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"GinTonix" <GinTonix@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:cras6q$k0i$1@phys-news1.kolumbus.fi...
> "HomeBrewer" <85cj7XXX@cox.net> kirjoitti viestissä
> news:33rrh8F442rq7U1@individual.net...
>> I had a similiar problem with 9800 pro AIW - turned out to be my power
>> supply.
>
> Not owning a 9800 or any or its close relatives (Pro, XT..) but having
> read
> about dead cards (lots of them!) I have noticed that a great deal of the
> dead ones have a 3rd party HSF combo installed. Would you guys think that
> this goes like this:
>
> - buy 9800 card
> - want to squeeze every extra frame out of it -> overclock
> - to keep your poor card cool enough buy a 3rd party
> super-cooler-gigantic-heatsink-fan-combo
> - install it and run
>
> After a while, you get artifacts or simply just a dead card or distorted
> picture. HomeBrewer is the guy who saida aloud what I've been thinking -
> what if it is not the card but the PSU which just cannot produce any more
> enough juice for your card? When overclocking the amount of power needed
> rises as well and if your PSU is not good enough, it might start failing
> and
> manifest its ill-being this way? Or maybe the power drawn by the card
> rises
> for some reason (burn-in of the card) after a while? So, is it that the
> big
> pile of dead 9800's are not all actually dead but just in coma or
> misunderstood?
>
> People who buy their 9800's to run it as-is, have no need to overclock and
> so they don't bother spending another 40 bucks to keep the card cold.
> Those
> who run their cards with the default settings don't meet the dead
> card -syndrome since the amount of power needed is also kept in specs. The
> burn-in-process would rise it a bit, but still having it in specs would
> cause no problems.
>
> So, to find "a good" dead 9800, check the symptoms. If they clearly state
> the memory is burned, forget it. But if there are no references to any
> physical damages (burnt or lost components etc.) you might want to give it
> a
> try with a good PSU...
>
> Just some ideas, based on my blabbering don't go and spend your college
> funds to buy a couple of truckloads of dead 9800's... but what do you
> think?
>
> --
> gt
>
>
Well to tell a bit more about the actual card it had a The Zalman ZM80A-HP
passive fan fitted ,also added was a Zalman ZM-OP1,
the card was never overclocked by myself ,and I told it wasnt before I
bought it. I have had about 3 months of no problems ,no artifacts etc, I
did have to reduce agp to x4 from x8 because of vpu crashes (but this is
common) but apart from that it was 100%. If the card was overheating I would
have expected it to show some kind of artifacts during gameplay ,half life2
has given it a good work out , but I only noticed the screen had currupted
reading an email ,I have a 550watt power supply BTW. I will try to RMA on
tuesday if I cant I may try and flash the bios to a 128bit 9800 and hope it
works then ,if not I will have to buy a new card.
Andrew.