card just sparked out

C

Camaroz06

Gawd
Joined
Jan 26, 2007
Messages
642
WTF my GTX480 just caught on fire while folding. It sparked, smoldered, and died...WTF!

I am done with EVGA cards after this, it is the second GTX480 I got from RMA and it is down again.

This sucks.
 
Sick. My last dead PSU made a loud pop just as I was looking around the case trying to figure out the location of the burning dust smell. At least you have 2 cards. Also there is a died in the line of duty thread somewhere.
 
So I am guessing this is non RMAable since there is obviously PCB damage? Sorta bullshit if it is since it could have been EVGAs fault when they didnt repair whatever they sent me corrrectly the first time.
 
I had a BFG Tech 9800GTX+ go up in flames.

...Two days after they officially shut down forever. Glad it caused no real harm to my system. I always worry about something frying and taking the motherboard with it.
 
I'm back up on my other card. Sure is a bitch to remove a card from a SLI system that is WC'ed.

I have the other card folding and the CPU going. It seems to be fine. Im very pissed, whats the chanced that the card I recieved was never properly fixed before being picked to send to me?
 
Why would having damage to the PCB not make them honor your warranty? You paid for a lifetime warranty after all, with eVGA. I'm sorry to hear about that.
 
I've read they really don't "fix" cards. It's cheaper to just make a new one. GPUs only cost a bunch because of limited supply and R&D.

Refurbs are, if anything, just returns that functioned fine or fixable cosmetic flaw. Your' card, PCB damaged or not, should be replaced on the RMA no problem. Unless it's clear you somehow caused the damage, like drowning it in coolant or modifying the PCB.
 
Holy Balls:
20110304234615654.jpg

I would hope EVGA replaces this, I was reading through their warrenty page and it mentions no PCB damage which I think is bull if the card broke on its own.
 
dude, that is brutal! judging by the look of those mosfet's looks like a thermal-runaway failure, and not just down to a single component failure, fans running ok? no blocked vents? its strange how they put pads on things like memchips and not the power conditioning semiconductors, becos those little buggers can have some seriouse current flowing thru them....
 
ashleyobrien said:
dude, that is brutal! judging by the look of those mosfet's looks like a thermal-runaway failure, and not just down to a single component failure, fans running ok? no blocked vents? its strange how they put pads on things like memchips and not the power conditioning semiconductors, becos those little buggers can have some seriouse current flowing thru them....
Click to expand...

There are pads on all of them, had a block installed. Had to pull the pads to see the damage. All pads had great contact impressions and temps were pretty low too. The only mosfet that looked damaged was the one. There is some thermal pad remnants on the others that look like burns but aren't.
 
ashleyobrien said:
dude, that is brutal! judging by the look of those mosfet's looks like a thermal-runaway failure, and not just down to a single component failure, fans running ok? no blocked vents? its strange how they put pads on things like memchips and not the power conditioning semiconductors, becos those little buggers can have some seriouse current flowing thru them....
Click to expand...

Looks like you weren't properly cooling your VRM's with your waterblocks, I would take a good hard look at the cooling on the other card to make sure it doesn't suffer too.

VRM cooling is the biggest key to keeping GPU's alive, especially when they are getting 24/7 load as our folding cards are.

Regardless, EVGA should replace that under warranty given that mosfets do burn out pretty reguarly. I think the PCB damage clause is more to catch blatant physical misuse or modification.

EDIT: missed your post as I was typing, sounds like you were cooling it pretty well. Sometimes these SMT parts on the cards just fail if they don't meet spec or have been ESD damaged and then stressed. Fortunately you have a strong warranty on your card and haven't voided anything by taking the heatsink off.
 
well then , given all that, it looks like a case of god doin his thing....theres clearly damage to more than one of those mosfets, how long had the block been installed for before it did the funky chicken?
 
When the warranty talks about "no PCB damage" I think they mean they won't replace something you damaged, like if you dropped the card and the PCB cracked. This should be covered.

edit: ninja'd by R-Type
 
ashleyobrien said:
well then , given all that, it looks like a case of god doin his thing....theres clearly damage to more than one of those mosfets, how long had the block been installed for before it did the funky chicken?
Click to expand...

About a month, then came the boom. I think a month was 2 or 3 days ago.
 
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not that this helps you now, but a thing i always do with new cards (done it to my 3 GTX280's) is carefully take out the back panel (for gtx280 its 2 tiny screws and one little tang that needs to be cut thru-no biggy) and then using a small hand grinder like a dremel completely cut out the grill so you end up with a much larger opening for air to exit, in fact it exposes the cooling fins directly, this when combined with 100% fan speed does make quite a difference!
 
ashleyobrien said:
not that this helps you now, but a thing i always do with new cards (done it to my 3 GTX280's) is carefully take out the back panel (for gtx280 its 2 tiny screws and one little tang that needs to be cut thru-no biggy) and then using a small hand grinder like a dremel completely cut out the grill so you end up with a much larger opening for air to exit, in fact it exposes the cooling fins directly, this when combined with 100% fan speed does make quite a difference!
Click to expand...

I have done this but was lucky enough to have a old spare single slot card with the same DVI spacing. I bolted that backplate on, opened the exhaust port completely, and kept the original intact for warranty purposes. It definitely makes a difference, I do the same thing with computer cases that have their exhaust fans stamped into the case. Removing that stamped 'grill' pattern makes a huge difference in airflow because it not only removes an obstruction but also greatly decreases turbulence in the exhaust flow.
 
i think they mean damaged from physical dropping or modification.
 
Out of curiosity, were you overclocking your card? I'm just curious, although I would assume so since you really wouldn't go through the trouble and expense of water cooling otherwise.......
 
Yeah, I was overclocking but nothing over the top. Was at 850mhz at 1.1v, voltages were pretty low for watercooling.
 
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