[SOLVED] WoW Crash

**ndefontenay** · January 5th, 2009

My current PC has been failing for a while now in exactly the way you describe it with no resource intensive actions at all. It was temperature.

I'm in Thailand and room temperature is pretty hot already. After looking around I found at my graphic card fan was not working.

I changed the graphic card and now it fails less x) It's still too hot. I need a bigger than for my cpu. It works like a charm otherwise if I open the case on both sides.

AMD are hotter than intels too it seems (I got an AMD)

Nico

**Eviljim** · January 5th, 2009

A spring clean of the PC may well be in order.

I would remove the components such as the graphics card individually and clean with compressed air, or even by dusting it off with a rag. As with all things PC, do this very carefully and ensure any cables that are removed are put back in the same place.

Worth also checking the vent ports on the case itself, any internal cooling fans (including CPU and PSU).

**baudday** · January 5th, 2009

Well thank you for the replies. I am now getting more confident that it is, in fact, temperature. My graphics card and other fans all work. But I think the card is still getting too hot. It has this little metal plate that's supposed to divert heat away from the components, and that gets extremely hot. The system was crashing far more than normal last night after I moved the computer upstairs and had it resting on the carpeted floor. I think this was insulating the heat and making it even hotter. I think a good clean out is a good idea as well. What extra can I do to cool down my card?

**baudday** · January 5th, 2009

Well, I cleaned out the entire system, and there was a lot of dust in the cooling unit of the graphics card. Hopefully that solves the problem. I will run the game and see how it turns out.

**baudday** · January 5th, 2009

So my graphics card runs a lot quieter than it did before I cleaned it. Which is an indication to me that the fan doesn't have to work too hard, which means the temperature of the card is definitely lower than it used to be. I was just able to play around an hour without any crash. Which I've done a few time before, but I think it's a good sign. Hopefully I found the problem.

**Eviljim** · January 6th, 2009

I know it seems silly, but have you checked the airflow whilst the Pc is running?

It has been known for fans to be incorrectly installed and the airflow be totally disrupted.

With the side of the case off, any fans at the front of the PC should be blowing air over the motherboard, graphics, memory etc, with the rear fans blowing the warm air out the back as an exhaust. Any fans mounted on the side door would probably be beneficial to be blowing air into the PC.

With the PC switched off, make sure that any hard drive cables are pushed/grouped/tied out of the way as ribbon cables can really muck up your airflow.

You can also buy replacement fans (the bigger the better as they are also quieter) and a even a replacement graphics card cooler if you want to.