I killed it....

[T'wolves]

Well I managed to split one of the memory chips on my GF4. I split right down the middle along the length of the chip. I super glued it back together but when I run my computer it gives me lines and numbers across the screen. So I can still recover files and what not, but general use would really suck. What happened was...I was pasting hs's onto the ram, using ASIII adhiesive. I was so getty about gettin it done I rushed the application and did a sloppy job. It a little to close to the edges and it appeared some may have touched the pins. I took three off, the forth looked ok. Upon further examination it wasn't, that was after the ASIII cured. 15 min later of pulling and prying, it popped off, and there went the chip. I don't think I can get that fixed, but if I can let me know.

But know the real question. What should be my next card??? I will never buy ATI. And that reason is one of my friends loves ATI, but is deemed a "village idiot" in our circle of friends for other reasons, and will not allow him to say I told you so by buying ATI. This card will be purchased any time between soon, more likely after christmas, and never, depending on money, which is an issue, no NV30 for me. I'm looking at Ti4200's again. The only thing I really care about is overclockability. I'm thinking the Albatron turbo, oh and I want 128mb memory, I like the blue PCB too. Also how close is NV30 to market? should I wait a month or two and look for a big price drop or just wait til I get the money and just buy. I also think 8xAGP is a joke and waste of my time and money so I don't need that. So if could get any other suggestions as to a very well overclockering card. Now I have to go peel my cooljag off the corpse of my dead gainward. :cry:

[Bon3thugz43v3r]

Sorry man, that really bites. Did it split in half on its own?
:cry:

[T'wolves]

It wasn't broken before, it broke from ripping off the heatsink after the adhiesive cured. I'm not even gonna try and RMA.

[Conan]

lol man u take it quite good...
to the point : i think u should try triplex ti42000
http://www.taktsucht.de/artikel/triplexgf4ti4200/seite_1.html
http://www.dansdata.com/triplexgf4.htm

[IR1]

So the memory is split? broken? or just seperated from the card? Man Id love a chance at taking a soldering iron to it. Unless the chip is just busted.

[NASsoccer]

sorry to hear about your card, sucks to see one die (i sound emotional :eek: )

as far as your next purchase, i say go ahead and get another 4200, you can't beat the bang for the buck with one of these cards. the gf fx is still 3-4 months away. i think the tenative date was either feb 1st or march 1st.

THIS (http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=139136) is the thread for you as far as which to get. my vote goes to the gainward, because they always make rock solid cards, they always OC really well (mine do). if you don't get the gainward, then get the albatron, i have seen people getting some very nice results with the card and very little complaints.

have a look at the 3dmark site (www.octeams.com) and you will see some of the results there in the card database. the albatron is an awesome overclocker.

NAS

[mbentley]

unfortunately those memory chips are next to impossible to repair... i would have to agree that the ti 4200 gives the best bang for you buck... check out this thread for nice ti 4200's

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=139136

that should get you a nice indication of what a good ti 4200 is :D i personally ripped one of the memory chips off my ti 4400 (it was already dead due to a fried gpu when the fan stopped) and i was trying to take off the ramsinks... the thing came completely off the card... i guess the double sided thermal tape had a pretty good hold hehe

[funnyperson1]

i would suggest another Ti4200 as well...other options can be found in the buying guide in my sig :)

[Commander_Kang]

To bad you refuse to get anything ATI.The 9500 Pro is a great deal and you're missing out.

[illig]

try to rip the chip out and see if the card improves....

i'm not sure if this is possible with a GF4, but i've heard that people messed up ram in TNT2's and Voodoo3's and GF2MX's and the cards simply started reporting less ram on bootup but kept running fine

bah... worth a try, no?

[mbentley]

Originally posted by illig
try to rip the chip out and see if the card improves....

i'm not sure if this is possible with a GF4, but i've heard that people messed up ram in TNT2's and Voodoo3's and GF2MX's and the cards simply started reporting less ram on bootup but kept running fine

bah... worth a try, no?

haha sounds like some of the logic my dad would use in the situation... too bad it probably wouldn't work in this case ;)

[Shade00]

I say rip that chip off. What have you got to lose? I seriously doubt you'll cause any other hardware damage. The card is already dead anyway... give it a try!

[T'wolves]

Thanks everyone, I'll take a look at all the links. I may give ripping off the chip a try, like Shade said, what have I got to lose...other than not bieng able to use my computer entirely, because I can still boot and everything it's just the graphics are totally retarted.

The sodder connections held the halves to the board, the thing just cracked right down the middle, and the halves pointed up a little bit. I would take a pic if I had a dig. camera. IR1, you asked, yeah the chip is totally broken, not broken off the board.

As far as ATI goes, its my loss oh well.

[mbentley]

Originally posted by T'wolves
Thanks everyone, I'll take a look at all the links. I may give ripping off the chip a try, like Sade said, what have I got to lose...other than not bieng able to use my computer entirely, because I can still boot and everything it's just the graphics are totally retarted.

The sodder connections held the halves to the board, the thing just cracked right down the middle, and the halves pointed up a little bit. I would take a pic if I had a dig. camera. IR1, you asked, yeah the chip is totally broken, not broken off the board.

