I am Awesome

[Strazos]

Rio Karma mp3 player - Dead; HDD failure.
ATI Radeon 9800PRO 256 - Dead; Main heatsink fan failure.


Yes, this has been a great day for me. 

And now my new video card will very likely actually be a downgrade.

(I actually had to go back up to school to use the public labs, because my mobo does not have integrated video)


EDIT: Maybe this should be in the adventure thread?

[WayAbvPar]

Spendy.

[Yegolev]

Random adventure thread, yes.  Although you have a tall order to post something more random than the shit that happens to me.

[Strazos]

Heh, unfortunately, I simply do not have the money to replace the mp3, so I'm SOL on the end.


But I was looking on Newegg, and came across what appeared to be replacement heatsink/fans for video cards. I didn't even know there were such things. Anyone have experience with using these, especially on a 9800Pro? Is it even possible to remove the HSF that's already on the card? If there is, I didn't see a way.

Simply replacing the HSF would naturally be preferrable to buying a whole new (and likely inferior) video card.

EDIT: I only ask because the card itself may not actually be dead. When I boot, I can still see the system POST and Windows does still try to load, but with a shitload of artifacts....I mean, WTF, the card is slightly less than 2 years old.

EDIT2: Also, in looking at the actual Newegg invoice, I seem to have purchased an Extended Warranty when I got the card, but I cannot actually see for how long that covers. Nevermind...I tried to perform some surgury on the card before I realized the fan was siezing up (I thought it was just making contect with the little cover for some reason

[geldonyetich]

My ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro had the same problem - one day it was artifact city, I'm thinking it overheated and burned itself out, or something.  Oddly enough, the fan was still spinning, but the damage was permanent - no matter how cool the card was, there'd still be garbage all over my screen. 

Yes, it was less than 2 years old, and that's why the 2 year warrenty was worth the purchase.  Since they didn't have any 9700's in stock anymore, CompUSA allowed me to replace the card with an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro - an upgrade!  Even though you've mucked around with the card a bit, you might want to neglect to mention that and try to make good on the Warrenty.  You paid for one, after all.

As for me, I didnt' try screwing around with my broken ATI card.  From the looks of things, they're all soldered on there, so that probably wouldn't do any good.

[Strazos]

Problem is that I'm not sure who to go to for the warranty. All my invoice says is that I have one - I don't even know how long it runs (prolly 1 year), or if it's even still good (what kind of warranty did brand new 9800's come with? Do I neccessarily need to have held on to the box or anything?)

[geldonyetich]

Well, in my case I bought the card from CompUSA and shelled out extra for an extended Warrenty with them.  When it came time to make good on the warrenty, they were able to look up in their system how long the warrenty was good for.  I don't know whether or not NewEgg is that organized.  No harm in giving NewEgg a call.  (At least, so long as you don't tell them that you've been fiddling with the card.)

What is it with stuff breaking lately?  Yesterday the serpentine belt broke on my car, and today the car I've been borrowing appears to have developed alternator problems.

[Morfiend]

Problem is that I'm not sure who to go to for the warranty. All my invoice says is that I have one - I don't even know how long it runs (prolly 1 year), or if it's even still good (what kind of warranty did brand new 9800's come with? Do I neccessarily need to have held on to the box or anything?)

My Nvidia card has a lifetime warranty. It recently died on me. No fuss, no hassle. Called the company (BFG I think, would have to look at home) They RMA'd it for me, and I had a brand new card a week leater. I remember when I bought the card, the warranty was a factor. Im glad I did now.

[Strazos]

UPDATE: Turns out that my judgement when buying stuff is still pretty good - My extended warranty was still valid, so I'll be sending out my card for RMA either today or tomarrow. Newegg didn't even give me shit when I told them I don't have the original retail packaging.


$269 card....and I'm sure as hell glad it's going to be replaced. Now I can rest easy for a bit. I suppose I'll just have to get by with reading for a couple of days.  :-D


So, let that be a lesson to all - Newegg still kicks all kinds of ass.

[Engels]

Make sure they don't send you a PCI-Express card in return.

[Flood]

Damn Straz.  You need to put a brick dust line around your rig and red tape over all your windows.

[Yegolev]

UPDATE: Turns out that my judgement when buying stuff is still pretty good - My extended warranty was still valid, so I'll be sending out my card for RMA either today or tomarrow. Newegg didn't even give me shit when I told them I don't have the original retail packaging.

This anecdote is exactly why I buy everything from newegg.com.  Best.  Service.  Ever.

[Sky]

Damn Straz.  You need to put a brick dust line around your rig and red tape over all your windows.

Leave the bodies by the water hole so the rest will see.
Hang spent bullet cases from fishing line outside
all the windows of your house.
Put up signs.
Please break in.
I would love the opportunity to kill you legally.

Does Henry Rollins count as song lyrics? :)

[Yegolev]

Does Henry Rollins count as song lyrics? :)

He should have a standing exception.

There is a chance that the reference was to the movie Skeleton Key.  Not a bad movie, but not Rollins.

