Applied too much pressure when plugging in my GPU, heard a snap. Should I be worried?

[Dankk]

I was upgrading my hard drive (2TB aww yeah), and in the process I had to temporarily unplug the 2x6pin power connectors from my 6950.

After the hard drive was installed and set, I reached for the power connectors, and started pushing them into the slots. These particular power connectors happen to be very tight, and they require a lot of pressure to insert all the way.

Well... I should've supported underneath the card with my fingers while plugging in the power. But I didn't. Pushing in those power connectors, I applied too much force to the entirety of the card, and I heard a dreaded "snapping" noise.

That snapping noise now haunts me in my sleep, gives me nightmares, and triggers on my OCD like nothing else. What could that snapping noise have been? A major part breaking off? A chip cracking in half? Maybe something became unhinged?

Is my graphics card a ticking timebomb? Is it destined to fail any day now? Is it just a fluke that it happens to be functioning perfectly fine right now, and eventually it will spontaneously combust into flames?

When I heard the snap, I decided to completely remove the card, gently dust it with some compressed air, then I shook it to see if I could hear any loose parts... I didn't notice anything unusual. My games run fine and there are no apparent problems that I didn't have before.

BUT WHAT IF I BROKE SOMETHING SERIOUS AND CONSEQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME?

Tell me if my concern is legitimate, or if I'm being completely irrational. Thanks VC&G.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Have you tried taking off the heatsink's plastic cover to take a look at the PCB?

 

[Dankk]

Have you tried taking off the heatsink's plastic cover to take a look at the PCB?

Hmm... that sounds like a reasonable idea. I've never removed the plastic cover from a GPU before, is it easy?

For the record, this is my card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150527

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

It's hard to tell by the description. In my experience, PCB's are pretty flexible so I would expect the snapping sound to have come from something brittle like plastic. Either that or some glue that was affixed to the card somewhere. I'm not saying that you didn't do anything really bad, but there is no real way to tell unless you do a really thorough inspection or get lucky and find a piece of plastic that fell off.

Check the Power connector block and anywhere that they might have applied clue to lock connectors in place. that would be my guess.

If you did, in fact, crack the board, I would think that you would have broken more than a few traces and the board would be toast.

You could have broken some cold solders, which would be the worst case for me, since they would be hard to find and you wouldn't know until you started seeing intermittent issues...heat related issues etc.

sorry.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Hmm... that sounds like a reasonable idea. I've never removed the plastic cover from a GPU before, is it easy?

For the record, this is my card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150527

Should be. Sounds like all you need is a screw driver:

http://www.overclock.net/t/932949/radeon-hd-6950-how-to-remove-cooler

 

[KingFatty]

Well... I should've supported underneath the card with my fingers while plugging in the power. But I didn't. Pushing in those power connectors, I applied too much force to the entirety of the card, and I heard a dreaded "snapping" noise.

So did the card deform while you were pushing? I can't tell if the card flexed downward or upward while you were pushing, or if there was no flexing because you were good about pushing the power connectors without also flexing the card?

 

[QuantumPion]

I bet all you broke was the little PCIE locking tab thing on the motherboard. I've broken that before once, makes no difference except a little annoyance to remove the card later.

 

[Vesku]

My guess is also the PCIE locking tab, broke one a few months back and it made a brittle cracking sound.

 

[Dankk]

So did the card deform while you were pushing? I can't tell if the card flexed downward or upward while you were pushing, or if there was no flexing because you were good about pushing the power connectors without also flexing the card?

I don't think there was any actual deformation taking place.

Consider for a moment that my 6950's PCI-E power connectors face outwards, away from the motherboard it's installed in, toward the side of the case. A video card sits perpendicular to the motherboard, so if I'm going to support the opposite side of the video card while connecting the power, then I'd prop my fingers in the tiny gap between the edge of the card and the motherboard itself (right from main PCI-E slot itself).

It would be pretty hard to deform a card in that direction. When I open my video card, I doubt I'll see the entire PCB cracked... my bet is on something else.

I bet all you broke was the little PCIE locking tab thing on the motherboard. I've broken that before once, makes no difference except a little annoyance to remove the card later.

