interesting problem, related to my graphics card (i think)

[dweeb]

recently, i received an unusual error: my monitor swtiched off and displayed this message:

"ATTENTION
INPUT SIGNAL
IS OUT OF RANGE
H: 18.6KHZ
V: 23.1 HZ
PLEASE CHANGE
SIGNAL TIMING"

although my computer remained swtiched on, it was rendered useless

more recently, this error messaged stopped appearing, and the computer simply froze; but still remained switched on

i thought this odd, so i decided to open my computer up and have a look. i focused on the graphics card (ati radeon 9800 pro) and noticed that the fan was covered in thick dust; it was also extremely hot

so, i removed the card and replaced it with my old one (nvidia geforce mx 440) and the problems have stopped; the computer seems to be fine

my only thought is that the radeon's fan has packed up, it's overheating and thus turning itself off as a precaution

does this seem logical?

if it is the fan, how easy is it to replace?

[nitestick]

it is logical that that's the cause. i can't say how easy it is to replace the fan without seeing the card. you could probably get away with thoroughly cleaning out the dust, reseating the heatsink using some arctic silver 5 (if you have no clue what that means just ask) and putting some oil in the fan (again just ask......)

[CompShack]

Why would you buy another one if you can clean the one you have? clean it clean it clean it

[Maxx]

its not due to the graphics card causing that, its the fact that another monitor (bigger) was attached to your pc and set to a high resolution then switched back to a smaller monitor, same thing happened when my friend unhooked his monitor at his house (19'' @ 1280x1024) and hooked a 15 inch monitor up to it with a max resolution of 1024x768.