[Sky]

Rollins on a Les Claypool disc, no less.

[Strazos]

Make sure they don't send you a PCI-Express card in return.

Yeah, I already thought of that. I would certainly hope they wouldn't bump me up to a PCIe card. They still sell nice AGP cards, so I imagine that is what I will get.

Also...I have Omega Drivers installed for the 9800. Site says they're good for....it seems Every ATI card. So, my question is - will I have to uninstall and reinstall the drivers, or will the drivers detect the different card (if I do in fact get a different card) and simply take care of things themselves?

[Engels]

If its the exact same model you don't need to uninstall anything. If its somehow a different model, ya, sure, uninstall and reinstall, just to be on the safe side. Sometimes it works, but othertimes you can have some wonky driver cross over issues.

[Strazos]

Rather than starting a new thread...

Well, Newegg finally got done with my RMA - They've accepted it, but one problem:

They no longer carry that exact card (duh), nor do they carry anything of the exact same spec.

So, what they are doing is refunding me the original purchase price ($269). Any suggestions on AGP cards (preferrebly ATI, but I cannot reasonably turn down a solid nVidia card) that go for about the same price? I'd like to keep it Under that price if possible, as I'd like to get another warranty. Also, I will at some point in the future be overhauling the system, so a top-of-the-line AGP card isn't a neccessity what with PCIe, though 256mb of onboard VRAM is.

[Sky]

I mentioned in another hardware thread that newegg has the X800XT AIW for $156. The nvidia topend AGP might be a better card (it is), but it's also twice as much or so.

Comments say it runs hot, though, so you might want to be wary (or aftermarket cool it or whatnot).

[WayAbvPar]

I have something very similar to this card and am very happy with it. I am an nVidia fanboy though, so YMMV.

[Strazos]

I mentioned in another hardware thread that newegg has the X800XT AIW for $156. The nvidia topend AGP might be a better card (it is), but it's also twice as much or so.

That AIW, does it run much differently than my old 9800PRO 256, or should I notice no performance difference? I ask only because the AIW has a bunch of other extraneous stuff on it that I will never, ever use. The $156 price point is enticing though - I could buy the card, a warranty, AND another 1GB (or half GB) stick of Corsair XMS RAM. Or I could instead get a new MP3 player.  

Comments say it runs hot, though, so you might want to be wary (or aftermarket cool it or whatnot).

The ATI or nVidia card? (Guessing the latter)


EDIT: Apparently it's the ATI that runs hot, though I don't think that will be an issue in my system anymore as I had moved my case out into the open air before the Vcard bearings died. That said, I'm taking a long, hard look at the AIW - the card appears to be an absolute monster. 16 pipelines, and the memory runs at 1000mhz. 

[Engels]

I have an AGP ATI x850 which shouldn't be that much different than the x800xt, and it doesn't run hotter than an nvidia card. Not sure where you got that info. Runs Oblivion solidly, and if I hadn't just had an insane urge to upgrade to a PCIe 7950, I would have been content with that ATI card for the foreseable future.

[Trippy]

Rather than starting a new thread...

Well, Newegg finally got done with my RMA - They've accepted it, but one problem:

They no longer carry that exact card (duh), nor do they carry anything of the exact same spec.

So, what they are doing is refunding me the original purchase price ($269). Any suggestions on AGP cards (preferrebly ATI, but I cannot reasonably turn down a solid nVidia card) that go for about the same price? I'd like to keep it Under that price if possible, as I'd like to get another warranty. Also, I will at some point in the future be overhauling the system, so a top-of-the-line AGP card isn't a neccessity what with PCIe, though 256mb of onboard VRAM is.

The fastest you can get from Newegg would be one of the NVIDIA 7800 GS cards since they don't sell the ATI X850XT PE anymore (the 7800 GS is still faster than that but you mentioned a preference for ATI).

The X800 XT is quite a bit faster than your 9800 Pro. The thing you give up not going to an NVIDIA 6 or 7 card is you don't get Shader Model 3.0 support -- you have to go to the ATI X1xxx line for that.

You can go to here and check off:

RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB
RADEON X850 XT PLATINUM EDITION AGP (ATI's fastest AGP card, not available at Newegg)
ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XT (Under Multimedia cards)

to compare the specs.

The Radeon drivers work the same as NVIDIA's in that they are "unified" so they will work with all the cards older than the release date of the driver, and possibly newer ones as well. I don't know, though if the Omega drivers attempt to do any sort of optimization during installation which would make them incompatible with other GPUs. The AIW cards are a bit different, though, in that they need an additional set of drivers to support the multimedia features of the card.

[Sky]

The AIW card is basically double my venerable 9800pro 256, from 8 pipes to 16, double the theoretical stuff. I'm having a hard time convincing myself to not nab one before they're gone. ATI is dropping the AIW line, that's why there's the huge price dump, I think. I wouldn't use any of the extraneous crap on it, but $150 to limp through the next 6 months on my old system before I build a nice Conroe hotrod is alluring.

