Windows 7: GPU timing out?

I have a GPU problem that is currently being fixed in the meantime I have an old recycled Asus AX 850 card in and it is working ok except that it seems to time out after about and hour and a half.

Is this normal or is the old girl nearing it's end?

What do you mean by "time out"?

seconding deacon.

even without knowing more, I'd think it's a heat issue.

Well to be a little more specific I am using the machine and I go have a coffee or dinner or even watch TV for a bit and after about three quarters of an hour I come back and the screen is blank just as you would expect but clicking the mouse or touching to the keyboard doesn't bring any screen up. I can hear the machine come back on line but the card seems to still be in sleep mode.

Now I touch the top of the card where the heatsink is exposed and it is stone cold, fan is spinning but no output.

I did get this out of an old gamer that was being recycled and I cleaned the unit up, re lubed the fan bearings, replaced the thermal with Arctic Silver, and put it aside for a spare. Now the new GPU I bought turns out to be a lemon so I tried this card in the machine and it works perfectly all the time you are using it but leave it for any length of time and the problem with the screen pops up.

Now I have to resort to an illegal shutdown to get the screen back and really I don't want to be doing this. If the card is not right then I will resort to the onboard graphics. The machine by the way is my new Ivy Bridge build with an Asus P8Z77-V board.

Am just wondering if this is as mentioned a heat problem in that too little heat is losing the cards contact with the slots contact points. There is stacks of power as I have a Corsair HX 1050 PSU inside.

Oh I meant to mention it stays ok all the time I am actually using the machine (up to 2 -3 hours) it is only when I leave it at idle.

I'm not sure what an illegal shutdown is. Have you tried updating the drivers to the absolute latest? It sounds like there's an issue with it going into sleep/standby.

Illegal shutdown is just powering off (holding power button down until it turns off) - unplugging the mains cord or anything - when you can't see to shut down the normal way.

Not to worry though because I ended up doing a Windows reinstall as things were going from bad to worse. Now I have the AX 850 up and running (I put new thermal again in that) and I have been able to install the Xonar DG sound card as well - it wouldn't install properly either. Plus the UEFI is now behaving itself - so far (forever the pessimist until I know it's right).

So I am now thinking perhaps the original install of the OS was only 99c in the dollar.