Well I screwed up /sob

[MitchV]

I've been playing World Of Warcraft -- great game but it makes my machine run HOT! I've got an Athlon 64 (754) setup and my motherboard has an AGP slot. My video card has been an ATI 9800 pro (made by ATI R350 core, etc).

While noticing my fans kick into overdrive I thought to myself "I bet one of those arctic coolers would help keep the air in my case cooler" so I picked one up from NewEgg.

The cooler arrived today and I promptly set out to install the new Heatsink on my video card. Everything went great, I set my rig back up, started into windows and... had artifacts on the Windows XP screen!!! UGGGGgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... this was not a good sign.

Suprisingly, the 32bit desktop display appears normal. However, when I go into the game things are completely hosed and it's unplayable. I tested directX and found that running anything with DirectX is having problems.

I've had zero problems ever since I got my RAM issues figured out. No new software... somewhere along the way, I must have hosed my video card. I don't think I tightened the heatsink too tightly... I really don't know WHAT happened.

The sad thing is that right now I'm *really* on a budget trying to save for a new house. This 9800 was supposed to hold me for a while. At the same time... I GOTTA PLAY MY GAME!

My understanding is that an nVidia 6600 GT >= ATI 9800 Pro these days, and may be cheaper. Would this be a suitable replacement? Does anyone have any recommendations outside of this? I was really hoping to get by for $150, but it appears I'm going to have to shell out $200 for a new/decent card.

WHERE ARE ALL THE NEXT-GEN CARDS?!?!?! I haven't watched hardware much lately and after looking around, I've come to the conclusion that X800's and 6800's are nearly as difficult to find as they were months and months ago. Prices haven't dropped much either :(

I hate spending money on another AGP card. This sucks.

Thanks in advance!

[ati]

did you try to reseat the heatsink?

[Yuriman]

I have a radeon 9100 in my 2nd rig, and until I got my x700pro, WoW ran at 1024 with max settings ~40fps. It is pretty much a resold radeon 8500(not a crippled 9000/9200), and I picked it up for $40 about a year ago. If you can find one, it can hold you over for a little while.

[AZNBoiOnFIYA]

you can always get a refurb 9800pro or 9600xt at newegg for around $100

[MitchV]

Thanks for the thoughts guys...

I did try to reseat the heatsink -- no dice. I still get the artifacts. I'm guessing that maybe I scraped something when I removed the heatsink. I really don't know what could have happened, I tried to be very careful.

I checked the refurbs on NewEgg and the best deal for a 9800 Pro seemed to be a Sapphire for $155... which would save me $50 off the retail-lite version.

Interestingly enough, I installed my old TI4400 until I get this sorted out. It runs the game MUCH better than I expected. In fact, I may use it for a week or so to see if it even bothers me.

When I was playing Farcry, the move from a TI4400 to 9800Pro was huge. The move with WoW isn't so noticable.

[Overclocker550]

did you use any arctic silver? a tiny spec coulda gotten on a trace and shorten something :( You could try removing everything and cleaning the core very well, remove every trace and place stock cooling back on and see if this fixes it. Ah well I see you have a backup ti4400, that will do fine for a while till you make your move to pci-e or something. If you must have a dx9 card, you could look to ebay for perhaps a 9700np for $100

[Westline]

Make sure that when you Reseat your heatsink its nice and snug. The screws should be really tight against the chip. It seems like your going to "Break" it but I have found out my temps are ultra high if I don't have the heatsink on the card nice and tight. If that still doesn't work, just try sending the card (with the stock heatsink on of course) back to ATI or Sapphire or who ever you got your card form and just see if its fixable or you can RMA it for a new one.


Overclocker550- Arctic Silver does NOT conduct electricity.

And the 6600GT would be a worth while investment and it would be an upgrade from your 9800 pro.

[MitchV]

Make sure that when you Reseat your heatsink its nice and snug. The screws should be really tight against the chip. It seems like your going to "Break" it but I have found out my temps are ultra high if I don't have the heatsink on the card nice and tight. If that still doesn't work, just try sending the card (with the stock heatsink on of course) back to ATI or Sapphire or who ever you got your card form and just see if its fixable or you can RMA it for a new one.


Overclocker550- Arctic Silver does NOT conduct electricity.

And the 6600GT would be a worth while investment and it would be an upgrade from your 9800 pro.

Yeah, I think I'd pick up a 6600 before getting another 9800 Pro. Not a knock on the 9800 Pro... it's been a really good card. 6600's appear to perform as well or better and they're priced a little lower.

The first thing I did after realizing I had a problem was remove the card and heatsink. I looked VERY closely for any damage I might have caused and couldn't find anything. I wiped everything down with alcohol to make sure it was all clean.

After reseating the heatsink and trying everything again, I still got the artifacts :(

Both times that I installed the heatsink I made sure that it was flush against the core. I had heard of people having problems before. I held the card and heatsink in front of a light and made sure everything was snug.


I'm going to put the old heatsink back on and test it one more time. My guess is that I scratched a trace somewhere... even though I tried to be gentle.

Oh well.

Tks again.

[bobmanfoo]

AS5 does conduct electricity, try wiping it all over your cpu or gpu resistor and see what happens, i got it on my barton and it refused to boot until i cleaned it off

[Z YA LTR]

Im pretty sure as5 is non conductive but as3 is conductive.

--Josh

[bobmanfoo]

Im pretty sure as5 is non conductive but as3 is conductive.

--Josh
yes, i know its not 'supposed to be conductive', but it has caused trouble for me a few times :-/

EDIT: ok just found this on their site, its not conductive but:

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)

[Jacobman]

I just built a system with a xfx6600gt and that card screamed, way worth getting. Although everyone says that card is better than my 9800xt, my beat it out in every game fps test i did, oh well.

[Madmike2]

The 6600gt is about half again as quick as the 9800 pro that i fried. Worthwhile investment till next christmas when dual cores start showing up for pci-e BTX. Screw the house build faster PC and hook it up to a nice 50 Samsung Pedestal DLP 3 chip projection TV ....

[Silversinksam]

Overclocker550- Arctic Silver does NOT conduct electricity.



I hate to tell you this but your mistaken, Arctic Silver 1, 3 and Arctic Silver 5 is capacitive and can cause damage if you get it on any memory trace pins.


Ceramique and Alumina adhesive is not capacitive.

[Overclocker550]

isnt the 6600gt about as fast as the 9800xt in dx9 and a little slower in dx8?