I agree the nvidia card is the better solution, but it's also a lot more dough, if that's a concern. In my situation dumping a lot of money into an AGP card doesn't make sense.

Engels, the feedback on newegg overwhelming calls it a hot card. Might be different cooling on the AIW version, most recommend aftermarket cooling + ram heatspreaders.

[Engels]

I'm surprised, really. And I used to be skeptical about New Egg feedback, thinking that only those with bad experiences would post, while those content would not. Until I got burned on the purchase of the Asus MarsX cpu cooler. If I'd payed heed to their posts I would have stayed away from it.

[Strazos]

I went ahead and put in an order for the AIW....I just could not resist the specs for that price. Thanks guys.

[Strazos]

WISE FROM YOUW GWAVE!

So...yeah...back in mid-October, the fan on the AIW card died. The bearings didn't seize up or anything, but the fan no longer spins. Fortunately, the card still worked for everything else that wasn't 3D-intensive (browsing, watching movies, etc). I didn't have the cash to deal with another RMA, so I just put up with it.

The card finally started to act real funny, and as I have the money now anyway, I tossed an old crap card in and took the AIW out. Newegg's RMA process is easy (especially with my warranty), so now I just need to send it back.

So...I'm going to need Another card. Any suggestions for an OK AGP nVidia card? Would prefer a card that runs cooler. I haven't touched a nVidia card in about 4 years.

Also, just so I don't start another thread....the card I have in now is an ATI Radeon 92xx PCI card. It works fine, but an odd problem has cropped up - my PC will not actually shut down on its own. I hit shut down, but instead I get a reboot. From the login menu, start menu, and task manager. The only thing I can do is let the thing reboot, and hold down the power button to shut it off while it's starting to POST (I really hope that's not causing damage). Any ideas?

[MisterNoisy]

WISE FROM YOUW GWAVE!

So...yeah...back in mid-October, the fan on the AIW card died. The bearings didn't seize up or anything, but the fan no longer spins. Fortunately, the card still worked for everything else that wasn't 3D-intensive (browsing, watching movies, etc). I didn't have the cash to deal with another RMA, so I just put up with it.

The card finally started to act real funny, and as I have the money now anyway, I tossed an old crap card in and took the AIW out. Newegg's RMA process is easy (especially with my warranty), so now I just need to send it back.

So...I'm going to need Another card. Any suggestions for an OK AGP nVidia card? Would prefer a card that runs cooler. I haven't touched a nVidia card in about 4 years.

Also, just so I don't start another thread....the card I have in now is an ATI Radeon 92xx PCI card. It works fine, but an odd problem has cropped up - my PC will not actually shut down on its own. I hit shut down, but instead I get a reboot. From the login menu, start menu, and task manager. The only thing I can do is let the thing reboot, and hold down the power button to shut it off while it's starting to POST (I really hope that's not causing damage). Any ideas?

EDIT:  nm - you already returned it.  As for the 'which card' question, Toms just put up an article on the current state of video cards last month.

[Trippy]

7600 GT or 7800 GS depending on how much money you are getting back and are willing to spend.

[Strazos]

Thanks, those suggestions look like they will do the job nicely. Any brands I should stay away from? I've only ever had one "3rd party" card, and it was a Leadtek, which I was ultimately very unhappy with. The rest have been ATI-branded cards (or Voodoo, heh).

[Trippy]

Thanks, those suggestions look like they will do the job nicely. Any brands I should stay away from? I've only ever had one "3rd party" card, and it was a Leadtek, which I was ultimately very unhappy with. The rest have been ATI-branded cards (or Voodoo, heh).

I had issues with a Leadtek GF3 Ti200 long ago where they had all sorts of funky registry settings that screwed stuff up. I doubt they are still doing that sort of stuff now though. Currently I favor eVGA because of their nice lifetime warranty (if you register).

[Strazos]

Oddly enough, Newegg doesn't have any 7600 GTs or 7800 GSs by eVGA.

...Any experience around here with XFX? I think I bought a low-end mobo from them once for someone, and it worked out fine to my knowledge, but..they just seemed kind of...I dunno, not on par with someone like Asus?

[Trippy]

Oddly enough, Newegg doesn't have any 7600 GTs or 7800 GSs by eVGA.

...Any experience around here with XFX? I think I bought a low-end mobo from them once for someone, and it worked out fine to my knowledge, but..they just seemed kind of...I dunno, not on par with someone like Asus?

There are a whole bunch of them that are all about the same in terms of quality for the standard configurations, and it's not clear you are actually getting anything extra by paying more for an ASUS video card (motherboards is a different story). That XFX looks kind of nice (if you are looking at the 7600 GT one) since it has dual DVI outputs.

[Ironwood]

I tried to perform some surgury on the card before

Is that like an operation that uses too much electricity ?

[Strazos]

Nothing of the sort. I thought the fan had simply come out of alignment somehow, so I tried to disassemble part of the HSF to see if I could realign it. I didn't get to far before I found out my warranty was still in effect.