2x6600GTs BLOWN.. help me find out what it was...

figures. i just get my 2 6600GTs from someone here on OCF and within 10 minutes their toast...
Here goes:

Get 2 6600GTs with SLI connector.
Uninstall my x300se from my SLI-DR
switch all the jumpers to SLI mode on the mobo, plug both adapters in with the sli adapter, power system on..

loads windows fine, i download the latest drivers, install them, restart, run 3DMARK05 fine, but get a pretty low score, i say "what?" maybe the sli connector is loose or something.

power off my pc, check the sli connector, On all the way, not loose., OK, so maybe it wasnt reading my other card... power on the pc again, loads windows, then i get a little popup saying SLI has been disabled cause the second card was removed, WHAT? their both in there!

so then i decide to run 3Dmark 05 again maybe ill get the same score and that means that it didnt recognize the first card the first time i ran it...bad idea....

so i start 3dmark, demo version all that junk... i click run 3dmark...a few seconds...black screen still...a few more seconds....BANG... that all-so familiar pop..i fly across the table to switch off the pc....

i notice that also so familiar smoky smell from the motherboard area.. im saying to myself, great there goes one of my cards...

about 5 minutes later, i plug my pc back in, hoping that it will boot....
power button pushed......nothing for 5 seconds or so then a long beep and two short ones....

ok, maybe one got fried somehow? so i switch them around.. still no boot and the same beeps..
so then i move all the jumpers back to single mode... test each one.... no video, only beeps from BOTH cards....

Plug my dinky 300se in again, and it boots like normal....

What happened?????
anyone have a clue????

Dam that sux! Can you see what blew on the cards?
I ran 2 6600GTs for over a year with no problems and it sounds like you did things correct.

Was there any overclocking or overvolting? What sort of PSU are you running?

they were both totally stock, no OCing or overvolting. I cannot see any burn marks or anything though. I am running a TruePower 430W with 26A on the 12V line.

What brand are the 6600s? BFG, maybe EVGA?

Did you remove the HSF to apply AS5? Are you sure there was no metallic contact which shorted out your card? What PSU are you using? Please post pics of the blown cards. If its just the caps, then you may be in luck as recapping the card should be doable.

i dont believe the caps are blown, i will have to look, i am running a truepower 430w with 26a on 12V. they both are gigabyte. what shocks me is that they were running up until i tried to run 3dmark... oh and no i didnt remove the heatsinks...

could it have been my lanparty that killed them? it was having some unrelated memory problems( not letting me boot, unless i put them in the yellow slots and disabling CPC, it would blue screen every time i would load windows.)

hard to type on this little handheld, but I had my XFX 6600gt do Exactly the same thing. Let me guess, it blew one of the little regulator chips?

not overclocked, overvolted at all. perfectly acceptable temps, just completley stopped playing battlefield 2 and shut down, I tried to start up again and then got the beeps

anyone have a clue?

dunno..sounds like a psu issue
id rma the cards forsure since u didnt do anything to em and up the PSU

edit:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=930&page=8

yeah..i would guess it was the psu
your lucky nothing else got killed!

Did you remove the Ati drivers before booting with the Nvidia cards?

dan

So both cards are knackered? Damn man that really blows.. I I have no idea what could have gone wrong.

Dan0512 said:

Did you remove the Ati drivers before booting with the Nvidia cards?

dan

Click to expand...

Yep, i totally uninstalled the drivers before using them.

flamerail said:

So both cards are knackered? Damn man that really blows.. I I have no idea what could have gone wrong.

Click to expand...

Yep, i guess ill be looking for a new PSU. looks like i found a neo480w for cheap..

I think the neo480w will work well for you, I had one running the system in sig with 2 6600s for over a year.
So whats going to happen to the two blown cards, if you have no need for them I would like to have a look at them.

hotrod469 said:

I think the neo480w will work well for you, I had one running the system in sig with 2 6600s for over a year.
So whats going to happen to the two blown cards, if you have no need for them I would like to have a look at them.

Click to expand...

I will probably see if theres anything i can do to fix them, possibly rma them because i did not do anything to them, no ocing or anything. i had a neo480 once i liked it also, but at the time, it was too much for me.

They possibly had bad caps. Did you see any bulged caps on any of the video cards?

RJARRRPCGP said:

They possibly had bad caps. Did you see any bulged caps on any of the video cards?

Click to expand...

honestly, i know what radial bad caps look like, but i cannot really tell if surface mount ones are bad. Maybe ill have to get a pic.

If it it's one of the aluminum caps, you won't be able to see any bulging, or even any burning. When those go, it's all internal.

Am I right in assuming you have tested the mobo since the blowout? and the CPU, PSU and so on etc?

If not then check them cause the cards might not be blown and it might be somethign else.

Always the case I find when you buy hardware privately instead of from a retailer. If anythign is going to blow on you its going to be the stuff you bought privately lol so you have to chance of getting any help or refund back

Makes me think though, perhaps I wont try 600GT's on sly after all, and just go for somethign else.

007

well, now i am having stability issues, at stock, my system will randomly restart. I will upgrade the PSU and retest everything.