I purchased a new video card for myself some time ago and gave my Radeon 9800 Pro to my younger brother. The original fan went out on the thing and we decided to buy/install an arctic cooling replacement for it.

Problematic Signs:
-ATI software isn't working at all ... every game crashes when it tries to use it. Tried Catalyst Control center and just the driver install ... both failed. Workaround was to do a manual add/remove of drivers, without using ATI's install programs.
-When you start up the computer, the Dell logo is pixelated. So is the Windows logo when it begins booting. Windows icons go in and out of pixelation phases.
-Games had several vertical lines through various parts of them. Half-Life 2 intro screen looked like a giant checkboard.

Did some Googling and they are claiming 1 of 3 things:
-Voltage: I don't think it's a voltage issue as I disconnected everything else and hooked up power to just the video card and still had a pixelated Dell logo. Video card worked fine in same machine as well before the fan went out on it.
-Bad Card: Again, card was working fine before we swapped out fans. It could have overheated and damaged circuits when fan died, or we could have screwed up the board while installing the fan, but I don't think the card would be functional at all if this was the case.
-Heating: Which I don't understand if we installed the fan correctly (see pictures below).




Thoughts/suggestions?

8/26/2006 2:03:59 PM

Don't know for sure if this is still the Case on the 9800's, but the 9500/9600's were infamous because the metal surrounding the actual GPU core was HIGHER than the core, so a regular heatsink wouldn't work and would fry the card and or cause the exact problems you are describing.

there are three options

1) sand down the metal area around the core with a dremel

2) get a heat pad to stick between the two (this is how the OEM heatsink works)

3) find another aluminum heatsink and snip a fin off of it, sand it smooth down to 1200 grit on both sides, do the same on the heatsink, apply artic silver to both sides and tighten it down.

I'd go with #3, as #1 results in fucking your card up completely if not done exactly right, #2 usually only works so well.

8/26/2006 2:14:24 PM

maybe it's an installer error, WTF is any electrical component doing sitting on your comforter? have you never heard of static?

8/26/2006 11:30:37 PM

you will need to remove the spacer shim from then 9800, or add a built up spot, be it solder, copper foil, ect tot he bottom of the hs to mimic the raised spot on the stock hs unit. http://www.driverheaven.net/guides/videocooling/ has a decent guide, he jsut got lucky i guess as he tightened down and made good contact, scrub ti down, use artic silver to stick a piece of copper sheeting to the bottom of the hs, reseat it on fresh artic silver on the gpu, you will be golden.

8/27/2006 3:26:39 PM

^^
I never said it wasn't ... that's why I provided some pictures to provide clarification. Next time, why not provide some useful advice ... Tech Talk already has enough trolls

^^^,^
I figured I'd have to reseat it again. Thanks. Will try again and see what happens.

8/27/2006 10:18:28 PM

i don't mean to be a troll, and i did give some useful advice... keep your components off static producing fabric... good luck w/ reseating.

8/27/2006 10:43:21 PM

some of you guys make way to big a deal out of static electricity.

8/28/2006 1:59:41 AM

On this occasion, I would have to agree.

8/28/2006 9:22:21 AM

i would too, but in this case there is obviously a problem with the graphics card... a short in the card is a perfectly feasable explanation... though more likely it's not seated properly. i just get sick and tired of carelessness in regards to people not thinking about where they place sensitive electronics, consider it a pet-peeve of mine. </end of rant>

continue on...

8/28/2006 1:32:28 PM

no, a short is not even a good explanation. everything he's mentioned sounds like artifacting due to overheating.

8/28/2006 1:53:17 PM

i've had artifacting due to bad boards before, artifacting does not always equal overheating, i'd say most of the time it does, but not always... if you don't agree, fine, this is just my opinion, all i'm saying is i've seen it happen.

also: "When you start up the computer, the Dell logo is pixelated." not many graphics cards overheat to the point of artifacting the BIOS logo upon bootup when there's no load whatsoever on the gpu... if this was the case the gpu would be significantly overheated upon the startup of games causing complete failure of the graphics card... not 'just' artifacting.

i'd say it was either damaged when the fan died and the gpu was overheated/damaged, or it was damaged during the swap (possibly static, possible other), or the current hsf is seated improperly... any of these are realistic.

though i tend to trust Noen's diagnosis, i'm not convinced it's the end-all solution, but worth a try

[Edited on August 28, 2006 at 2:45 PM. Reason : .]

8/28/2006 2:27:49 PM

Quote :

"some of you guys make way to big a deal out of static electricity."

i have NEVER had a problem with static electricity during the summer, spring, or fall...only when the air is really dry (mainly winter) have i experienced ANYTHING remotely dangerous to electronics, and even then you'd have to do something pretty stupid

8/28/2006 3:40:15 PM

^good for you.... i have to say i haven't either

...but it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. else why invent the anti-static bag or the anti-static wrist band. i really don't want to go on about this, i just noticed something that i consider to be careless in regards to proper handling of electronics... to argue and say static electricity is nothing to be concerned about is ignorant... i'm sorry if you're offended by this.

8/28/2006 4:01:15 PM

Children.... don't make me turn this internet around... I will!

I have to agree it sounds like overheating.

8/29/2006 7:37:04 AM