8800GTS problem

[barker967]

Hello gents.

I have a problem with a second hand card i just bought for a new build, basically it had an aftermarket cooler on it and this was then taken off and the stock cooler put back on but missing several of the screws ( 9 in total, the ones with the springs on them ). When i turned the pc on it posted fine and the gpu fans went to full speed, lasted about 20 seconds then the monitor just goes into standby mode and the gpu fans go into idle speed. Will not then come out of standby.

If I hit reset I then get a post error saying VGA not detected, but will post with no errors if i hard reset but still only last for about 20 seconds before losing signal again. Could this be the card overheating as there isn`t enough contact with the heatsinks? or could it be something else? I have re-seated the card and tried both dvi ports.

[pardal51]

I assume the card was working fine with the previous cooler.
Remove cooler, clean surfaces, apply thermal paste and resit cooler.
I had this problem before, but it was with CPU rather than GPU.

[barker967]

It was, but I didn`t replace the cooler you see, that was the person who owned it before. I am just the recipient of the card and am now trying to ascertain whether the card is fubar or just in need of the other screws as them missing may be causing issues.

[pardal51]

It was, but I didn`t replace the cooler you see, that was the person who owned it before. I am just the recipient of the card and am now trying to ascertain whether the card is fubar or just in need of the other screws as them missing may be causing issues.

You def need the screws to sit the cooler properly. Otherwise it may be loose, or become loose when the fan spins therefore creating a gap between gpu die and cooler.

[Domestic_Ginger]

you will need all four screws over the GPU. the screws over the right hand side of the card are very important as these will allow the VRMs to get heatsinked.

There are fabric pads usually between the heatsink and components as well which are difficult to replace.

Whether you have fried it is too difficult to tell but you definately will if you carry on turning the thing on! Did the seller test it and was it working?

[barker967]

A mate of mine is a middle man in this and says he thinks his mate tested it before selling it to me with the old cooler back on and it worked fine. The fact it has so many screws missing is a concern to both myself and my mate as it is he who I am talking to about it. I will have a chat with my brother later and see if he will let me test the card in his pc. Tried finding places that sell those screws but it`s like finding a needle in a hay stack.

Was trying to build this rig on a budget, but looks like an investment in a new card is going to be happening. I only want to play Bioshock 2 and Bad Company 2!

[.walls]

An 8800 GTS has thermal pads between the ram, the mosfets and the cooler (I tried with just thermal goop, but it didn't make contact, which in turn held the sink off the GPU at an angle).

If they aren't there, the cooler doesn't make contact and these parts cook. the fact that most of the screws are missing would be a large worry as well, as these are situated so that they apply pressure to the relevant points.

[barker967]

I resigned myself to the fact that the card is borked. Went to pc world and bought an 8400GS just to test that the pci-e slot was working ok, no problems at all. So I had to buy myself an Asus 5850.