9800 All In Wonder extreme overheating.

[Emansor]

My uncle had a 9800 All In Wonder Pro. Apparently it worked perfectly. One day he shut his computer off, then shut the power supply switch off in the back as well. Why he did this, he doesn't know.

The next day he turned his computer on and he had red/blue/purple lines on his screen, and some colorful artifacts scattered around. He thought it was dirty, so he said he cleaned the contact tips on the card with alcohol, let it dry, then put it back in. It looked like it worked. Then about 30 minutes later the lines showed up again. He thinks he burned the card out by shutting off the power supply, while the computer was already off. I thought it was a bad heatsink/fan.

Well he bought a new card, and gave me his 9800. I install the card in my computer (After the card has been out of a computer for a day or so) and immediately the card overheats (I'm talking before the computer even gets to the desktop). I mean it is more than just hot to the touch where the chip is. I would say it was scorching hot. I would expect this kind of heat from extreme overclocking and putting a heavy load on the card. When it got to the desktop there were all sorts of lines and artifacts.

Does it sound like something on the card is in fact burned out? Did my uncle let the card overheat too much, too often, leading to damage?

[liambl]

Take the heatsink off and clean all the dust out of it. Reinstall the card and make sure the fan spins freely.

[Force Flow]

*don't* take the HSF off. There's no reason to do so.

Just go at everything with an air can, and be sure to keep the fans from spinning by sticking a straw or pencil or something between the blades.

[liambl]

Oops, left out the word cover. I meant to say take the heatsink cover off and clean out the fins.

[Force Flow]

There's no cover on 9xxx cards. Just the bare HSF unit. These cards were a few generations earlier (made in 2001 or 2002, maybe?)

[liambl]

Sorry, I was basing it on a 9800 I had a while ago that had a covered heatsink.

[Force Flow]

OCed edition, maybe?


Anyway, sorry for somewhat hijacking the thread Emansor...did the cleaning help?

[Emansor]

Instead of starting a new thread, I figure I'd add to this.

I cleaned the dust away, and the overheating isn't as bad, but there are colored lines all over the screen. Should I just give up on this card?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...itled-1psd.jpg

[not important]

If everything is cleaned and you have the latest drivers installed I'd say the card is bad.

[tigstah]

from the looks of that pic, i'd say that card is toast.

[Emansor]

Yeah, that's what I thought. I was hoping there was some way to fix it, but oh well, back to my Radeon 9500....

Thanks though.