Zalman HP80-D & nvidia 5900

[createcoms]

Hi,

I just installed a Zalman HP80D vga cooler onto my Albatron 5900 EPV.

The installation was straightforward and I made sure everything was secure and there was good amount but not too much of Arctic Silver 5 everywhere the instructions said thermal paste should go.


I can boot up okay, and do anything for unlimited amounts of time but as soon as I do *anything* 3d (including a simple dxdiag "Direct3d test") the screen will freeze within 5 seconds.


According to the temperature sensor inside the 5900 die the temperature is 42 degrees (just sitting in windows doing directdraw things). The temperature doesnt increase in the small amount of time before a freeze (opened a windowed 3d task to see if the temperature was skyrocketing). Also the cooler is barely luke warm to the touch (which made me recheck everything to ensure the heat could actually flow!).



What Im wondering is, if anyone else has used this cooler on high end fx card (5700, 5900, 5950, etc)? Do I need the optional fan?

I was planning on getting the fan anyways so I can OC but this seems all very weird how things appear cool yet stability would suggest otherwise....