As far as ATI goes, its my loss oh well.

you can get a display with the chip removed, it will just have extreme artifacts and you may need to boot into safe mode to make it work... i tried to boot mine into winxp and i will stay for a little bit and then give me a video card error and the resolution would change to 640x480 16 colors. when i used safe mode, i would stay at 1024x768 but it is safe mode... it won't work correctly with the chip gone because there will be places that need to be connected that aren't on the video board where the memory chip would have been.

[=[8c0re8]=]

just so u knowu can freeze the card first b4 taking off the Ram HS

they come off ALOT easier if u put them in a static bag then toss

in the freezer for 30mins..then slowly pry the HS..

bummers about your Vid card:(..

[PhobMX]

Originally posted by T'wolves
I will never buy ATI. And that reason is one of my friends loves ATI, but is deemed a "village idiot" in our circle of friends for other reasons, and will not allow him to say I told you so by buying ATI.

dude, dont want to sound harsh. gf4 4200 sounds good right now, but in a couple of weeks radeon 9500 pro is coming out, and it can beat a gf 4 4600 easily with aniso and FSAA for around $190.

Since my gf fried and i was forced to go bang for the buck with a r8500 (almost a gf 4 4200 in performance), atis gained my respect. ATis Catalyst are as good as Nvidias detonators.

Dont be so mad at ati because your friend saw the light first, things are the way they are, and being a fanboy is never good not for you, gaming or your $.

If you are afraid of your other friends, get the r9500pro and benchmark against their systems with hight detail, they wont ever diss ati, trust me ;)

[RCtruckguy]

if that card is fried i also have a gainward 4200 that may need a new ram chip, its ram has:

samsung 229
K4D28163HD-TC40
WHD33ICA KOREA

maby if its the same and you don't want/care could i have a ram chip? I'm not sure if its totaly dead but i really haven't had much time to mess with it, thanks~RCTG

[T'wolves]

I'll see how the 9500 debuts, if has any problems like the 9700 did, then forget it. But I'll see how it goes, talk to my friends, too, get thier opinions, see what they have heard and what not. I'll do some shopping around, 190 bucks is about what I'ld be looking at for a good Ti4200 anyways.

RCtruckguy - I don't know if I'll chop up the card yet. Mine is very much alive, all I need is new memory chip on it too. If we both found someone with a totally dead Ti4200 on here maybe we could both get a chip. I'll PM you if do decide to chop it up.

[T'wolves]

Looking at this review:Radeon 9500 Pro (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1756&p=2) , well impressive. One thing I had against ATI was its drivers and software. With the new drivers for the 9500 pro and the 128mb memory, it did much better. Baring any compatiability issues upon release, I think would be an excellent consideration to say the least.

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by T'wolves
Looking at this review:Radeon 9500 Pro (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1756&p=2) , well impressive. One thing I had against ATI was its drivers and software. With the new drivers for the 9500 pro and the 128mb memory, it did much better. Baring any compatiability issues upon release, I think would be an excellent consideration to say the least.

i agree

[PhobMX]

Originally posted by T'wolves
Looking at this review:Radeon 9500 Pro (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1756&p=2) , well impressive. One thing I had against ATI was its drivers and software. With the new drivers for the 9500 pro and the 128mb memory, it did much better. Baring any compatiability issues upon release, I think would be an excellent consideration to say the least.

see??? its good to look at things on the objective way, you wont regret as i didnt... :D

[Codeman05]

Originally posted by T'wolves
Well I managed to split one of the memory chips on my GF4. I split right down the middle along the length of the chip. I super glued it back together but when I run my computer it gives me lines and numbers across the screen. So I can still recover files and what not, but general use would really suck. What happened was...I was pasting hs's onto the ram, using ASIII adhiesive. I was so getty about gettin it done I rushed the application and did a sloppy job. It a little to close to the edges and it appeared some may have touched the pins. I took three off, the forth looked ok. Upon further examination it wasn't, that was after the ASIII cured. 15 min later of pulling and prying, it popped off, and there went the chip. I don't think I can get that fixed, but if I can let me know.

But know the real question. What should be my next card??? I will never buy ATI. And that reason is one of my friends loves ATI, but is deemed a "village idiot" in our circle of friends for other reasons, and will not allow him to say I told you so by buying ATI. This card will be purchased any time between soon, more likely after christmas, and never, depending on money, which is an issue, no NV30 for me. I'm looking at Ti4200's again. The only thing I really care about is overclockability. I'm thinking the Albatron turbo, oh and I want 128mb memory, I like the blue PCB too. Also how close is NV30 to market? should I wait a month or two and look for a big price drop or just wait til I get the money and just buy. I also think 8xAGP is a joke and waste of my time and money so I don't need that. So if could get any other suggestions as to a very well overclockering card. Now I have to go peel my cooljag off the corpse of my dead gainward. :cry:
I feel your pain :( I did something very similar to my 4200 except I tore my GPU off when trying to take off the cooljag to reposition it :(
I think I'll be looking into a 9500pro...when are these supposed to be out?

[T'wolves]

Sounds like they should be out soon, can already order from a few sites, but they don't have them yet to ship I guess. But I'm going to order mine after christmas, even if I have the money, see if I can't get the prices to drop after christmas a little. I would guess they are going to stay up as long they can for cristmas with the whole gift giving rush here.

[RCtruckguy]

maby some one will, hopefully.

thanks for the offer, maby we could put up a sticky, ppl with dead non-RMAable cards post here or something...~RCTG