OK great, I just destroyed my 9700 card :(

About 1,5 years ago I bought myself a brand new 9700 card and I've loved every single moment with it. Great FPS for the money spent and great 2D/3D quality and a lovely TV-output. After a few weeks the sound from the fan made me crazy so I decided to install Zalman's passive heatsink. A friend of mine helped me out and the card was dead silent and still going strong and I was a very happy man...

Lately I haven't been playing as much as I used to but a few days ago I bought Empire Earth II. I installed it, patched it and started it out. Immediately inside the menu I noticed texture corruption (and of course also in the game itself). I reinstall my Catalyst drivers, tried Omega's etc etc but the problem was still there. I then fired up Call of Duty and 3dMark - same thing! I got scared and went to my local computer workshop. They looked at it and immediately saw that the heatsink was not installed correctly in the first place. It didn't connect with the core they way it should and probably the heat had damaged it.

Now I'm sitting here, unable to play games...

Is there a 2 year warranty for ATI cards?

Thanks!

Its pretty unlikley to still be covered - will depend on the manufacturer of it and whether or not you have the original heatsink/fan you can sneak back onto it. Most gfx cards were 1 year warranty - these days, you tend to get a bit more.

Nox

I don't think they will cover you if you tampered with it also.. which you did since you installed a 3rd party heatsink :(

Not a chance of a warantee replacement there. However, if you have some spare cash time to grab something more meaty. I went from a 9700 pro to a 6800gt and it is sweet. However if cash is short pop along to retek and get a reconditioned model.

Sure its dead? try reseating the stock cooler..?

Retek sell r300/r350 cards very cheap if you need a replacement.

PrivatePyle:

hehe, well I can't disagree with you there :)

But maybe it's worth a shot?

i feel your pain - although i killed an X800XTPE ;)

Definitely worth trying to put the heatsink and fan back on correctly.
Did you overclock when you added the new heatsink? If you did, back off on the overclock by 15 mhz and see if it gets rid of the artifacts. Keep going back 15mhz until the artifacts are gone.
If you used heat paste with metal in it (silver) make sure it is not touching the parts around the graphics chips. That can cause shorting.
It sounds like the card is not toast. Just back off on that overclock!

My local computer store helped me to reapply it correctly. They said my Arctic Silver paste had turned into gum and probably leaked onto some important parts.

I have never overclocked it and have tried to underclock it a lot. If I run a artifact tester i get no errors which is a bit strange...

Try getting an arctic cooler or some variation and install that, see if it helps.