Uh-oh. In deep doodoo. Need advice.

[raddygast]

Haha, trying to make sure I was getting a vmem reading right my hand slipped. I had the multimeter ground on the screw holding the radeon 8500LE in place, and I don't know what the positive lead ended up hitting (it was some part on the radeon). Suddenly there was a white flash (not sure if it was on the card, or my peripheral vision showing the monitor). The monitor went white, and subsequent booting shows totally corrupted flashy textures and such.

The card is basically dead. Maybe a bios flash would help it I don't know and frankly don't care because luckily I'm in my 30 day return period! Plus I paid 30 bucks extra for a 3 year no questions asked over the counter exchange warranty at Future Shop. THANK GOD FOR THAT.

What I'm wondering is is it possible to mess up your motherboard AND CPU and mem and stuff by shorting something on the AGP card itself? Or is it just going to blow out the card. Reason I ask is because I have no backup card to test my system.

It boots fine but seems not to go into windows right away like normal... there is a 30 second delay or so which is weird. Maybe somehow the CMOS got cleared and it's searching for a cdrom or something. It's scaring me. Booting from a floppy makes the normal sounds though, so I have hope that things are ok minus the card.

Gonna get a replacement but was wondering if it was feasible to worry that I fried my motherboard/cpu/memory? I doubt it but it's a bit scary. The rest of the parts are not warranted because I bought them from computer stores.

This has taught me one thing: when taking readings with the power on, make sure you have the best angle of entry into the case, because if you slip even a bit, you can cause some nasty stuff.

 

[Maxvla]

Plus I paid 30 bucks extra for a 3 year no questions asked over the counter exchange warranty at Future Shop. THANK GOD FOR THAT.

time to use that warranty i probably wouldn't have bought.
good thing you did though. that card is dead.

 

[Silversinksam]

You sure are lucky you bought that warranty

I'm not trying to rain on your already unfortunate situation, but cross your fingers that the AGP slot itself is still in good condition.

I'll find a troll offsite and sacrifice him and maybe by appeasing the Overclocking Gods, only the Video card went bad.

 

[slim_lim]

I think it's pretty unlikey you fried anything except your card, so just exchange it ansd you'll be fine. Hehe, I once dropped a heatsink on a powered up mobo. There was lots of sparks, but amazingly everything still worked afterwards.

 

[eXtraktor]

Plus I paid 30 bucks extra for a 3 year no questions asked over the counter exchange warranty at Future Shop. THANK GOD FOR THAT.

Indeed! I buy that warranty on every piece of hardware i bought at FutureShop (hard drives, video card, router, cd-rw) It comes in handy when your HD dies, just return it and get another one

 

[CyberFed]

Waranty = good
if the AGP did get nuked u can probably RMA the mobo god i love returning products and getting new ones free wooo

 

[GoldenTiger]

It's possible you could have damaged the AGP slot, but highly unlikely unless you managed to significantly damage the voltage regulators on the card.

This is why I always buy products with warranties nowadays...

 

[Maxvla]

Waranty = good
if the AGP did get nuked u can probably RMA the mobo god i love returning products and getting new ones free wooo

it is wrong to RMA parts you have damaged. a no questions asked warranty is completely different. you paid for replacement with the warranty. the motherboard, if damaged, should not be RMA'd. please take responsibility for your actions. do not rip off a company for a board you damaged. RMA is only for manufacturers defects or missing parts or wrong products shipped not for overclocking experiments gone bad.

that is all.

Maxvla

 

[Haagen]

I've rma'ed some things I've broken...but then again I'm poor so I really don't have a choice short of begging my parents for more money, lmao. :/

 

[Maxvla]

I've rma'ed some things I've broken...but then again I'm poor so I really don't have a choice short of begging my parents for more money, lmao. :/

if you can't afford to play the risk game you shouldn't be playing.

all overclockers should be able to replace a given component at all times.

my thoughts.

 

[eXtraktor]

if you can't afford to play the risk game you shouldn't be playing.

all overclockers should be able to replace a given component at all times.

my thoughts.

I have to agree here, when you overclock a component, its your problem if it breaks, not the company's fault. Try it if you want but if they find out you broke it, they might not want to replace it.

 

[raddygast]

Keep in mind here, I have no idea yet if there was any damage. I doubt it, and hope not.

Have to say you've surprised me maxvla. From your avatar I was sure you were a teenager or some really young kid. You may still be, but you're acting awful grown-up here.

 

[Maxvla]

Keep in mind here, I have no idea yet if there was any damage. I doubt it, and hope not.

Have to say you've surprised me maxvla. From your avatar I was sure you were a teenager or some really young kid. You may still be, but you're acting awful grown-up here.

i'm 20 what does that make me?

also... i've been a moderator on several sites so its kinda made me a better poster.

 

[Haagen]

Actually, things don't break because I overclock them. They break because I'm clumsy (i.e. cracking cpus, breaking off voltage capictors etc) lol

 

[sundaythedog]

it is wrong to RMA parts you have damaged. a no questions asked warranty is completely different. you paid for replacement with the warranty. the motherboard, if damaged, should not be RMA'd. please take responsibility for your actions. do not rip off a company for a board you damaged. RMA is only for manufacturers defects or missing parts or wrong products shipped not for overclocking experiments gone bad.

that is all.

Maxvla

Well said. I only RMA parts that I've broken if I've got a particularly large crack deal going down and I can't afford a new part.






Just kidding incase anybody thought I was serious. I agree with, Maxvla

 

[rivercom9]

Thats a great example of integrity maxvla. Wish more people were like that.

 

[slim_lim]

If your part comes with a manufacturer's replacement warranty, I don't thinks it's wrong to use it. Not unless you break stuff on purpose.

 

[raddygast]

It's sort of a gray area, isn't it?

Like take for example a laptop. Say the screen goes dead because you banged it while carrying it, but there are no visible scratches or dents and the screen isn't cracked. You can get it fixed under manufacturer's warranty, and somehow justify it to yourself hazily by thinking that the product was not defective but wasn't really robust enough to survive that kind of a knock.

Buying accident insurance is altogether different, though.

Now let's say a joystick. Or keyboard. Or mouse. Say they get borked after a good few years of hard gaming. Do you take it back or send it back saying the product was defective, even though you know they died because of over-use? I definitely would, because in my view they should last forever. Of course they won't.... but as long as they're within the warranty period I'd expect a replacement.

Now, what I did was different. I was deliberately screwing around inside the case. If I didn't purchase the extended warranty on the video card I'd feel a bit guilty about exchanging it. BUT... if it turns out the motherboard is damaged, I think it's a different story. I don't understand the circuitry here and all the current-limiting voltage-regulating characteristics, but I should hope that a motherboard would be able to withstand a CARD failure. If it can't, then either I'm stupid and don't understand the devices well enough, or it really isn't that ROBUST.

Say the short happened by accident. I've heard of cases of paint chipping or bits of rough metal on the edges of cases chipping off and falling onto components, shorting them out. In a case like that if there were damage I would definitely use RMA.

My case obviously is different, but I don't think it's as black and white as you suggest.

Now, maxvla, if I were actually soldering something onto the motherboard and screwed up, or messing around on a card and slipped and shorted the MOTHERBOARD or messed up its socket trying to do a wire pin mod, then I would accept that totally as my fault.