GeForce GTX 550 Ti issues

[Dartdon]

I think it might be time for me to replace my card. The fan on it died and I replaced it with a case fan. The issue I seem to be having is that, when I play games and the CPU temp gets around 40 degrees Celsius, the game will freeze up or just flat out crash. I also have noticed several instances where it looks like black lines are shooting out of the computer straight at me. I just want to know if I should be replacing this thing or if there is another possible issue at hand. I have run several tests on my computer because I was having a BSOD issue which I managed to resolve, but this has been going on for a few months now. I have seen people who talk about how 40 is an average temperature for idling computers, yet mine can't even get there without the graphics in my game going bonkers.

 

[Faladu]

Yeah 40C is not a worrisome temp at all, at full load it probably handles 70+ if it's not broken.

If it was running a while with a busted fan, it's probably broken, it's happened to me, probably how most video cards break.

Graphic weirdness is usually sign of bad card, I would swap in an old one for testing.

Other things: [Probably not likely going to help, mind you]
I would try replacing the heatsink and fan with a new one:
[examples of what's available]
VGA Coolers, VGA Cooling Kits - Newegg.com

Or at the very least replace the paste between the heatsink and fan, but first I would swap out the card and see if it's at fault or upgrade drivers.

I would check BIOS and the nvidia driver to make sure you aren't overclocking it, that could be the cause of issues, and could wreck it permanently.

Defrag hard drive, check for viruses, etc etc.