards run hot enough to cause a serious burn even at normal operating temperature.

I run the EVGA precision utility as well for my 3x SLI GTX 260s. Not sure if it will work on your XFX card.

The default fan speed on the EVGA GTX 260 is set to 40% to keep it quiet, and that is perfect cooling for Microsoft word, web browsing, etc. But when playing a graphics intensive game it just isn't sufficient. The cards get very hot, which can cause artifacting and CTDs as well as raising your mobo and CPU temps too - with more crashes. I usually boost fan speed up to 60% and it cools things nicely, with just a little fan noise. 100% cools things off massively, but is loud as hell x 3.

Look for a graphics card utility compatible with your card that allows you to monitor temps adjust your fan speed. Even if it doesn't turn out to be the problem here, it still gives you a necessary tool.

I've often suspected that many of the CTDs people experience with FNV aren't bug related but heat related.

EVGA precision has saved me on several occations. If i diddnt have this little app i prob would have fried a card by now. it has both an on screen display, as well as an app for a G19 or maybe something similar. Can monitor everything from core clock speeds to temps, fan speed, memory usage and much more.

@barrettsfloyd- Yeah I can't find any new cards like on tigerdirect or newegg, I guess they stopped making them. Even Ebay has little choice and they still sell for over $150. Oh and I also use Evga Precision, but when this glitch happens I must turn the pc off using a hard reset from the tower and Precision doesn't keep track of the time before the pc is turned off, so I can't see what the temp was when the glitch happened. Correct me if I'm wrong on this. Also, I have tried to use the onscreen display, only once though, and that time the game would not start and gave me a "Fallout must close" error. Anything I can do to get the OSD to work will come in handy.

@Nessh- I have been playing with the game on ultra high and getting a solid 50-60 (Vsync) fps, so yeah the card does its job. I will check the vents though just to make sure.

@Zuzax- Yes, I use Evga Precision and it is very useful and easy to use. I usually have the fan to be at 50% though and that seems to do the job nicely. Never had this happen until this quest though.

Also, I did not touch the card if anyone wants to know.

Set the fan to 100% and try the areas that blow you up. If you still get the issues, you can probably rule out overheating as the cause.

I had tons of issues with my Radeon 8800 GTX, I had to use Rivatuner to turn the fan on 100%, underclock the GPU by 100MHz, and open the case and have an external fan blow cold air into the case to keep the GPU just below 100'C since (103'C would shut down the card). I hear all their new cards are no different with overheating.

Heat sinks are non-conductive except the copper ones, which are rarely seen as a full units stock in a computer, and not encased in an aluminum cover. Most you will see are copper heat pipes on stock cooling.

Also, IIRC heat sinks that are conductive would be grounded.

I WAS thinking more along the lines of skin burnage really. These things can get up to 100 degrees C, that's an instant burn with a split second of contact.

Is the picture you've posted made in Fallout New Vegas?

No, this pic is not from NV, but it shows exactly what is happening. Ok, well I tried turning the fan to 100% and there was no glitch. It may well have just been delaying the inevitable but i can't know for sure because I can't get Evga Precision's onscreen display to work to know if there is a temp spike. But why overheat in this certain area? Could the Nightkin with the stealthboy be causing it? This is the only new thing my game has seen so far.

I've had something like that happen in the Great Khan Longhouse, but it only happened when opening up menus like the companion wheel or trading menu. My computer wasn't overheating and it was the first time that had happened, I have had other graphic bugs happen, but I just brushed them off as bugs. That doesn't even really look like overheating since the GUI doesn't seem to be affected.



I do that all the time when I have my case open to check if its overheating. Then again my card is old and not high end, but still if my card was getting hot enough to burn me I'd be concerned that the airflow in the case isn't good or something.