Did I just fry my Radeon 9700 Pro -- Please help me!

J

jmk396

Gawd
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
787
Today I got my Arctic Cooling Vga Silencer Rev 3. So I unplugged my Radeon 9700 Pro and proceeded to remove the fan and heatsink. I removed most of the old thermal paste, but some of it was stuck to the edges of the chip and I couldn't remove it no matter how hard I tried (even with isopropyl alcohol 91%).

So I did the best I could and then proceeded to apply the new thermal paste that was included with the vga silencer. From the picture on the instructions it looked like you had to put on a decent amount, so I did just that and smeared it all over the chip. (just the middle gpu part).

After that I put screwed on the vga silencer and here is where I think I screwed up. The instructions said to tighten the screws and that was all. So, I tightened... and tightened... and tightened. I figured that the screw would only go so far and wouldn't let me over-tighten it, but after a few turns, I heard a crack.

I frantically took off the vga silencer and took a look at the chip/gpu. It looked fine -- no visible cracks what-so-ever. So I put the vga silencer back on and hooked it up to my computer.

The PC turned on, but would not POST. I tried again and I smelled something burning.

The smell appears to be coming from a gray silver piece near the front of the card on the bottom. The silver piece is about 2.5 inches by 1 inch. I can't remove it or else I'd tell you what is below it. However, after turning on the PC, after ONE SECOND it is BURNING hot. This piece is not supposed to be covered by the heatsink so I'm not sure if this heat is normal.

After all of this I turned off the PC and removed the vga silencer. The thermal paste spilled off of the gpu/core of the chip by a little bit. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not... but apparantely I put on way too much thermal paste.

Finally, I removed all of my new thermal paste (using the isopropyl 91% alcohol) and plugged in the card by itself with no heatsink/fan (this worked fine before -- I only used it for a couple of minutes w/o the heatsink or fan). The PC still will not POST.

I paid $450 for this card when it first came out and know it's worth nowhere even close to that now, but I'm really bummed out right now... To replace it (lets say with a 9800 pro) it will cost me $250. That's way more than I'd like to spend right now but I'm really looking forward to Half-Life 2 (and playing Doom 3)...

Did I just fry my card? Can I try *anything* to get it working again?
 
hearing a crack not good. smelling burning not good. card dead
 
i don't know what happened. it sounds like a pretty routine procedure. hopefully some one here will be able to help you out, but i am guess that something burnt if you smelled burning and and was really hot.

best of luck in getting it back up and running

and RIP 9700 if it does not return
 
You can get a 9800 pro for 200, I'd buy it if you can't get a replacement.
 
or if you want to raise it up to $270-290 and save for a while maybe, you could grab a 6800nu, a nice improvement over both cards.
 
its dead. and yes ati replaces it with a 9800 pro, if your patient enough to RMA
 
If I RMA this, won't ATI discover that I've removed the original thermal paste (which is yellow) and replaced it with newer stuff? (which is white)

Do any stores still carry the Radeon 9700? I'm assuming they'd be decently cheap...
 
They wont RMA it though because he changed the heatsink. Thus voiding any tiny thread of warrantee he had left.
 
Hate to say it but that sounds like a dead card :(

Since you replaced the heatsink, then the warrenty is void, so I would suggest making it into a swank keychain and getting yourself a new 9800 or 6800nu.

Sorry again man, that sucks hard!
 
well What about heating up the thermal stuff on the HSF (stock one) and then applying it on the card again the yellow stuff will merge on the core and thus again.. stock 9700 PRO.

i mean.. i would try my best to get an RMA =/ even though its your fault
 
Yeah, I will definitely try to get a replacement... The worst case is that I will lose $10 in shipping to ATI if they deny me...

About the 9800 vs 6800.... The 6800 is $100 more -- is it worth it?

I've also read a little bit about re-flashing the firmware on a 9800 pro to make it into an XT. Do I need a special brand card for this?

