9800 pro problems

[rebelwarlock]

today i replaced my stock cooler with an ati silencer 1 because i was starting to get artifacts during gaming. when i tested it just now, everything went fine for about 15 minutes. then the monitor went into off mode, but the computer stayed on. that makes me think the video card drivers must have crashed. i thought for sure that i installed the cooler just like the instructions said to. one of the screws was a little tight going in, but i didn't think that was a problem. also, the thermal paste was already on the cooler and i just used that instead of putting on as5. what could be wrong here?

[rebelwarlock]

bump

[chevro1et]

What is it doing now? (ie. after reboot)?

[rebelwarlock]

my gf tried it over the weekend and said it seemed ok even after an hour of gaming, but today i played for about half an hour and it started artifacting. i'm thinking that maybe it's just because of the thermal paste breaking in, but i'm not sure. could it have been improper mounting of the new heatsink?

[chevro1et]

I would say pull the heatsink off and inspect the core... you may have damaged it. Alternatively, you may have installed the cooler incorrectly, and re-seating it may have positive results.

[rebelwarlock]

i think i found the problem when i was trying to reseat it. one of the round cylinders that the screw goes into was clogged with something and the screw couldn't tighten all the way. since the impression left on the paste wasn't even, i'm almost certain i mounted it improperly the first time. before discovering this i mounted it, booted, and tried to reply to this post. as i was typing, my computer rebooted. i immediately shut it down and checked the video card again. that's when i noticed what was happening with the screws. i managed to get most of the dust out, enough so that the screw could tighten all the way down. hopefully i mounted the heatsink properly this time. is there anything else i should watch out for?

[chevro1et]

Good work on determining that the mounting was insufficient. I would say that now, if you are confident that it is mounted proper, and the heatsink is free of dust, just push it hard (ie. gaming/ rthdribl/ 3DMark/ etc) and see how it holds up.

[rebelwarlock]

this is really getting on my nerves. it isn't crashing now, but it's artifacting again. i'm convinced that i don't know how to mount it properly. the way the heatsink is constructed (with a raised square that should rest perfectly on the core), it's very easy to lean it in one direction. also, i can't feel air coming from the vent even though i can see the fan moving. my gf says she can, but i thought it would be stronger than that. is there any sure fire way to mount the heatsink properly?

[chevro1et]

When I mounted a silencer on my old 9800pro, I did use a screwdriver to tighten everything down, but use some common sense/ judgement on just how tight to tighten the screws. As for airflow, use a feather or something to check... it is not that strong. Just read and follow the installation instructions... it is not too complicated, but I feel for ya. That card may just be ending its life cycle....

[rebelwarlock]

i remounted, again, and discovered that i hadn't gotten all the dust out of that one mount. i cleaned it out and made sure the screw could thread cleanly this time. when i remounted, i just made the screws snug instead of as tight as possible. the card is two years old. what is the normal life expectancy of this type of card?

EDIT: i just checked my newegg order history. it's actually not quite two years old, but it will be in a couple of weeks.

[rebelwarlock]

ok, it artifacted after 10 minutes of csi: three dimensions of murder. i'm starting to give up on this card

[BossBorot]

As a last ditch effort you can zip tie both sides of the heatsink vertically around the whole card. This should keep it snugly connected with full core contact if you do it right.
If you dont know what I mean I made an image in the beloved mspaint in like 1 min.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4053/untitledke7.png (http://imageshack.us)

Note: This general idea should work on the silencer 1 as well but my pic shows the standard pro heatsink as it would take longer to make a distinguishable pic in paint of the silencer 1.

If that doesnt work you prob cracked your core :bang head or burned the **** out of it :mad:

[rebelwarlock]

i'll try that tomorrow. is it possible to crack the core without having any visible signs of damage? is it possible to fry it without being able to see or smell any damage? because it seems like it should be fine.

[BossBorot]

i'll try that tomorrow. is it possible to crack the core without having any visible signs of damage? is it possible to fry it without being able to see or smell any damage? because it seems like it should be fine.

yes to the cracking, I have a friend who cracked his MSI 9800pro on the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Rev. 3 VGA Cooler by screwing it down to much. I have the card myself as he just gave it away, with the cooler, because it was of no use to him. I now use the heatsink on a 9600 I have on a secondary comp. The core on the 9800pro shows no damage and can play games but with crazy lines everywere making the game nonplayable. I still have the card as it is good for laughs.

This is prob what happened as the weight was prob not evenly distributed.

[corpsejockey]

Did you remove the shim from the gpu (if there was one on the chip)? I have had to remove the metal square shim from every ati gpu I have ever owned to get after market cooling seated properly. Otherwise, the card may be fubarred.

[rebelwarlock]

there was no shim, the core was exposed. there was a metal square border going around the chip, but that never made contact with the heatsink. i'm not convinced that the video card was damaged during the mounting of the new heatsink, since it was artifacting before then (hence why i got the new heatsink). i followed the instructions that came with the cooler, which said to tighten it down as much as possible, so that could have easily damaged the chip right there.