Graphics Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Danger!?

Hey All,

I'd thought I’d seen it all when my PC suddenly ATE 2 Radeon 9800 pro cards...

Here is the low-down, I had a Sapphire 9800 Pro card last year which was giving me artefacts, thinking it was my system temp overheating the crappy Sapphire cooler I whacked on an original Arctic Cooling 'VGA Silencer' and some arctic silver which solved the problem. Kind of. Every so often in-game, I would get bizarre 3D rendering errors. I thought the cooler might be shorting something on the GFX board so I dremeled out the bits that touched but it didn't stop it happening, but it was a rare occurrence.

Time went by and I forgot all about the problem.

A few months later the card FREAKED OUT. I was in 'Battle for Middle Earth' when i got the worst artefacts ever, whole screen was a multicoloured 'trip' and after a restart I had no GFX at all. IT HAD DIED.

It was out of warranty by that point so I had to buy another one (Hercules this time). Now I was pissed and poor... I splashed out on a new ATI Vga Silencer Rev 3 from Arctic Cooling too which looked the business and would eliminate heat problems.

I tested the Hercules in another system (fine), then fitted the silencer and installed it in my PC. On boot up I had the same 'classic' artefacts that my original card gave me, but these were constant and made windows/games impossible.

Putting the card back in the test system, it gave the SAME artefacts. The card had been DAMAGED!

Now I have no GFX card and a bill for 2 x Radeon 9800pro's...

WHY IS MY PC EATING EXPENSIVE THINGS?!?!?!?

Random ideas I've had are:

A) PSU Over supplying the cards (the rad9000 I’m using now is fine, it doesn't use an external power connector like the 9800)

B) Arctic Cooler fan drawing too much power (Anybody heard of this happening?!)

C) I broke the last one installing the cooler. (Simple, but if that is the case then why do arctic cooling sell them?!)

WANTED!
============================================
By the way if ANYBODY has a spare Hercules 9800pro Ramsink and Heatsink for sale, I will pay REAL MONEY for them!!

I hope to God this never happens to anyone else!

 

I have a dead 9800pro sitting on a shelf collecting dust as well

This was after buying Arctic Cooling's VGA Silencer rev.3 second hand. It worked great and then one day no output, kinda. It brings the monitor out of standby, but doesn't let the computer boot. In essence, a black screen and a few choice words. btw, this was a Sapphire card, reference design. Strange thing is there was no bang, no puff of smoke, no strange smells, it just worked one day, dead the next.

Still, the 6600GT I have now is pretty darn good (and the 9700 in my laptop is pure bliss).

 

Another dead one... interesting!

The fan used on the VGA Silencers would draw more power than the stock fans right? Could that be damaging the cards in some way?

Anybody with any thoughts? Only I don't want to buy another card and find the same thing happens!

Kenco, sorry to hear of your loss, not that your looking back now!

OOH I forgot to mention, have you got any Hercules Heatsinks?! No? Worth a try...

 

I have the original heatsink, reference design (the parallelogram-shaped one) without the fan - in a fit of desperation I tried it in place of the arctic cooler and it still didn't work, so I tried taking the piddly fan off, broke it, then stuck a 60mm fan on there, still not working. I don't know if it's any different than a Hercules one

 

I tried the same thing on my first card!

Just to clear it up, I'm after these:

Big square thing & 1 ram sink:
http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/r9800pro-2/herc-9800pro-scan-back.jpg

Main Heatsink:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/hercules_3d_prophet_9800_pro_review/images/01.jpg

Thanks!

 

Why don't you have the originals?

 

Good question!

I gave them to my mate who needed them to replace his. I can't get them back.

Seriously though if anyone has them I'm desperate!

 

Back to the problem in hand, im betting that the agp slot on the mobo is fried (only way i can think to test this is to use an old card that doesnt need a power connector, of course if im right your gonna lose another card) but it could also be the psu (which can be tested with either a multimeter or in another comp (which in this case i wouldnt like 2 do)), hth.

Death

 

It could be the mobo slot so I tested it by using another card and it worked fine (its still running fine).

I have a multimeter and am going to test the PSU. What is the best way to test it using a multimeter? Under heavy load? I have no idea!

Once i've ruled out the PSU i'm going to test the VGA Silencer fan to see if its drawing too much from the card or something. If so I may have some comback with Arctic Cooling... who knows. All I know is Bfme sucks in low graphics mode

Thanks for all your help so far. I'll keep you posted on my findings.

 

I bought a 9800 pro and just after buying it i bought the old style arctic cooler and everything was fine.

Until, i decided i wanted the new one last october (god knows why), immediately upon it arriving i set about replacing the arctic cooler i already has on it. What they don't tell you on the arctic website is that you'll probably have to cut the plastic on it to get it to fit. After fiddling about with it for ages it finally went on fine and in hindsight i should have been less liberal with the force i was screwing it (ooer).

Sufficed to say I broke the card, whether it was damage to the core or all the fiddling about i don't know. However, when i got my replacement (still under warranty *cough*) i did put the cooler on with a little bit more finesse and to this day it's still working *touch wood*.

So... i'm guessing either you put the cooler on too tight, at an angle or a combination of the two since you say the pc is fine other than that.

If you were to screw the cooler to the point where arctic say you should then i'm pretty sure that's too much