Almost lost my GF6800GT!

[_xxx_]

The fan died and I didn't see it until the game (D3:RoE) crashed. Than I looked at the gfx-card utility which said ~120 °C for both RAM and GPU. Then, the screen went wild with faulty pixels etc.

I had to pay 30 EUR for a new cooler/fan combo since I lost the receipt. Idiotic, I don't know how that happened. But everything works fine again and I also get temps about 45° idle and 59° under heavy load (GPU) which is even better than before.

Just had to share...

 

[swaaye]

I had the fan die on my 9700PRO once. OMG. It was overclocked to 380 at the time too...The thing was so hot it was burning the PCB. I knew something was terribly wrong because Windows GUI was all corrupted....

Card went fruity from then on, wouldn't always cold boot. Worked fine once it got up and running though. Died about a year later.....

I think it BBQ'ed some of the part of the power input from the AGP slot cuz I was getting burn marks on the floppy power cable plugged into it, making me think it was sucking way too much juice on that line. HAha, well that card's gone now....bummer. Cheap fans are not cool IHV people.

How come video cards don't have their own HLT command? You'd think they'd have figured that out better by now. Windows GUI shouldn't make that 115M transistor 9700 think so hard..... Hell my AXP 2.4Ghz runs nearly at ambient temp when its idle.

 

[wireframe]

The fan died and I didn't see it until the game (D3:RoE) crashed. Than I looked at the gfx-card utility which said ~120 °C for both RAM and GPU. Then, the screen went wild with faulty pixels etc.

Are you saying that the GPU did not go into safe mode as it hit the threshold or something?

I always appreciated what Intel did with thermal throttling control on the Pentium 4 and I would hope that this type of approach is used in heavy loaded logic like GPUs. I was under the impression that the NV4x would automatically throttle down and even power down to save itself. It would be interesting to see information confirming or disputing this.

Glad you didn't lose it, but I hope it wasn't just your quick thinking that saved your hardware

 

[_xxx_]

The fan died and I didn't see it until the game (D3:RoE) crashed. Than I looked at the gfx-card utility which said ~120 °C for both RAM and GPU. Then, the screen went wild with faulty pixels etc.

Are you saying that the GPU did not go into safe mode as it hit the threshold or something?
...
Glad you didn't lose it, but I hope it wasn't just your quick thinking that saved your hardware

I guess it went into some kind of safe mode, since as soon as it got hot, any game I tried would just pop off and I'd end up on the desktop. So it seems like it turned the 3d portion off somehow.

The Asus Smart Doctor utility reported "Your VGA card is OK", though - despite those 120° in the very same window. Crappy SW.

(Un)fortunately, it was my quick thinking. But I'm just happy there was no damage.

BTW, I can fully recommend the Revoltec cooling solution for the GT - huge "flower" with blue LED's, very silent and cool.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I didn't like the lil wimpy fans they had on my 6800GT, so I stuck this on:

Works great and it's actually quieter. 8)

 

[karlotta]

hahaha that is so ghetto!

 

[martrox]

DW...that's a site for sore eyes....NO, wait...it's just an eye sore!

Glad I spent a few bucks on an Artic Cooler for mine......

 

[digitalwanderer]

Funnily enough it actually fits in the AGP slot a lot easier now, the Gainward shroud thingy holding them two dinky fans was a biatch to fit in...I had to make sure not to hit my memory lock-downs and smash the bejeebus out of where one of my IDE cables plugged in to make it work.

Now it slides in easy, it's quieter, and it's cooler....and the fan is a red LED 120mm that produces a nice evil red glow when it's running. I just couldn't figure out a good way to attach it so I used a bunch of wire wrapper thingies and it holds/works great and I can put it back to original easily.

 

[martrox]

DW...the master of the nylon tie....

 

[_xxx_]

I didn't like the lil wimpy fans they had on my 6800GT, so I stuck this on:

Works great and it's actually quieter. 8)

Pimp! My! Ride! 8)

 

[digitalwanderer]

DW...the master of the nylon tie....

I actually stole the idea from a good friend of mine, it's how he connected the actual cooler on a sweet lil GF3 I bought off him.

 

[Mendel]

Actually I think 120 C is exactly the temperature treshold where the safe mode will kick in to prevent damage happening so sounds like the failsafe system worked perfectly well and saved you from 300 dollars (or more) of damage. Always good to hear it actually works.

That said, you do make me a wee bit worried about my stock 6800 GT fan...

What kind of replacement fan did you get?

edit: oh and dw, nice one. Looks just perfect

I think I had a similar solution on my k6/2 450 a while back, though I used rubber bands instead of those... whatyoucallthem... eh... anyways, if it works...

 

[_xxx_]

It's from RevolTec (www.revoltec.com), a huge flower with blue LED's and kinda tribal design cover. Eight passive coolers for the memory in the package. The temps are ~5° lower than with stock cooling, although there the mem was also cooled actively. Costs about 25-30 EUR. It fits any nV or ATI card.

The Asus stock cooler is actually very good temp-wise, but it just died. Never heard of other people with the same card and such a problem, dunno why that happened here.