Why did this happen to my card???

SsZERO · Post by **SsZERO** » Sat Dec 07, 2002 4:18 am

Before I RMA my GeForce 4, I was wondering if it is someting I could fix...

Today I was messing around with my PC trying to get it to run a quiet as possible. I decided it would be fun to connect all 5 fans in my system to one fan speed controller. Since the fans in my system are all relatively low power -- about .5-.7 amp draw each, I figured the fan controller could handle the load. I hooked it all up and bam, it worked!

BUT...all was not well. Something happened along the way, and I lost my GeForce 4. When I turn on my system, the screen is distored with colored blocks and dots appearing amidst the text of the bios screen. If I enter the bios menu, there are vertical purple lines popping in and out intermittently. The system will not boot into XP -- I got a stop error, stating something kind of problems with the driver.

I figured the problem was that the card needed to be reseated in the AGP slot. I did that several times to no avail. Was it the AGP slot itself? No, I am currently using my system with my old GeForce 2 and it is running just fine.

Any ideas on what is wrong with my video card? Did something get damaged when I had all those fans on one controller? If so, why is the most expensive component in my system the only thing that sustained any damage!?

Is it possible that reducing the fanspeed of the fan on the geforce 4's heatsink allowed it to overheat to the point where it permanently damaged itself? Please help if you can...I hate returning stuff.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Dec 07, 2002 8:17 am

Well I have to ask WHY did you connect the fan on the Geforce to a speed controller? That's one fan that should never be throttled down.

Moreover, I don't know how you connected the fan to your speed control but if it involved cutting the wires, you can forget about getting that card RMA'd under warranty.

The Geforce runs HOT. You should do nothing that will compromise the cooling fan on it.

Even if you think the speed control was running at full voltage, it's possible that having that many fans connected to it brought down the voltage and thus reduced the airflow.

SsZERO · Post by **SsZERO** » Sat Dec 07, 2002 5:05 pm

The Geforce's fan was making the most noise in my system, that's why I connected it. No, I didn't cut any wires.

I know it runs hot, but the cooling fan was always moving a decent amount of air, plus it has a big copper Tt heatsink on it. Could it have really gotten so hot that it would damage itself permanently in the few minutes I was running it with the fan controller on?

BTW, I tried it without the fan controller and it still does the same thing.

Demrok · Post by **Demrok** » Sat Jan 04, 2003 2:33 pm

Did you have the Card overclocked at all? That could make a difference...
and in all honesty a few minutes shouldn't be that bad...
I ran a GF 3 for 10 min without a heatsink on it... well there was one but you could see the air pocket between the GPU and the Blue orb that was on it (I fixed that with some sand paper and a bit of thermal grease) But I doubt it should have fried it in a short amount of time, but then again... GF4.... and odder things have happened.....
so you may just have fried it

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jan 04, 2003 6:19 pm

This is neither her nor there, but in my experience if a video card's fan is making noise the it's got bad bearings and it's going. Video card fans are very small, relatively low RPM and are very quiet.

Silly question: how did you connect the video card fan to a speed control without cutting the wires?

SsZERO · Post by **SsZERO** » Sat Jan 04, 2003 7:32 pm

For the record, I RMA'ed it through Abit and had a brand new card within a week. Abit is really on the ball with their RMA system.

Anyway, the fan on the video card was a Thermaltake GF4 Cooler, and it uses a 4-pin connector. My fan control also uses 4-pin connectors. Not that it matters if wires are cut or not -- who is gonna know if you don't tell them?

The GF4 Cooler was less than 3 months old, so for its bearings to go so soon says a little about the quality. I'm just using the stock Abit cooler now. IT is running fine, nice and quiet. I can still OC my card nicely, though not as well as I could with the Thermaltake cooler.

Pikachu · Post by **Pikachu** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 6:45 pm

i'm gonna switch out all my fans to water, including the crystal orb on my geforce4... (remember i have a delta 80mm)

But heat fried for geforce.... my buddy back at west laf, fried his because his little 5 cent fan (stock fan) didn't work at all....