What is wrong with my Vid Card???

[DaddyB]

I have had my AIW Radeon 8500dv 64Mb for about 3 months now and have had it overclocked to 285/410 from the default speed 230/380. The RAM is only 5ns so its only rated for 400mhz (ddr) but I dont think 410mhz should be that much of a stretch for it. I have added a Corb and some RAMsinks along with an 80mm 35cfm fan to the ramsinks sucking air from the bottom of the case towards the top. The card has not been Vmodded and it has had the Corb and RAMsinks for a few weeks now. Please check out the pictures here so you can see what I am talking about with the 80mm fan.

Anyway the card had been running fine until last week when it started getting Crazy artifact type things all over the screen (see the image below, Ive never seen anything like this before)...at first only while gaming, then they would pop up even while the system was sitting there idle. So I lowered the clock speeds back to default and all was OK, then I OC'd the core back to 285 and it was still OK. Then I lowered the core to default and OC'd the ram back to 410 and boom, crazy checkerboard artifacts again. So I assume it must be a problem with the RAM.

Ever since then the core has been at 285 and the ram at 380 (default) and all was well (except that I wanted my RAM OC'd too) until today when the artifacts popped up while browsing these forums (with the RAM) at default clock speeds.

It cant be temps, since I actually had the case open when it happened today (after taking those pics) and ambient temps are lower today then they have been since I got my card.

So what is wrong?? could it be that the 80mm fan is causing some vibrations which are causing errors... i have rubber washers on the fan (see the pics at the link above). I used Artic Silver epoxy not Arctic Alumina but as I said the RAM sinks have been on there for a few weeks and the problem just started recently so I dont see how it could just start causing a problem now.

Any help is welcome... I plan on removing the 80mm fan (permanently) and remounting the ramsinks more carefully (tape the RAM connectors) as soon as I find some time cause I know I got a little AS epoxy on one of the RAM connectors and I know AS epoxy can be conductive (although I have tested it with an ohm meter and found it to be non conductive). But again I dont see how it would work fine for so long then start causing a problem now.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to cover all the bases... could it just be faulty RAM?

 

[DaddyB]

whoops forgot to attach the artifacted screenshot...

 

[o770]

do u think its possible the 80mm fan moved the ramsinks somehow so that they are no longer having good contact with the chips?
is there a way you can see that?

 

[MospeadasDark]

Underclock the card to..250/250 and see what happens.

 

[DaddyB]

From what I can see the RAMsinks seem OK but no ATi cards ship with RAMsinks (built by ATi that is, including mine) and I am running at the default memory speed (190, 380ddr) so heat shouldnt be an issue. It has only happened once at default RAM speed so far but I am affraid that since it just suddenly happened while OC'd and now it has just happened at default speed that it might happen all the time.

I had the core all the way down to the default (230) and didnt have a problem but the RAM cant be OC'd even 5mhz or it will artifact within 5 minutes of booting with the system just idling. Of course now it has happened at default RAM speed too. I put the core up to 295 and left the RAM at default speed to see if it still artifacted but it was ok, aside from a little stuttering which was probably from the core overheating (Corb doesnt do as well as I had hoped).

I can underclock the core and RAM but I am waiting to see if it happens at 285/190 again... Im sure it will since it happened once. I am affraid that the RAM is slowly dying on me but I dont see how such a small overclock could have hurt it (190 OCd to 205, 380ddr to 410ddr).

maybe I should pull the fan off and see if it still happens while the RAM is OC'd?

 

[o770]

strange thing is you got it running for a long time before any trouble.
what if heat made the epoxy more fluid so that some fell off between the ram pins? this wont explain why you get it running ok at the lower clock though.

 

[MospeadasDark]

Well, not to say I haven't said this a hundred times but videocards are a lot more sensitive to overclock. Some cards are built better than others and can take it longer before dying.

However, I think with the strong competition between ATi and nVidia have caused both to more or less rush out boards w/ "just enough" quality.

Take it for what you want. I'm starting to see a lot more cards artifact from overclocking after a few months recently though.

 

[DaddyB]

Thanks for the advice guys but I pulled the fan off the ramsinks and overclocked the RAM and it was artifacted as soon as I got into windows, so I pulled the ramsinks off and cleaned up the RAM with some acetone and now im running at 285/410 with no problems...I guess the longer the AS epoxy is on the more conductive it gets or something, must be more conductive at higher temps too since it always happened while overclocked.

sorry about wasting your time for my own stupidity... next time someone asks this question and says they used AS epoxy on the RAm just say "DONT USE AS EPOXY ON THE RAM YOU MORON THATS THE PROBLEM" J/K again thanks for the advice.

 

[o770]

go ahead with the mod.
actually i forgot to say that was a cool mod. if you just be more careful may you get things together again running just fine.