9700 pro troubles

[noah]

just built a mate a new shuttle sn95 (silenx psu) with a 9700pro from retek. worked perfectly for an hour or 2, but is now artifacting everywhere on all games. i d/l ed ati tool which also artifacted everywhere so i lowersd the clocks to 200/200 and now its fine. do you think this might be a driver problem? (cat 5.1) or maybe a borked card?

spec on shuttle is?
sn95
a64 3200
512 corsair value ram
9700 pro

thanks

(should this be in the help forum?- please move it if you think it should )

[blockers]

Have you loooked at the cooler, they are meant to be slightly dodgy. Remove it, clean off grease/pad and reapply a thin layer of artic silver. Then slowly raise the clock speeds. If it still doesnt work, i would say it is borked.

[noah]

do you think that may void any chance of an RMA? i would be confident enough to do it, but its not my machine so i dont want to stuff up any other possibilities.

[blockers]

I would say that it is likely to, as companies are fussy about that. But if you phone or email them asking how the stand on the topic maybe they will tell you that it wont. If you talk to them on the phone get the persons name, and keep all emails - just incase you do have to RMA it and they get funny. :S

[noah]

fair call, will phone them on monday and ask about RMA'ing it

thanks

[schmunk]

Have you loooked at the cooler, they are meant to be slightly dodgy.

Well, they're not MEANT to be slightly dodgy, it's just they often are...

[Speed]

Yes I would imagine any user changes done to the card will void any chance of a replacement. They could easily blame the problems on the users changes, so its not wise to do anything. I'd get the card RMA'd straight away if I was you.

Regards,

Speed

[SilentDeath]

just built a mate a new shuttle sn95 (silenx psu) with a 9700pro from retek. worked perfectly for an hour or 2, but is now artifacting everywhere on all games. i d/l ed ati tool which also artifacted everywhere so i lowersd the clocks to 200/200 and now its fine. do you think this might be a driver problem? (cat 5.1) or maybe a borked card?

spec on shuttle is?
sn95
a64 3200
512 corsair value ram
9700 pro

thanks

(should this be in the help forum?- please move it if you think it should )

Retek cards are refurbished. For some reson most buyers seem to have problems with the cooler not being correctly installed. Retek are a good shop though.

I doubt retek would notice if you changed the cooler, chances are the last owner changed it anyway.. All 3 of my 9500np's had as3 on the core.. which is not what ATI use..

Change the cooler - artic cooling siilencer £7 from ebuyer. Theres no point in putting the crappy stock one back on.. they are not really good enough for these cards.

If the ACS doesnt fit? then there are a few otehr cheap coolers you could use..

[Speed]

Ah right I was unaware of that!

Speed

[noah]

cool, will RMA it as its not really acceptable to have a card that works in a standard non overclocked system for only an hour or so.

what sort of cooler will fit in a shuttle?

[SilentDeath]

The cards are very cheap.. RMA it if you want to lose out on a potential bargain..
The next card, if you get replacement, could be just as bad..

I would just change the cooler.... if it then doesnt work properly, send it back.. and use the cooler for your next gfx card..

Not sure what coolers fit.. dont think theres any particually great low profile ones..
If your not overclocking atall then the stock cooler will do.. but a properly cooled 9700 will hit 390-460mhz on core.. so you'd be missing out..

[noah]

the thing is, its for a mate, not for me, he was blown away by what it could do before it died so i dont think that it needs any overclocking, stock speeds are fine.

are you saying that the replacement will die just as quick a death on the stock cooler? shouldnt be heat problems surely as ambient temps are around 40 and cpu is 45 the shuttle has an air intake in the chassis next to the card too. friends of mine run 6800gts and x800 pros in thier shuttles with no probs!

would he be better of paying the extra £8 or so to get (upgrade??) the 9800 vanilla? bearing in mind he will not overclock (shame) ?

btw it has the artifacts permenantly, once they appeared the first time, they've stayed, they dont go away with a restart.

[Ravens Nest]

I think it's worth the extra £8 for the 9800 as it is pretty much equivalent in speed to a 9700 pro, and also is better at drawing shadows, especially in opengl games.

Also it should run cooler and i reckon you'll eventually be able to tempt your friend to overclock it... eventually

[SilentDeath]

9800 does not run cooler. Its exactly the same GPU but with 1.7v instead of 1.5, and 380mhz instead of 325mhz. It will run hotter, and die quicker if the cooler is not correctly fitted.

I simply meant that if buying a refurbished card you NEED to check the cooler is on properly before running it. If there is no contact between the GPU and heatsink, it will just overheat.. If you cant touch the back of the gpu without burning your finger, then its too hot.

If the artifacts stayandappear instantly from a cold boot (or as soonas it leaves text mode for gfx mode), its possible that remounting the cooler will not fix it, in which case return it. Make sure you check the cooler of the next one before pluging it in, unless its a brand new non-refurbished card.

[noah]

Make sure you check the cooler of the next one before pluging it in, unless its a brand new non-refurbished card.

good plan, i'll be sure to do that, maybe put a little artic silver on it too for good measure.

thanks very much for all the help

[Ravens Nest]

9800 does not run cooler. Its exactly the same GPU but with 1.7v instead of 1.5, and 380mhz instead of 325mhz. It will run hotter, and die quicker if the cooler is not correctly fitted.

Well i stand corrected