Is my problem analysis correct?

[Cirque]

Hello,

So for a prolonged time I've been having this problem: my videocard got very, very hot (up to 100 degrees celsius), even when idling. The fan noise is incredible. I tried a lot at the time to keep the heat under control, including cleaning the inside, software to speed up fan speed (which was already max anyway), etc.

Since 8 months or so, my PC would occasionally shut down, at random, but always during a game (WoW, SCII, etc). It happened every now and then but with increased frequency. I figured the card was getting too hot. At least one of them was a blue screen and from what I could gather from the dumpfile, it was an issue with the card. Lowering graphic settings would delay or prevent the shutdown from happening. Note that my pc was otherwise working just fine, could game np, for 2 years now.

I reinstalled Windows 2 months ago completely because the problem got out of hand. For 2 months thereafter, there has been no problem whatsoever, except for the hot card and insane fan noise. I updated my graphic card drivers and bam, problem reappeared, and my PC shut down again. I did a system restore and was fine --- until today.

Today I installed Starcraft 2 and started playing. After about an hour, pc shuts itself down. Boiling with rage, this time I am intend on getting to the bottom of this and for the first time thought of a power issue.

I opened my case, and found out my power supply is a whopping 350 W. My graphic card, according to the Nvidia site, requires 450 W.

My computer is a Dell Studio XPS 8100, and my graphic card a Nvidia Geforce GTS 240. The only changes I made to the order was to ask for an i7 processor instead of the default one.

Am I correct that this is in fact the source of all my trouble? I'm calling Dell tomorrow, and I'd like to be armed with as many information, theories, and knowledge as possible, because I am sick & tired of this.

TL;DR: Am I correct to assume that overheating graphic card and shut down of pc during graphical overload (games) are related to the fact this card requires 450W while my power supply is only 350W?

Thanks!

[Deleted]

The power down can be the PSU fault , but the overheating isn't.

[Lilfrier]

Agreed, not sure how the PSU would cause the GPU to overheat. That just sounds like the card itself is screwed up.

[Cirque]

It is well possible the graphic card is completely screwed by now, however, the shut downs would be related to the power shortage?

Would it not be possible it is overheating because it cannot use the power it needs for the tasks it's doing? <- I am not pretending any kind of expertise, just my brainstorm.

As things are I can't even get a proper new card with this kind of power supply without some pro outside help to replace everything. :/

[vesseblah]

Lack of power does not cause overheating as mentioned before. 100C is way way too much, and if the number is correct, it's the source of your problems.