hi Lighting17,

Could be a hardware issue, as you say.

Cleaning out vent ports, fans, cpu, gpu, of accumulated dust is recommended every six months or so to prevent heat issues from causing abrupt shutdowns. Use only canned air to do this, never a vacuum cleaner as static electricity created by use of such can/will be an issue. Also, prevent any fans from spinning when blowing them out, as fans will act as generators and generate electricity if allowed to spin freely when cleaning.

Of course, system must be powered down and off when doing this.

Error messages coming up for the GPU? Make and model will help here. BSOD’s popping up or no? If system is home-built, need to know that too, as psu may or may not be up to task of running gpu and system together.

Depending on os version, you can always run sfc /scannow directly or use original CD, to ensure all system files are correct and in their original versions, to rule out any os software file corruption issues, and also run chkdsk C: /f/v via cmd prompt. For the latter, use cmd as admin to run, and for the former, use admin cmd prompt to run if using vista or higher. For XP, use your admin account to run both, but you must use your CD to enable sfc to run and have it in your CD/DVD tray when you begin.

EDIT: Removed unnecessary steps.

EDIT: For a complete listing of certified psu’s recommended by AMD, see here: http://support.amd.com/us/certified/power-supplies/Pages/listing.aspx Specifications should list 12+ v rail as a single-rail output for best results. If using a psu with dual-rails, you must balance the rail loadings to prevent overloading the 12+ volt rails when running this gpu.