View Full Version : Another member of the dead radeon club...
PiLsY
09-19-2002, 02:12 AM
What a pointless way for a graphics card to die...
Word of warning for you all, the metal spreader plate on the back of the card is fixed in place with heat reactive compound. IE it melts when it gets hot. Which is what mine did. In the middle of a 3d mark run.
The plate fell off, pulling off the vGPU mod as id stuck the POT onto the plate. This pulled pin 18 of the voltage regulator completely off.
£330 down the drain. I severely doubt Marci will RMA that card, so i'll be out of the game for a while guys.
Its strange how the only graphics cards ive ever killed are ATI cards. 2 radeon 8500s due to hardware failures and now 1 9700. I think ill be saving my money and waiting until the next nvidia card is out if this thing doesnt get RMAd. These ATI cards are so fragile (and in all honesty badly made). Fixing on a heatspreader with heat reactive compound - I mean ffs what kind of numpty would do that? Then you have this farce with the shim being higher than the gpu so the stock cooler (and any extra cooling you use) wont make proper contact. Add to that the over volted memory to retain stability while using cheap voltage regulation. A bit of a joke really.
What a crap card.
PiLsY.
Shroomer
09-19-2002, 02:36 AM
Damn dood that seriously sux I hope they RMA it for ya :(
Bad news indeed, PiLsY :(
I doubt they will RMA that 1, and I hear ya bout the quality of ATI cards...I've yet to fry any of the 3dfx/nvidia cards I've owned to date. (knocks on wood). I owned 1 ATI card a long time ago and swore I'd never buy another, lol.
Marci
09-19-2002, 03:55 AM
As long as there is no EVIDENCE of volt modding I can try to RMA it for ya... that's about the best I can do... ie: make sure you cannot see any excess solder or whatever from when u fitted the vmods... generally if I can get it aesthetically right (ie: Hot Glue the heatspreader back on!!) so that it looks as tho the card hasn't been tampered with, then we stand a chance... either way it's worth a try... we always try to RMA damaged stuff even if it's blatantly obvious as u never know what their RMA Engineers are like at the other end... I tend to find that they're spotty school kids who plug it in and say "it doesn't work." Well, we all knew that, hence why we sent it back!
SOOOOooooo.... box it back up in the original packaging etc, enclose packing list (don't need till receipt or invoice) clean up the card so it looks as close to as it did to when u got it, and I'll do my best m8... (now ya see why MajorMav gets all his stuff off me!)
I managed to knock a resistor off a Leadtek Ti4600 today (for point of reference, marked on the PCB as R890) and I'm tryin to RMA that at the mo... a bit of a design flaw mefinx...
Take the Leadtek GF4Ti4600 with its luverly huge heatsink. Now take 1x AGP Slot with a white clip at the end to hold the card (Epox 8K3A+ style). Insert card. Now, try to get to the tab to push the white clip back to get the card back out again.... DAMN HEATSINK IS IN THE WAY!! So, tried it from the back with half a pair of needle nose pliers, and don't know if I did it or if customer had done it previously hence why it had come back to shop in the first place, but whilst pushing the clip back from the reverse of card managed to knock of the resistor (if it hadn't already been done). MAJOR design flaw there in my opinion...
Marci
09-19-2002, 03:56 AM
Oh aye, and as long as no-one from our supplier reads this forum!!
docah
09-19-2002, 05:12 AM
I got my r9700 yesterday, and my 3dmarks suck... but the card blasts my 4200 out of the water.
Something about the card concerns me, namely how FREAKING HOT IT IS!!! At stock speeds i can't even rest my finger on the bga ram after a 3dmark loop, I almost burned myself twice last night!
So i've got bga ramsinks coming from a local cooling place (i'd call it loyalty but they do have the best price i've seen) Is a card that clocks with no artifacts to 380/350 worth keeping? or should i dump it and try for a better one before i go ramsinking and pelt cooling the crap out of it?
Marci
09-19-2002, 05:18 AM
Sounds like a keeper to me....
twiggy
09-19-2002, 05:22 AM
clocks a little bit higher then mine.:( i'd say its a keeper :D
PiLsY
09-19-2002, 05:35 AM
Marci - the pin is totally gone off the vGPU regulator. It is obvious, but only as a customer modification if you know what youre looking for. I could try and solder the pin back on, but you know how small those things are and id be worried about making it look even worse than it already is.
Anyway, its all cleaned up and looks A1 condition apart from that pin (im always well careful where ATI cards are concerned). Theres no evidence of soldering as I dont solder - I use micrograbbers :).
Ill give it a go at getting the pin back on, wish me luck :).
I'll try and pop up to your store next thursday if possible. Could you get me a 2.8b in for then? Email me with a price on it m8 (though thats not really a major concern as long as its not much higher than anywhere else :)).
How long would an RMA usually take? Im currently using my old GF4 that ive already sold to a friend of mine so I dont really want to keep him hanging on any longer than I have to :).
Ill post a pic up of the Voltage regulator in a mo (along with my new toy thats waiting for the 2.8b ;)).
PiLsY.
PiLsY
09-19-2002, 05:42 AM
New toy :).
PiLsY
09-19-2002, 05:55 AM
And heres the nacred GPU regulator in all its close up glory. Any bets on whether I can solder the leg back on? I still have it - found it on my bed, though christ knows how. Have you seen how small they are???.
PiLsY.
Marci
09-19-2002, 06:04 AM
see what ya can do m8! good luck... can have a 2.8 here no probs, check your PM for price...
