geforce 256 problems

[kumanchu]

alright, i have a geforce 256 made by creative, it was pulled from a friend's micron system i belive, as the model number doesn't come up on the creative site, but it has the creative stickers and whatnot on it. it is model ct6960 if anyone can help me find specs on it. In anycase, we pulled it because it suddenly started displaying strange blocks on the monitor. I have a feeling it has to do with overheating, but i'm not sure. could the chip itself be damaged beyond repair already? i was thinking about buying a new cooler for it, but i can't figure out how to get the current one off as it seems to be stuck onto the chip via the thermal paste.

thanks a lot for your help. oh this is important to me because if i can get it to work correctly i can keep it and replace my v3 3k ^___^

 

[Vrangel]

To remove heatsink put board in the freezer for 15min, then pry it off
with a screwdriver or something. Make sure you dont crush any components on the board.
Apply reasonable force , it doesnt pop up too easy.

After that you have to lap it with a file ,cause chip itself is a little deeper than surrounding plastic.
Apply ArcticSilver on the chip, a touch of crazy glue on four corners and slap new fan/heatsink on it.
Make sure heatsink isnt too wide or you wont be able to put card back in the slot all the way.

It really helped my CL G256, I had lockups due to overheating.

 

[kumanchu]

ok sounds like a plan! also, i just stuck it in one of my extra systems for now, and the monitor output is a black bar on the left, and a magenta bar on the right and thats it. is that because i don't have amonitor hooked up to it when it was detected? and does anyone know if the blue orb would fit using its own little clips or would i have to go get more epoxy type stuff no matter what i was gonna do? also anyone have any recommendation for ramsinks?

 

[Vrangel]

<< i don't have amonitor hooked up to it when it was detected >>



Err, I dont have a clue what you are talking about.

Anywayz, put some videocard that produces an output in that system,
then change to VGA. Replace it with G256 and you should have
the same VGA output on your monitor.

After that install Nvidia reference drivers. If it still doesnt work you might try to reinstall Windows.
And even if that doesnt help theres still hope. You can reflash videoBIOS on G256 blindly.
(I had to do it when I flashed wrong videoBIOS and had nothing but random garbage on the monitor.)

Dont bother with ramsinks. I tried it and it didnt make any difference whatsoever.

 

[kumanchu]

ok i had a pci video card in there that was working fine, so i just stuck the geforce in the agp slot and had both running at the same time. i figured out what it was, i didn't extend my desktop to the second video card so i was getting the output that i mentioned earlier. but do you know if the blue orb will fit into those holes that are already there? i'd rather not epoxy something onto it again.

 

[Vrangel]

I dont have a blue orb. I just used some old Pentium HSF I had in hand at the time.
Pretty much anything will do the job. (Except that puny thing CL put on it. )

 

[kumanchu]

ooooo siiiiiiiiiit. i just tried out the card by itself, and i now see what he was talking about. It turns out that basically everything gets kind of smeared horizontally. thats No goood. i wonder if getting a cooler for it will help :/

 

[WA261]

not a heat issue....sink wont do ya any good.....when did he buy it? it has a 3yr from creative on it...i just rmad an old one i had last month...it was right on the verge of being 3yrs old...i didnt even have my receipt....got a gf2 in its place