As most of you’ll be aware, I went through a bit of a horror run with my desktop computer and have only recently got it all back together. While my computer was out of action, the last component that I needed to get fixed/repaired was my Asus GeForce 8800GT video card, as it was making a really high pitched squeal. After getting it repaired and overcoming a little PEBKAC – it was all working as expected.

In the month since having my desktop working again, I’ve been seeing a rather strange thing taking place – my computer appears to go to sleep and won’t wake up when requested. This problem has happened 3 or 4 times in the last month and each time everything is locked up – even the keyboard lights won’t respond and it requires a hard reset to get back into Windows.

It happened again last night and I went hunting for the problem again, which I wasn’t able to track down previously. I’d checked the different event logs within Windows hoping to see some sort of application or system level error reported to narrow down the search but to no avail.

Curiosity got to better of me and I had a look at the hardware again and got a very rude shock when I burnt the tip of my finger on my Asus GeForce 8800GT video card. It appears that the fan on my video card is not spinning all the time, which leads me to think that my machine is hanging when it is getting too hot.

I couldn’t believe it when I realised that last night and was thinking to myself, what were the chances of that happening. If I were a betting man, I certainly wouldn’t have even taken a long shot punt that I’d have another problem with the video card between now and when I replace it in another six months to a years time.

In an attempt to see if that is what is causing the problem, I’m going to try and find one of the utilities that monitors the heat of different components in a computer. With a bit of luck it’ll confirm or dispell the theory and I’ll be able to get it fixed.