Creative
09-19-2002, 06:38 AM
I feel for ya bud I really really do....:(
Torinalth
09-19-2002, 07:08 AM
just say it was DOA, you plugged it in and nothing worked. and remove your ORB posts :)
if the leg is the only problem then it could have had anything happen to it
Torinalth
Charles Wirth
09-19-2002, 07:23 AM
It looks easy to fix, use a pair of helping hand to hold the wire in place to make the bridge and use a hot iron with dab of solder at top and bottom. If you make a mistake, clean up with solder wicks and start over.
Do not overheat any parts in the process.
Marci
09-19-2002, 08:00 AM
And if you're succesful, u never know, it might not need to be RMA'd after all!
Marci
09-19-2002, 08:01 AM
If ya can't do it, bring it with ya and I'll have a go...
PiLsY
09-19-2002, 09:06 AM
Nah it was dead before the leg came off...
When the plate came off it froze up instantly. I rebooted and nothing but 3 beeps. It was when I took the card out that the plate slipped off totally and took the pin with it.
Fugger - where the hell can you get a pair of helping hands that small :p. The ones ive got would have troble holding the chip in place, let alone one of the pins. Dont have any solder wick either (never actually heard of it?). Anyway, ill muddle my way through it. If its dead and non returnable then so be it, not the end of the world. Just a bit of a :banana::banana::banana::banana:ter really :(.
Anyway - been playing Ti4600 and im fast approaching 17k....
PiLsY.
Pilsy- it seems like the card could be repaired by replacing the SC1175 regulator and reattaching the plate. Any chance you can get a replacement SC1175?
PiLsY
09-19-2002, 09:21 AM
Ive got 2 of them m8 on an old GF3. Problem is im no way good enough to desolder and resolder one. Got the shakes....
The 2 are off an old GF3 classic ive got knocking around. Bought it DOA for a fiver incase I could resurrect it :p. And no i couldnt btw....
PiLsY.
Goose
09-19-2002, 02:16 PM
/me comes out of lurking mode
unlucky pilsy :(
im back in manchester from the weekend, so kebabs, beer and freshers week (even though ill be finals year :D) to keep me entertained until you get the card sorted.
Could always lend you this rather nice 8500 ? ;)
JCviggen
09-19-2002, 04:09 PM
my R 9700 is acting weird. Windows will not load (or very slowly) and blue-screen on some ati dll, or give a device problem error. Then I noticed it could be solved by lowering the AGP bus but... I was only running 75/37 AGP/PCI :confused:
75 MHz shouldnt be too much at all, and it ran all day long like this and now it starts giving me crap... backed it down to 70. Wouldnt be surprised if this card takes a dump in the next few days...
DDTUNG
09-19-2002, 04:21 PM
Just use a pair of fine tweezers and a very small amount of super glue. Remember, you are not trying to make the card work, just to pass visual inspection.
DDTUNG:cool:
Charles Wirth
09-19-2002, 05:54 PM
After checking around that chip is very common and costs .28 cents. I can order it or you can get one off a variety of video cards.
Lay the card on its back and use the helping hands to hold the end of the wire downwards onto the old path of the original pin. make sure that the wire touches the chip. I can see enough surface to get contact on the chip where the leg broke off in that pic.
30W iron hot, put a ball of solder on the tip (must have long point) tap the bottom leg and it should tack it on, then do the top and clip the end of the wire off where the helping hands was holding it.
Marci
09-20-2002, 02:48 AM
Turning into one of those weeks now.... I snapped a leg off one of the chips on the bottom of my hard-drive last night sliding it into the cage! lol
Oh well, guess I'll just HAVE to get a Western Dig 8Mb Buffer Cav SE Drive now
PiLsY
09-20-2002, 10:10 AM
DD - I just had the very same thing suggested to me now by a friend. All I could say was DOH.
Theres a lot to be said for not getting yourself too involved with pc modding. The simple solutions always seem to pass you by.
Its superglued back on no problem and looks totally indistinguishable from an unmodded card. Ive got to say that if I didnt know itd been done id certainly pass it through an RMA.
Marci - should be seeing you on thursday :). I'll try and get the card mailed off before then, but ive barely got enough cash to last me getting to work until next week at the moment.
Still, get all my back pay on thursday so im hoping to have enough for the 2.8 and a couple of wd 80gb SEs for replacing my raid array as well. These 20gb maxtors are FAR too noisy.
Anyway, looks like all should be well :).
PiLsY.
I always used a small amount of Artic EPoxy for repairs as the silver colour is very close :) And it sticks pins wonderfully.
Marci could u PM me a price for a 2.66?
Cheers.
PiLsY
09-20-2002, 11:25 PM
Kain,
Nice suggestion - I'll remember that one :).
Also theyve got the P4 prices on their webby (at last!!!) so check there for prices :).
PiLsY.
Marci
09-21-2002, 01:54 AM
Lemme know how many WDs you'll be wanting and I'll make sure we have enough in stock for thursday.... don't worry bout posting the rad, just bring it over with you....
PiLsY
09-21-2002, 06:28 AM
Just a couple for now m8. Ill add another 6 next month and max out the 374 controller :).
Need to get in touch with you really - can you be reached at the shop m8?
PiLsY.
Marci
09-21-2002, 08:27 AM
Yup, but ya know that now cos we talked about 3 hours ago!!
Gave ya wrong date.... will ship tuesday so you'll receive wednesday.... just remembered I need to order the P4 Monday, so it won't be here til Tues. If I can get supplier to ship direct to ya I'll let you know....
PiLsY
09-21-2002, 01:30 PM
Bleh :p.
No worries m8, just as long as you remember to get it sent to work if its tuesday or wednesday :p. Will be back home Thursday.
PiLsY.