I just took a soldering iron to my GF2 Ultra... The display is so crisp now!

[AdamK47]

I did that partial RFI filter removal on my Creative Labs GeForce 2 Ultra and the display is very crisp and clear now (Seen here). I removed two rows of capacitors and shorted two rows of inductors. My Creative board has a row of diodes in between the rows of inductors just like the reference boards, so I had to short each inductor individualy. That was a little difficult. After an hour of trying to put a tiny wire across each inductor I said F this. So I just smeared solder on top of the inductor to short it (much much easier to do). The GeForce 2 Ultra is well known for ghosting problems. After the modification the ghosting problem is gone. I can now read text clearly at 1600x1200 with 75Hz on my 19" Mag Pure Flat DX890F. I can also run at 800x600 with 144Hz and the text is still sharp. Before the mod, 800x600 with 144Hz would be really blurry and ghosting was evident. Now, I can't tell the difference in the sharpness of text from 85Hz all the way up to 144Hz. I can tell the difference in the refresh rate though. I really like high refresh rates, so this mod worked wonders for me.

 

[miniMUNCH]

Congratulations...your a brave man!

 

[AdamK47]

Yep. Most people wouldn't even consider using a soldering iron on a $500 video card. Luckily, I used a soldering iron a lot when I went to college.

 

[Biggs]

We're not worthy, We're not worthy... HAIL TO THE KING BABY!

 

[BFG10K]

I hope this convinces people that cheap RFI filters are to blame for poor image quality on some of nVidia's boards.

For some reason, some people still think it's a myth.

 

[jpprod]

Video card resellers should offer this sort of mods for the less daring of us

 

[Sully]

AdamK47 - 3DS
You are a true computer geek I salute you.

 

[Taz4158]

Job well done.

 

[PeAK]

Try running a FM radio near your computer with the pixel rate set to about 90MHz while scanning the band to see if the RF interference is now being generated by your setup. Most people have "cable" to the home, but if you are still running an "aerial/antenna" you should see more interference on your "tele". The FCC may come knocking on your door one day...they have been known to do this when neighbours start complaining about wireless phones getting too staticky.

 

[Crazybubba]

I'm going to mod my prophet II 64MB when I get it back. It too has ghosts at high rez.

CB

 

[Dan]

AdamK47 - 3DS: Damn, you're good.

 

[Remedy]

IF RFI filters are to blame, how come companies still build with them knowing thats the problem? Wouldn't that cut the cost on the card itself if they were to not build it.

 

[snow patrol]

Well played sir!

 

[GEShields]

Got my leadtek card the other day to replace my 5500 and it looks like I am getting the soldering iron out also...same exact problem as Adam...1024X768 100Hz on sony cpd-200gs...shimmering and faint bluriness...

 

[AdamK47]

I tried to produce as much EMI frequency as I could next to my computer. I had all my two subwoofers on along with my two sets of desktop speaks on. I also had the TV, VCR, DVD, and Receiver I have in my computer room all on and placed as close to my computer as I could get them. I can say with 100% certainty that this mod does nothing to make EMI frequencies disrupt the display. I would say that the 2D is actually better than my Radeon and Voodoo 5 now. Instead of splotchy pixels I have sharp square pixels. Perhaps they only have this awkward RFI circuitry to comply with FCC regulations. I don't know. What I do know is that removing it makes things much clearer. Maybe it's needed when you have the computer in a radio station and positioned right next to the transmiter. Thats the only thing I can think of when it would be needed.

 

[Remedy]

Hey ADAM your not finished untill we see you do this also Click this

GO ADAM GO!

 

[AdamK47]

GEShields,

I don't know if this modification will help with the shimmering problem and your Trinitron monitor. It helps with blurry pixels (ie blurry text) and the ghosting problems. I believe that the shimmering problem is due to an impedence mismatch between some GeForce 2 boards and Trinitron monitors.

