Um... Think I've Forked It...!

[spin_doctor]

Initially I though this was a driver issue and posted it as such in the drivers section:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=150566

Now I'm thinking it's hardware. It all happened after I installed my WC system, so I wondered if any of you lot had come across anything similar... :(

:help: :help: :help: :help: :help:

Doug

[Sparky]

What waterblock are you using on the graphics card?

It is possible you tightened it down too tight, try loosening it some. My bro did this with a zalman aircooler on his 9800pro a long while back, caused artifacting until he loosened the cooler slightly. I'd try that 1st.

[quiet]

I have seen this bizarre behavior before with my 8800GTX, it was due to water leakage under the block. After cleaning, drying, and fixing the leak it was fine.

[spin_doctor]

Doesn't seem too tight, and when I reseated it, there were no sign of leaks...

When I reassembled it I made sure that I only lightly nipped up the screws, finger-tight with a jewellers screwdriver, so I wouldn't have thought it would still be causing errors if it was too tight...

Any other ideas?

[spin_doctor]

Still stuck...! :(

Kapt... I've checked the cord and it's fine... Have you actually heard of the metal screws being fixed with heatshrink, or are you speculating? Not trying to be funny or anything, it's just that the screws on the original cooler are metal as well, so I'd have thought if it was going to be a problem, it would've been apparent before I switched to water cooling.

If anyone has encountered this before and found a fix, please let me know!

All help appreciated...

Doug

[quiet]

It is quite possible the card is dead. All it takes is screwing the block on too tight one time to bend the PCB and kill the card. I just lost a motherboard because I wasn't using a backplace with the Apogee GTX. The motherboard ran fine for weeks, then just died unexpectedly.

[ColonelCain]

Maybe it is a bad mount? What are you using for vreg and memory cooling?

[santiagodraco]

Few things we need to know and a few things to check:

Info:
1. What cooling block are you using.
2. What thermal paste are you using. Is it conductive? Silver? Etc?
3. Are your cooling hoses putting pressure on the card?

Things to check:
1. Remove the cooling block and make sure no thermal paste is on any of the surrounding chips.
2. If using a full coverage block make sure too much pressure was not applied to the ram/voltage regulators.
3. Remove the block all together and boot the pc, any difference? (obviously you do NOT want to run without cooling on the GPU for more than the time it takes to see if it runs better without the cooler attached.) If the symptoms go away then the problem is obviously the mounting of the cooler. Then the problem is either pressure or contact points. Do not boot fully into Windows, just enough to get to the point where you saw problems before and to make sure they went away.
4. Put the original card cooler on and run the machine normally. Any better?

[spin_doctor]

Hi Santiagodraco,

Here's what I can tell you:



Info:
1. What cooling block are you using.
2. What thermal paste are you using. Is it conductive? Silver? Etc?
3. Are your cooling hoses putting pressure on the card?

1. Eddy's FK8800GTS full cover block
2. Arctic Silver 5
3. As far as I can tell, no.


Things to check:
1. Remove the cooling block and make sure no thermal paste is on any of the surrounding chips.
2. If using a full coverage block make sure too much pressure was not applied to the ram/voltage regulators.
3. Remove the block all together and boot the pc, any difference? (obviously you do NOT want to run without cooling on the GPU for more than the time it takes to see if it runs better without the cooler attached.) If the symptoms go away then the problem is obviously the mounting of the cooler. Then the problem is either pressure or contact points. Do not boot fully into Windows, just enough to get to the point where you saw problems before and to make sure they went away.
4. Put the original card cooler on and run the machine normally. Any better?

1. Done and clean.
2. The screws are only lightly nipped up finger tight using a jewellers screwdriver, so I don't *think* it's too tight.
3. & 4. Not tried that since I've arrived back from my holiday, but I'll give that a go and report back as soon as it's done.

Thanks mate!

[sick_g4m3r]

how much artic silver? if you put too much it could have shorted out the card

[justin_c]

it may not boot up without a cooler. i tried that with a 7900 and it didn't work (heatsink, but no fan).