:sad: I think I killed my 8800gtx - is it fragile?

Well, I pulled my rig apart to put in my TT Big Typhoon, and while I had my 8800gtx out of the case, I thought I'd tighten the screws holding the stock cooler on. They looked like they were sticking up about 2mm each, and I haven't been too pleased with the performance of my stock cooler.

I bought it used here and I know the stock cooler had been removed, then reapplied when I bought it, so I thought maybe it just hadn't been tightened enough. I figured I might be able to get load temps down a few more degrees if I tightened it up well. I cinched 'em down a good bit, and they looked like there was less distance now between the screw head and the board... but when I fired my machine back up, my monitor acts like it's not getting any signal.

Does anyone know anything about this? I'm PRAYING that I didn't crack the GPU and maybe there's some sensor for too much pressure and it just is preventing it from powering up... maybe someone else has been through this? If I back the screws off (which I'm going to try in a little bit), maybe it'll fire back up... any guesses? I know, I know, wait and see... just wondering if anyone has had anything like this happen before.

If it's not going to work after loosening them back up, I guess my Visa is going to get a new video card charged on it later tonight. Suggestions? I'm running a 24" LCD and want really really good performance, but can't afford another $300+ video card.

Shoot.

<sigh>

8800GTS 512MB or wait another 4 days and get a 9800GTX. Both are good choices. As for your card, I know you didn't want this response, but just loosen the screws and see. Good luck!

Ok, this is really weird....

I've pulled my 8800gtx, swapped in a PCI cheapie I had laying around... no signal to the monitor.

Swapped out my LCD.... still no signal.

Swapped out my RAM... nothing.

This whole thing was so I could put in my Big Typhoon... is it possible I overtweaked my motherboard tightening it up? I'd prolly have rather killed the MB than anything, especially my Q6600 or my 8800gtx.

Fans are lighting up and running, but I see no lights on the motherboard, no HDD seek light.

If it was a dead CPU, I'd get an error on POST, right? Bad PSU, it just wouldn't fire... Bad RAM, error on POST...

OK, not sure what to do now to check it out... guess I could stop by TigerDirect tomorrow and pick up a new MB to test that theory out... not sure what else it could be than the MB at this point, right?

No PC speaker connected to the board?

That will give you the beep error codes, if it's posting that is.

get a PSU tester

I had taken my 8800GTS out to clear the dust off. I blasted it a few times with a can of air. Used an old toothbrush to get the fan cleaned and that was it. Installed it back, fire up the pc and no monitor signal. Yet the pc booted right up with normal single beep .

I shut it down, unplug it and clear cmos for a few minutes. Put evrything back and power on, bingo problem solved. Don't understand why I got that scare, but clearing the cmos fixed it. Maybe clearing the cmos will help you out.

Nebulous said:

I shut it down, unplug it and clear cmos for a few minutes. Put evrything back and power on, bingo problem solved. Don't understand why I got that scare, but clearing the cmos fixed it. Maybe clearing the cmos will help you out.

Click to expand...

^ I second a clear CMOS. That's what I was going to post. Remember to turn off the PSU switch and pull the battery as well, do that for 5 minutes, if it doesn't work after a few minutes try a longer time.

btw aside from a static discharge I highly doubt you could kill an 8800GTX, especially using the stock heatsink. The core is covered by a heatspreader and the rest of the chips that interface with the heatsink use very pliable TIM/mesh stuff. Unless one of the chips died from heat or static I bet the card is fine. Did you turn off the PSU when doing the swap?

Welp, I got it fixed.

I was getting no POST, so I figured, it can't be RAM, can't be CPU, and with trying 2 sep video cards, prolly wasn't that. I also noticed it didn't appear to be trying to boot. I assumed it was prolly a dead MB, since I had put on my ThermalTake Big Typhoon, and had tightened it down a whole bunch... I figured prolly TOO much.

Sooooo I went out and bought an XFX 680iLT SLI motherboard... as I was pulling my old one out, I noticed it was significantly BOWED from where I had tightened the cooler. DANGIT! I just knew I killed it, but I loosened it up a bit, then decided to try it out anyways... and guess what?!@?!! IT WORKED! I'm running right now, good as new, on my old MB... I had bowed it to the point it wouldn't boot, and now it's back in business! Apparently there was no real damage.

So now I get to take this $160 XFX MB back to TigerDirect later in the week.

Yay!

Thanks for the help, folks!

Cool! Glad you got it fixed

Sweet im glad you got it fixed..lol i had the similar problem a few days ago.I did a suicide run on my system and when i shut down(everythingseemed fine at the time)my system would not reboot.I had same symptoms you had.Finally clearing the cmos did the trick

I am just surprised my motherboard wasn't D-E-D dead, considering how much I had the thing tweaked... morons FTL! lol

Anyways, I lived, learned, and it didn't even cost me anything... well, after I return this 680i, anyways.

Cooler backplates FTW.

largon said:

Cooler backplates FTW.

Click to expand...

Eh? Not sure what this means....

Backplates tend to keep the mobo from flexing as much if at all. What's sad about this is that the stock Intel push-pin design flexes motherboards quite a bit.

doesn't your cooler have a backplate?
it goes on the back side of the motherboard

wait i had a problem with that once with an older card X1950XTX, i was messing about with the coolers little fan connector thing on the actual card and when i put it back in the screen would show no signal, after about a week a tried to fix it and then eventualy a found out that the 4Pin connector cable had fried, try a new cable. lol

Yeah my Big Typhoon has a backplate... I was using that, but I had the thing cinched down TOO much apparently, and the board was still flexing heavily. That's all... I'm glad I didn't kill it, but it is still working.

YAY for Gigabyte!

Glad you got it working again. The whole no backplate thing on the Socket 775 mobos really annoys me, even with a stock cooler the boards bend a lot. Where is the logic in it?