Dead card... any ideas? (Pic)

[k1114]

First off, it's an XFX 8800GS 384mb. No warranty (I don't think they did lifetime back then, and I don't have the original heatsink); got it used over a year ago.

So I had this card in my main rig for quite some time (I try to stay a couple years behind on hardware; keeps things insanely cheap) and it just recently died. I've never had any problems with it up to this point. I had the case open to clean it out (was rather dusty) and I blew everything out with a can of compressed air. Didn't even physically touch the card. Afterward, the system would boot with no video. Did some troubleshooting and narrowed it down to the card. I've since replaced it with a 6770, and I tested this card in two different systems with the same result. No video at all. It does give the insanely loud siren if you don't plug in the power connector, but otherwise nothing at all.

The card physically looks fine. I'd like to try to revive it to use in one of my kids systems (I have one still using a 8600GT). Time to bake it? Something I should check with the 'ol multimeter? Just throw it in the trash?

 

[lavaheadache]

bake it!!!!

 

[ahenkel]

bake it!!!!

Do this

 

[k1114]

Aight im gonna bake it, will post results as soon as I'm done

 

[k1114]

The bake didn't do anything. The card doesn't even get warm if I let it run a while... makes me think some kind of main component is blown.

 

[lavaheadache]

I'm sure it got warm in the oven though. =)

 

[ocre]

I'm sure it got warm in the oven though. =)

lol

 

[FalseChristian]

Why worry about it? The 8800GS is a slow-ass GPU. Upgrade to a $50 512MB 8800GT that can still run Crysis.

 

[joshhedge]

Sadly, I think your card is a fatality. Time for a new one.

 

[pm]

This might be an unlikely cause - it's certainly rare - but if you use compressed air and you get the fans spinning really fast, you can create a high voltage from the fan to the card which can blow out the onboard power regulator. The thing that makes this more likely is that that isn't the stock fan. Usually the designers are careful to make sure that this can't happen by figuring out the max voltage from the stock fan running in reverse, but since this isn't stock, it could exceed the design spec. If this were to be the cause, and you really wanted to debug it, you could look at the power mosfets and see if any of them are blown by using a multimeter and then you could - hypothetically, I'm not sure that this is all that cost effective - buy a replacement part from some place like digikey.com and solder it on. If you want a better explanation, reply or PM, but I'm not sure that I'd recommend this unless you are in it for the experience. Otherwise, just go get a new card.

 

[p_monks33]

What part of Oklahoma are your from? I might have a card I can get rid of for a great price and you would have no downtime.

 

[tweakboy]

The oven is your friend...

Also make sure the card is fitted in slot nicely. gl

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Only real option is to oven it again, the 8800 cards have become quite well known for dying later in life despite being amazing hardware otherwise, mine did the same after I sold it to a friend 2nd hand, oven worked for him. It's worth another shot, read some threads around for advice on doing it. Otherwise just buy a cheap replacement, the 8800 is real old now.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Why worry about it? The 8800GS is a slow-ass GPU. Upgrade to a $50 512MB 8800GT that can still run Crysis.

I would be more inclined to direct OP towards a GPU worth gaming on and by that I mean an 6850 or GTX 460 at the minimum. The 8800GT will play crysis albeit on ugly settings and low res with crappy performance.

 

[k1114]

Why worry about it? The 8800GS is a slow-ass GPU. Upgrade to a $50 512MB 8800GT that can still run Crysis.

Crysis? This is a potential upgrade for a six year old kid that just plays minecraft. Why would I want to spend anything?

Sadly, I think your card is a fatality. Time for a new one.

Just the heatsink is fatality branded. It was $7 shipped from newegg at the time (a great deal).

This might be an unlikely cause - it's certainly rare - but if you use compressed air and you get the fans spinning really fast, you can create a high voltage from the fan to the card which can blow out the onboard power regulator. The thing that makes this more likely is that that isn't the stock fan. Usually the designers are careful to make sure that this can't happen by figuring out the max voltage from the stock fan running in reverse, but since this isn't stock, it could exceed the design spec. If this were to be the cause, and you really wanted to debug it, you could look at the power mosfets and see if any of them are blown by using a multimeter and then you could - hypothetically, I'm not sure that this is all that cost effective - buy a replacement part from some place like digikey.com and solder it on. If you want a better explanation, reply or PM, but I'm not sure that I'd recommend this unless you are in it for the experience. Otherwise, just go get a new card.

Negative, the fan doesn't plug in to the card so there's no connection there. It plugs into a separate 3-4 pin adapter.

What part of Oklahoma are your from? I might have a card I can get rid of for a great price and you would have no downtime.

Thanks for the offer, but I don't have any downtime - already bought a new card. I was attempting to revive it to upgrade one of the kids systems.

The oven is your friend...

Also make sure the card is fitted in slot nicely. gl

Yeah it was fitted well - think I may try to oven it once more before I throw it in the trash

I would be more inclined to direct OP towards a GPU worth gaming on and by that I mean an 6850 or GTX 460 at the minimum. The 8800GT will play crysis albeit on ugly settings and low res with crappy performance.

Kids PC man, kids pc. They don't need anything that good.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Crysis? This is a potential upgrade for a six year old kid that just plays minecraft. Why would I want to spend anything?



Just the heatsink is fatality branded. It was $7 shipped from newegg at the time (a great deal).



Negative, the fan doesn't plug in to the card so there's no connection there. It plugs into a separate 3-4 pin adapter.



Thanks for the offer, but I don't have any downtime - already bought a new card. I was attempting to revive it to upgrade one of the kids systems.



Yeah it was fitted well - think I may try to oven it once more before I throw it in the trash



Kids PC man, kids pc. They don't need anything that good.

May I suggest to you to have a look in your local classifieds for people selling older cards like the Nvidia 2xx series or radeon 48xx series should be able to find something in the $50 to $80 range used.

 

[Cookie Monster]

If its okay with you, can you take a more high res picture of the top/bottom of the PCB with the cooler taken off? So I can inspect it for you if there are any noticeable damages.

Also, if you have a multimeter handy, you can also check to see if the card is shorting or even test if the input/ouput voltages are correct but.. its most likely the GPU itself has reached the end of its lifespan.