I use to own a Trinitron monitor a while ago. I had that faint shimmering problem. It was a 17" NEC FE700 Trinitron. I only had the monitor for two weeks, so the return policy was still good on it. I traded it in for a 19" Mag Pure Flat. The shimmering problem is no more. Here is the thread concerning that subject.

 

[AdamK47]

ReMeDy{WcS},

I tried something like that when I was using my 32MB Leadtek GeForce 2 GTS (that I also soldered to a Quadro 2). I cut a slot1 retail P3 heatsink in two sections and took a retail FCPGA P3 heatsink and fan. I used a two part epoxy glue mixture and mixed it together with 50% (25%+25%+50%) of silicon based thermal compound. The mixture was as thick as stand alone thermal compound so that it would fill in the tiny gaps between the two surfaces. Plus, it dries really really hard. I had the two sections of the slot1 Intel heatsink on my DDR RAM and the FCPGA heatsink/fan on the GPU. It worked really good, but took away two PCI slots.

My GeForce 2 Ultra already comes with sufficiant cooling for overclocking. The GPU doesn't get as hot as regular GeForce 2s even at 275MHz. If I had some more spare heatsink parts, I would probably mod my GeForce 2 Ultra too.

 

[sharkeeper]

I found this out last summer. I bought some 12 Hercules 64 MB Prophet II cards. The quality varied considerably between each sample. I have one now that had very good quality before the modification. This was tested through 2048x1536. 1600x1200 at 100 Hz was used as a reference since it is a popular point in the high end.

I took the most direct approach even removing the spike suppressing diodes from the board. I made the path with 28 AWG 99.9% pure silver (stranded!) wire that is PTFE coated. What a difference it makes!

I have never seen a card produce such a sharp output. I've compared them all as well. S anything, Number Nine, Diamond, Intergraph, Matrox. You name it.

Interference? None noted and this is running near lots of high end audio gear. Of course it's connected with fiber optics and double shielded balanced lines.

I also use a superior quality 5 BNC to HD15 cable from Ultraspec

Cheers!

 

[AdamK47]

Oh yeah... as for generating electronic interference on other electronic devices... I haven't seen/heard of any problems yet. I have an antenna along with a satellite connection. With the antenna connection and the lowest frequency stations I could find (channel 3). There is no interference generated by the modified board. Usually, when I used a refresh rate above 100Hz on my monitor, the monitor would be generating interference on this TV channel. This new monitor I'm using has no effect on the TV. When I was using my NEC MultiSync 70 monitor and a resolution of 800x600 with 100Hz, channel 3 would become very distorted with wavey lines alll over the place.

 

[AdamK47]

sharkeeper,

Aren't you worried about voltage spikes being generated by circumventing the diodes? Those diodes are there to prevent the voltage spikes. Thats why I shorted each inductor individually rather than shorting the diodes in the process. That must have taken you a while to solder on stranded wire though. It takes real skill to do that on SMD components. I tried to solder on wire on the pads of the inductors, but the tip on my iron isn't small enough, so I took the easy way out by smearing solder on each inductor.

 

[Remedy]

But that link i left you has a Visiontek hitting 350 core and up, and the memory hitting 560 and up. Those are some heavy numbers and to say that they were stable are cool points in my book.

 

[RadioactiveCPU]

Adam4k7: Bravo!

 

[AdamK47]

Well, well, well... guess what I found.

GeForce 2 Ultra to Quadro 2 Pro

I don't know if a trust a site that calls a SMD resistor a SMP resistor though. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[sharkeeper]

AdamK47 - 3DS: It wasn't a problem at all bypassing the diodes. I de soldered everything from the board to have a clear shot. I have my computer and monitor plugged into the same circuit with an isolated ground. This is tapped off a large FERRUPS in the network room two floors down. (wiring here WAS a pain and I'm not done yet!)

The component size on this board is quite large so soldering it wasn't a problem. A metcal workstation does wonders!

Cheers!