Any hope for this graphics card?

[Ryzo89]

Recently viewed a listing for an eVGA GeForce® 8800 GTS, (640 MB) PCI Express Video Card. The seller has posted this at the bottom;

Faulty - This card worked great and had no problems running COD4 (on max) COD W@W (on max) and Modern Warfare 2 (on max). The game I was playing crashed out, and after restarting the PC the screen had some coloured lines running through it, I have now upgraded my card and to be honest cant be bothered to try to repair it or send it back to the manufacturers (if thats required), it may be a simple fault on the card, but I have no knowledge of these things.

All adaptors and maunals that came with the card are included.

Is this card really faulty though? It could just be down to anything else on his system. I asked him what motherboard he was using and if he had the latest drivers.

Gigabyte GA-985-DS3 (I think im at work cant remember off the top of my head) Yes I was using the latest drivers.

Feedback appreciated!

[Jay]

lines is normally faulty core, it could have overheated.

[Ryzo89]

So basically, i set the fan a bit higher and all should be well? I'm not sure how new his drivers were either, he says the latest but it may only be what he thinks are the latest.

[Jay]

well if its like this idle it sounds like its damaged.

[Ryzo89]

Ok man, thanks for your help.

[Server: 503]

I wouldn't touch it with a long pole, to be honest. If the thing crashed severely enough that he "upgraded", or in other words, "replaced" it, I would be wary of purchasing potentially dead hardware. Also, if he was running modern warfare 2 etc. on max with just an 8800 gts, he may well have been overclocking the ten and praises out of it.

It is possible the fault was an isolated event, but that begs the question of why he subsequently upgraded, and if it failed once, it may happen again. I would only spend as much as you are willing to lose if it's dead harware.


Server: 503

[unreal]

This is the same sort of fault that Xbox 360's suffer with the RROD, where the GPU overheats and the solders become affected, causing artifacts and far worse. You could fix it by overheating it in a controlled environment (have it professionally reballed or use a heatgun on it), which is how people have repaired their graphics cards by literally putting them in an oven.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Sounds like a candidate for an oven bake! As unreal has pointed out. The soldering has gone somewhere on the board. they should be vertical green or red lines. The splash screen for the bios on the card should be corrupted too.

The 8800gts 640mb is about 3yrs now so you should be able to get it very cheap if its broken. If you have teh time, an oven an some thermal paste it may be worth a shout. I would not pay more than £20 for a broken 8800gtx so this should be sub £15 even £12.

This craze has only been going on for about 6 months so the longitivity of the repaired card is questionable.

[Rhythmeister]

If it's free take it. If you have to pay for it make sure you can reflow or it's a waste of time and money! You'll get a 4670 for around £50 now, not much beating THAT at £50

[Server: 503]

I'm interested in the "oven bake" concept. Never heard of anything like it, lol.

Is the idea to melt the solder off of the contacts/circuits it's shorting?


Server: 503

[Domestic_Ginger]

I think its just broekn contatcs which when the solder is reheated should 'reconnect'. I want to give it a go; I keep trying to find broekn cards off eaby with a high chance of success but i think a lot of people are trying this so the cards are getting really expensive!

With the card being eVGA and having a ridiculas warranty i would bet the card is already second hand; sending it back would result in being sent a very nice card to replace it as selling on ebay is as much hassle if not more than posting the card for RMA. They could have already tried putting it in the oven.

[Server: 503]

They could have already tried putting it in the oven.

That had me laughing!

Funny how the graded material is increasing in price; I wouldn't have imagined that so many people would be prepared to bake their cards. I doubt I would to be honest.


Server: 503