Nope, Geforce2 mx still broke

Well, I tried to put a blue orb on my GeForce 2 mx 64mb 400 card, and to my suprize when I try to boot my computer I get a "garbled screen".
In my last thred it was sugested to me that the GPU was overheating, so I riped off the blorb, threw it at the wall, cursed thermaltake, and put the orgional stock HSF back on. Still I get a garbled screen. What's wrong?
I still suspect that the HSF isn't fully touching the GPU, because when I took it apart I noticed that the GPU was slightly concave, with a dip in the center, and that the HSF didn't touch the center unless I pushed down on it real REAL hard. Should I try to lap the HSF and GPU ? How far can I go before I totaly ruin the GPU? I need help, bad, I love card.

Thermaltake I hope your listening....You had better watch your back....and don't sleep at night. I'm mad...again. I will never buy thermaltake products ever again.

I guess relapping can't hurt at this point since it sounds like you might be SOL.

Maybe a geforce 3 is on the near horizon for you... BTW, mine comes tomorrow ; )

LMAO Geforce 3 is still out of my price range. I would have to sell the farm. I'v been looking at Geforce2 GTS/PRO 's on ebay for $139 I'll probably end up with one of those. Then If I fix my card I got now I can swap it for my voodoo 3 that's in my other quake3 box. Then I'll have two nice cards for quake3 partys at my house !! I see a Geforce 3 in my future, just can't afford it right now. Still waiting form them to go sub 300 then I'll get one. Tanks for the advice.

How far can I lap my GPU before I have to stop?
IE: the top is painted black, what's under that? A copper top or is the actual chip die under there? I guess what i'm asking is what color should I sand down to ?

zoopa_man (Jul 18, 2001 09:26 a.m.):
LMAO Geforce 3 is still out of my price range. I would have to sell the farm. I'v been looking at Geforce2 GTS/PRO 's on ebay for $139 I'll probably end up with one of those. Then If I fix my card I got now I can swap it for my voodoo 3 that's in my other quake3 box. Then I'll have two nice cards for quake3 partys at my house !! I see a Geforce 3 in my future, just can't afford it right now. Still waiting form them to go sub 300 then I'll get one. Tanks for the advice.

How far can I lap my GPU before I have to stop?
IE: the top is painted black, what's under that? A copper top or is the actual chip die under there? I guess what i'm asking is what color should I sand down to ?

Click to expand...

Well, if you have to, the Pro cards are pretty sweet.

As for lapping, I have never done it. But the chip design isn't that good, so lapping the GPU takes some guts and some very very finely grained sand paper. I'd focus more on the heatsink, but at this point you may have already caused the damage to the chip. Have at it, you really have nothing to lose at this point.

I'm prity sure that the GPU is concave, Maybe If I sand down the sides of the heat sink and leave the middle alone I can get the heatsink to become slightly convex to match the convace GPU. If I measure every so often maybe I can get it close ? I'm desprate here, I'm running on my voodoo 3 card right now and have found out that once you go forward ther's no turning back. hehehe Thanks for the help, i'll bring my chip into work this afternoon and mess arround with it again. This is it's last chance before it becomes a key chain on my back pack. Wish me luck.

Problem Found

I brought my card to work with me to do some more lapping and inspecting. I managed to get the heat sink off again, cleaned her up and took a good long look at the card with a magnifying glass. What I was looking for were any marks form when I pryed the HSF off the first time. %#$^# I found one small "dent" in the card where I broke two of the leads running form a ram chip to the gpu. You can see on the card where the two leads stop and then start again, looks like I must have hit them with the knife while prying up on the HSF. dang it.

Is there any way to fix this or am I up a creek ? Radio shack has those pencil things you use to connect leads, could I try that ? Or would a dab of solder work ? Has anyone had any luck fixing broken leads ? I'd hate to buy a new card but it looks like that's my only choice...any ideas are greatly appreciated.

I have heard of some people fixing their boards that way. The pen must run 5-10 bucks. Not a bad way to find out.

Good call looking for breaks, that would explain your problem now that you got me thinking... I actually would never have though of that! Thanks, I learned something today.

Glad someone besides me learned something here.

If it dosn't turn into a molten pile of lava, leave it alone.

Thermaltake is actualy a highly organized clan of gremlins out to take you for all the money you got.

Once you get a better video card there's no going back.

Always look for the unobvious. Anything IS possible with computers. It's amazin they work in the first place.

The bigges thing I'v learned.....Overclockers.com is a life saver. There is so much information here, I love you guys and gals. I would be punching holes in my walls if it wern't for this place. THANK YOU

You're brownnosing again ... I'm the controversial one, I should be kissing up .

You taught me today, that's how this works.

I'll teach you when I send my gremlins from my computer over to your computer to steel that new Geforce 3. ??? ??? ??? ???

Go get it boys....(wizard of OZ music plays, Wicked witch theme) Dum Da Dum Da Dum Dum


No prob man, I guess that's what this form is for. Let the pioneers share there expierences, and let the followers $#^* It up and add to the wealth of knolage.

No off gremlins...bring me back something shiny and FAST

I still would like to know why your damning the Blorb??? OR is it just ThermalTake in general? Remember, YOU broke your card, and no one MADE you pay for a new HSF! LOL
AKDUDE