Which 9800 (or 6800) would you recommend for me from NewEgg? I'd prefer staying under $200 of course, but if it's WELL worth it to spend another $75 - $100 then perhaps I'll do it.
 
There's no doubt that in any game the 6800 is faster than the 9800 and in some games it will be a *LOT* faster...

The question is, do you need the speed? If you are playing Myst, you probably don't need it. If you are looking to play Doom3, well... you may not NEED the speed increase but you will certainly want it. Is that worth $100 to you? To most people here, we'll collect pennies out of the couch if it'll get us an upgrade...
 
Your card sounds dead. Good luck in RMAing it, you never know. 6800 beats the 9800....
 
:mad: Dont RMA stuff YOU broke. Please, dont. :mad: It just jacks up the prices for all of us. I doubt ATI will accept it anyways, how do you break a core without tampering with it in the first place?
 
Clean it up, put it back together with the stock heatsink and sell it on Ebay as a non-working card. I guarantee you'll get $50 - $100 for it. That would be a good compromise if you don't want to RMA a card you broke. Someone on Ebay will be happy to do it for you :)
 
Note, I am not being a dick dude but WTF are you thinking?

jmk396 said:
Finally, I removed all of my new thermal paste (using the isopropyl 91% alcohol) and plugged in the card by itself with no heatsink/fan (this worked fine before -- I only used it for a couple of minutes w/o the heatsink or fan). The PC still will not POST.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised with the sometimes rabid dog mentality I see in these forums no one has picked that quote up and gone nuts with it. You even admit to having done this before! Dear god man be more careful. Not only can this occurence be blamed on your own modding skill level, but this glaring lack of common sense is over-the-top. You know a Radeon probably runs upward of 50C idle WITH a heatsink on?

I'm really being careful and avoiding flaming you by putting it the best I can. It is hard to get around the fact that this is "user-error" hardcore. Sorry to say this bro, but Ati owes you nothing. I'm not the moral police so you do what you want, but in a perfect world you would get your just deserts, get a "nice try" letter from Ati, and learn from this mistake. Use a light glaze of paste and take the time to mount it twice if things look iffy by checking for the imprint. I mean damn bro... this is nuts. Noob modding gone wrong is what this is. There's no getting around it or sprinkles to put on top unfortunately.

Lets get real.... slow down. It takes less time than RMA'ing something and is better for the soul too! Here you are talking about flashing your not yet received 9800pro into an XT!?! Hello?!
 
just try and RMA it.
once i RMA'd a card to gainward and the HSF was all scratched up from me trying to lap it and it had different thermal paste and they still sent me a new card.
 
Congrats. God shouldn't have given you opposable thumbs either. You could hurt yourself. It should bother you guys that you are so inept at doing something that it hurts the rest of us. Leave the hobbying to hobbyists.
 
your card is dead....

if that happened to me, id put back on the stock cooler and see if i can rma it, yea its a scam but oh well...ya cant always do the right thing.
 
V0ltage said:
just try and RMA it.
once i RMA'd a card to gainward and the HSF was all scratched up from me trying to lap it and it had different thermal paste and they still sent me a new card.
Click to expand...
So wrong. I hate people like you. Thanks to people like you im stuck paying more for my next upgrade. Nice one jerk :mad: .
 
Mr.BrIaN said:
So wrong. I hate people like you. Thanks to people like you im stuck paying more for my next upgrade. Nice one jerk :mad: .
Click to expand...

your welcome...

Hardware ive scammed

1) Quadro 2 pro 64mb = $800
2) 60gb Maxtor hdd = $200
3) Rio Riot 20gb mp3 player = $300
4) Abit IS7 = $100

:rolleyes:
 
:mad: You can laugh about scamming people but what goes around comes around. I hope you turn around just before it hits and knocks you flat on your a__! You are a sorry excuse for a person. I hope you get what you give and I hope you choke on it!
 
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