Has my GF4 4400 snuffed it?

[Big G]

All,

I have just bought a new case and moved all my PC stuff over. Since the move, my GF4 Ti4400 (creative labs) started to show visual artifacts that came and went with wiggling the card in the AGP slot. I first thought it was bad connections, so i cleaned the contacts and cleaned out the AGP port, but the problem was the same: booting into windows, some visual artifacts start to appear then the PC crashes/reboots (there is plenty cooling). To rule out the AGP port, i tried my spare GF2 MX which was absolutely fine, if a little shit for playing any game whatsoever.

I had my father take a look at the card (he's into electronics and builts custom circuits/amps etc) and he spotted a tiny surface mount fuse on the back of the card that was charred. He cleaned it up and measured the resistance which he thought was too high for a fuse. He placed a little bit of solder to bridge the fuse which read a very low resistance after (which it should).

I plugged it all back in and booted. Everything was fine! I loaded up aquamark to be sure which ran without a hitch for about 2 minutes, then it suddenly went all glitchy then crashed the PC. I rebooted and tried CS, a similar thing happened (see below)

I removed the card and had a look at the surface mount chip that had cooked the first time; and again it looked cooked/black/charred. I tried to reboot the PC, but no joy.

What could be causing this to happen? Has anyone seen this kind of problem before?

I will admit i've been running my GF4 without the fan turning, and i had noticed recently some textures in CS not showing the way they should. I've got a feeling that this continued strain has taken its toll on the card.

Radeon 9800 pro it is.

G

 

[bids]

Had a similar problem with my original GeForce 1 card - coloured artifacts all over the screen - although not quite as 'regular' as yours appears. Do the colours flash every now and again ? Mine did this, and whichever PC I tried it in - same effect. Ended up in the bin - know thats not what you wanted to hear

 

[Big G]

Yeah they flash pretty bad.

It's weird, 2D mode seemed ok, then running a 3D app eventually made all the artifacts appear. Eventually, 2D mode got corrupted forcing the PC to reboot.

Windows did manage to recover a crash; it flipped into 640*480 16 colour mode with a message saying something like "Windows has detected a serious error with one of your hardware devices".

It was definitely better after the solder bridge, but it looks like it didn't hold up; particularly in 3D mode.

G

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by Big G
He placed a little bit of solder to bridge the fuse which read a very low resistance after (which it should).

It doesn't take a genius to realise that fuses blow for a reason, and should you remove it from the circuit, concurently, whatever caused it to blow in the first place will damage whatever it was protecting.

Ergo, I conclude, your card is now ready for the scrap heap.

 

[evilmonkeh]

i have a 4200 with a similar prob(tho not as severe), i think i need to reseat it

 

[Xavier]

check the tracks and traces - see if any have been broken, all it takes sometimes is a small scratch.

Xav

 

[Big G]

Re: Re: Has my GF4 4400 snuffed it?

Originally posted by Tom
It doesn't take a genius to realise that fuses blow for a reason

Cheers for that, master of the obvious

I do agree, it is ready for the heap. Fook it, will order a 9800 pro on Monday.

G