hello everyone! suspected video card problem. sorry for my noobness

[sugashane19844]

hi there my name is shane im from detroit mi usa, this is my first post here and im looking for some advice, i have a very limited knowledge of computers so bear with me please. first ill start with telling you guys my computer purposes, im a gamer not a heavy gamer but i do enjoy games, i usually play age of empires 3, and grid. other than gaming and web browsing i really dont do much downloading so ya, lol
the computer i have was givin to me for free and i put a few hundred in a friends pocket to make it a little better. which i did notice a difference after he was done.
these are the specs as far as i can figure out, i dont know what most of them mean and i dont really care to be honest as long as it works and has good graphics and isnt slow.
the computer is a e machine t6410 3200 amd athelen 64 processor, 160 gb hard drive, 2.2 ghz?, 512 kb l2 cache?, 1600 mhz fsb, bestec power supply model atx 300 300 watt max out, the monitor is a hanns g 19 wide screen

now back to the friend part, i gave my friend like 300 bucks i think it was he put in a 8600 gt nvidea card, 2 gig ddr sdram, a soundblaster 32 hd card, and a philips dvd burner with light scribe, which i never used.

ON TO THE PROBLEM: well i play grid the most i have a steering wheel and i really enjoy the game especially the graphics recently the game seems to lag bad both online and offline and the car darn near freezes mid race, well i have a program called nvidea monitor view and the card seems to run extremely hot. its 230 degrees right now according 2 the program but the smart status what ever that is says healthy. so i took the side off hte computer and felt the video card and its hot damn hot like painful to touch hot thats gotta be bad right? the fans still spinning on it and everything seems to work fine until i fire up grid and mand i hear all kindas of fans or somethin start spinning and it doesnt stop until a few minutes after grid closes.

so what i want to know: is the video card most likely my problem? is this computer worth putting a new video card in? is it a decent computer according to specs? ? if so what kind ,i want something with equal or better graphics and of course i dont want to spend a fortune, also i do have plans of eventually using a 46 inch samsung aquos tv as my monitor so keep that in mind with recommendations please.

 

[cboucher]

Your problem is that you have an eMachine. Emachines are ok if all you want to do is web surfing and email. I'm not familiar with your particular model, but I'm guessing that there isn't a lot of room for airflow inside the case. You could try modifying the case with more fans and such, if you have room. It may also be possible that your video card is already damaged from the heat. In that case you would have to modify the case and still buy a new video card. Probably not worth it on an eMachine. You might be better off getting a cheap barebones system with a decent case and salvage as many parts as you can from your eMachine.

 

[sugashane19844]

ive also heard that emachines are not great, but its been like a year or so and this is the first problem ever does that make sense? there is quite a bit of room in the computer though at least it seems like it to me not that i know much, but according to nvidea monitor view the card is at 232 degrees right now and has been pretty much idle for a while. is there a spot to plug in additional fans somewhere and ill mount one in i have? i have a stinger 12v crossflow fan from when i used to do car audio competitions would that work?

 

[cboucher]

I'm not sure what that is (stinger fan). Try running your PC with the cover off and set the fan up in front of the video card so that it blows away from it. Check your temp after that and see if you see any improvement. It might be too late for your video card, though. The same thing happened to one of my video cards. It got real hot and started causing problems. I got a new case with really good cooling (Antec 900) and it helped, but the damage to the video card was already done. I ended up replacing the video card with something a little better and it's been working great.

 

[sugashane19844]

ok i will try that a stinger cross flow fan is a 12 volt fan for cooling large amplifiers do you have any recommendations for a new vid card?

 

[cboucher]

The video card you had was working fine before it got too hot, correct? You could just just replace it with the same model or upgrade it to a better one if you're willing to spend the extra money. I would make sure you have fixed the cooling problem before spending another nickel on a new video card, though. No use in baking another card...