Perhaps, although I don't remember noticing the tab being broken. It was a pretty resounding "snap" though. Not quite small. I'll check when I get off work.

 

[alaricljs]

Metallic resounding? May have just been the slot cover tab shifting in the mobo tray.

 

[utahraptor]

Or maybe one of those six pin connectors had a lose lead and your pressure popped it back into place

 

[chimaxi83]

Your flux capacitor was probably, nay, most certainly unconnectorized at the atomic level. Your card is dead internally, but because it no longer has flux, it is living in the past, albeit temporarily, where it had no issues. I'd definitely RMA that card and use PEBKAC as the reason :thumbup:


It sounds like it might be something with the slot/clip itself, not the card.

 

[utahraptor]

I wanted to add that in the event the card survives and is just fine you will want to flash the bios as soon as possible. The card has now been "abused" and it will hold this against you and probably crash or drop you frame rate at a crucial moment just to get even. If you flash the bios it's memory will be wiped and you can be friends again.

 

[Dankk]

Some great replies, everyone.

Should be. Sounds like all you need is a screw driver:

http://www.overclock.net/t/932949/radeon-hd-6950-how-to-remove-cooler

Just got back from showing the GPU to a buddy who's more technically-inclined than me, and who has more experience disassembling components than me. He discovered, unfortunately, that in order to take the plastic cover off my card, you absolutely have to remove the heatsink screws themselves (the ones with the sticker that says "WARRANTY VOID IF REMOVED"). Unfortunately I cannot inspect the PCB any closer without voiding the warranty, and I'm not sure that it's worth it to do so... so there goes that idea.

He also told me that if it's working fine, I should probably leave it alone.

If you did, in fact, crack the board, I would think that you would have broken more than a few traces and the board would be toast.

You could have broken some cold solders, which would be the worst case for me, since they would be hard to find and you wouldn't know until you started seeing intermittent issues...heat related issues etc.

Before going any further, I should probably add that the incident happened three weeks ago. That's an entire three weeks with zero problems, no visible performance issues, artifacts, or anything of the sort. I haven't looked at temperatures lately so I'll take a quick look at that when I re-install the card. Normally it idles at about 45 C and goes up to nearly 85 on full load, which is a bit toasty, but nothing alarming.

Basically though, if there's some kind of "intermittent issue" that would be caused by my clumsy GPU handling, I haven't experienced it yet.

Metallic resounding? May have just been the slot cover tab shifting in the mobo tray.

I took a closer look at the PCI-E slot and locking mechanism. Everything, particularly the locking clip, seem to be perfectly intact and functioning properly. Nothing seems to have been broken off.

Here's a picture of the slot for good measure (sorry for the shitty cell phone quality):

The winged-shape tab on the right swings up and down to latch or unlatch the card, respectively. It toggles with a bit of friction going either direction as it should.

One more thing: When I heard the snapping noise back when I was forcing in those power connectors, the card was already fully seated and screwed into it's bay and PCI slot. What kind of movement could the locking tab have made if it was already locked into place?

 

[TemjinGold]

Sell it on ebay and buy another.

 

[KingFatty]

One more thing: When I heard the snapping noise back when I was forcing in those power connectors, the card was already fully seated and screwed into it's bay and PCI slot. What kind of movement could the locking tab have made if it was already locked into place?

I think I had a video card once that had a little curve on the metal strip that slides into the case where you secure it with a screw, to where the curve nestled into the case a certain way. After I screwed it in, if I wiggled the card pretty hard, the card would shift and the curved part could pop more into the case (when i didn't line it up perfectly initially). So maybe yours is similar, where you created a tension in the metal like a spring, and shifting the card allowed the tension to be released and the card settled into it's more comfortable position.

Maybe try re-seating the card just like you did before you heard the pop, screwing it in and everything, and see if there is tension where the screw goes in and between the slot on the card and the metal supports of your case. It could be like a bowstring snapping against the bow, except its the bowed portion of the videocard slot snapping against the case (or the divots of the slot nestling into the case).

Was the popping sound like that, like metal nestling/snapping together? Or was it just a plastic snapping sound?