My frontend (a hp/compaq 7100 small form factor with a half height PCIe GT8400GS) has been running like a dog lately. Skipping, out of sync, jumpy. Same in mythtv, xbmc and mplayer. I was unconcerned as it is mainly used by the kids and I hadn't realised how bad it had got. Finally sat down to diagnose on sunday. <br>
<br>Ultimately thought some update or other must have screwed something in the nvidia drivers. Finally decided to do a reinstall. There is no data to speak of on the machine.<br><br>Complete reinstall and update, still running like a dog. Run nvidia-settings and discover the video card appears to be running at 148 deg C and auto slows down at 130 or 140. Yikes. I know in the past it runs at low 70s at idle and mid to high 70s decoding 1080p.<br>
<br>Turn off, unplug, open up. Just happened to buy a can of compressed air yesterday [1]. clean out system fans and video card fans, boot up and card running at 72 deg. <br><br>Wish I had thought of that a while ago. There was an important setting I forgot to back up before reinstalling and now I have to trawl through masses of alsa documentation to fix it.<br>
<br>C'est la vie.<br><br>[1] complete co-incidence, happened to be at counter at Dick Smith and saw
someone else buy one and thought yeah, I need another can of that!