GeForce Go 6800 went to shit.

Ok so since i bought my 7700 back in last October ive always had problems with my video card overheating. Sometimes reaching tempatures of up to 112 degrees celsius. I installed the GetThermal utility and that helped tremendously but it also made it to where, if i dont turn that utility on for some reason the fans wont spin at all. They are completly dependent on that utility now. Just recently though I had my computer on and was playing a low end graphics game (World of Warcraft) left for 10 min came back and the computer was turned off. Only later to find out by alienware tech support that the video card was shot and I had to order another one. Not sure what caused this to happen. I did recently buy the 20.1 in. widescreen Dell monitor and the video card did coincedently go out right after i hooked up this monitor. Im wondering if the monitor is the problem, with the resolution and all or if my video card can actually handle that and it shot out for another reason unknow. If anyone can help me with this or if you have any questions just let me know. Thanks a lot.

Its under warranty yes. And they are shipping me another. The tech support said it was due to a power issue but I think its just wierd that it happened right after I hooked up the monitor to the laptop. I was thinking maybe the video card couldnt handle that high of a resolution or something and got way to hot. There were burn marks on the video card, and im running it with a 3.8 P4. I checked dells website to see if my video card supported the resololution and couldnt find anything. NOr could I find anything on the Dell website as well. Just hope the next video card dosent go to shit when i get it in the mail after hooking it up to my laptop.

Yeah I figured what that was. And Alienware Tech support told me that that was not the case. Just wanted to make sure. It takes a cooling pad + Getthermal Fan regulators to keep it just cool enough to where it dosent crash. Every once in a while, exspecially on games with high end graphics such as half life 2, oblivion, or Everquest 2 it will completly shut down cause its so hot. What got me this time was I was playing WoW when it happened. Which is shitty graphics by comparison. I went out today and got that arctic 5 thermal paste, but my question is where do I apply it once i get the card? Do I need to remove the heat sink from the actual card and do I apply it to the card or the heat sink? If you could please help me out with this I would greatly appreciate it.

Yeah the heatsink is attached to the GPU. Ill look up he instructions on the Arctic Silver site soon as I get the replacement in the mail. I appreciate the help.

Question if I remove the heat sink from the video card. I noticed theres a sticker that will tear in half If i atempt to do so. Will this void my warranty if I remove the heatsink from the video card to apply the AS5?

Great. Video card burnt out on friday and I still dont have a replacement. The tech support placed the order to send me my replacement video card for the one that burnt out in my system and its still not here. He told me 2-3 days and its been 4 mailing days so far...not including sunday. Thier really starting to piss me off. Im starting to think they sent it to the wrong address, they guy on the phone sounded like he could barerly speak english. I had to repeat my adress about 7 times for him to understand and I couldnt understand a word he said when he repeated it back to me...I hope they dont **** this up cause ive never had problems with alienware in the last 11 months until now.

Actually I did move since i purchased the computer. I updated that information on my account though with the same guy that I couldnt understand. I probably should of asked for someone I could understand politely or something but I just didnt want to be rude. If its not here by tommorow then something went wrong. Question though, when i do get the new GPU do I need to respawn or download different drivers for this one or will the drivers I downloaded for the previous card still be in effect. Should I be able to just plug it in and go or am I going to need to reinstall stuff? I had planned on just saying **** it and respawning everything just in case some settings I had were messing with the video card in any way. Not sure what I should do I just dont want this second card burning out any time soon like my last one. Seeing as how I only bought a 1 year warranty. Maybe I should go ahead and upgrade to 2 years...but wish they would have told me its "not that uncommon" for these to burn out every 6-12 months. I would have at least bought a 2 year warranty to start with just to cover my ass.

Ok cool, well do you think I should respawn just in case for the settings video wise? I really dont want my video card to burn out again...this has been hell going 5 days without a computer. A lot of my work revolves around this thing so Ive been having a very hard time...want to avoid this if at all possible. Like I said I had issues with it being VERY HOT all the time. The fans spun but it was almost like they werent spinning fast enough. The tempature of the laptop under the video card while gaming exspecially was so hot at times it burnt my skin to the touch literally. Id get blisters from the burn it was so hot. I got a thermometer to see how hot it was and it would reach 112 C even with fans running...this can't be right. This happened like 30 min after I started up the computer its first time. I just thought it was suppose to be hot for some odd reason...never really paid attention. I told alienware once and they had me run some kind of test on the RAM or something and they didnt really help me after that...but anyways what should I do and what preventive measures should I take to avoid this from happening again. Ive already bought a thermal cooling pad for it to sit on. I bought the arctice silver 5 compound to apply to the GPU if i can get alienwares permission to void the warranty to apply it. I also purchased a external monitor...someome told me this would cool down my computer as well. Not sure what else I can do to help it. If you have any suggestions please let me know. You guys are always very helpfull. Thanks.