Help fixing GPU Sapphire HD5770

[folaf]

Hi!

A few months ago my gpu failed. I shelved it in the hopes of buying a new one but cant seem to afford one at the moment.

It boots only in safe mode not in windows with drivers installed (BSOD with "atikmdag.sys" or "atikmpag.sys").

As such I would really like to try my had at fixing it, its out of warranty. On thing I did notice is that the memory chips get quite hot, could it be that they are being delivered excessive power?. If so what components would i need to replace?

Here are a few pictures of the GPU.

Any and all help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[nurturedhate]

If it booting into safe mode but not regularly then more than likely the card is working in some capacity. I would highly suspect a driver or OS issue by what you have said. Have you gone as far as reformatting the system?

 

[folaf]

No not reformatting but I have tried the card on multiple machines with the same result. The whole card gets extremely hot.

 

[nurturedhate]

Can we get some good pics of the back of the card

 

[EliteRetard]

I'm gonna guess and say this is one of those cards with the garbage cooler that hooks only to the GPU and not to the RAM and/or VRM. Happens a lot with lower end cards, they don't care. Those other parts NEED cooling...and running without cooling over time can and will damage the card. Maybe you'll get lucky and adding some cooling to those areas will get the card working again.

 

[EliteRetard]

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g40/c21/list/p1/Air_Cooling-VGA_HeatsinksCoolers.html

Stuff like this plus airflow:

 

[SlickR12345]

Sometimes drivers leave stuff through normal uninstall and can interfiere with stuff. I suggest you reinstall windows, then install the latest drivers, update bios, install chipset drivers, etc...

Also make sure when you place the cooler back you apply thermal paste and do it properly and you screw the card nice and tight so it doesn't lose cooling.

 

[folaf]

Here is a pic of the back

Well I'm in India, to get those heat sinks to ship back here it will cost double $15(~Rs 1800) not really ideal and they are not available locally too. Ill try adding a fan to the back of the card and see what happens...

I would also like to know is that if a capacitor or an inductor or maybe a vrm has failed how can i identify it and if it could possibly be replaced..

This is the actual card btw
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/product_index.aspx?pid=341&lid=1

Thanks.

 

[EliteRetard]

You can make your own heat-sinks, aluminum is cheap and easy to work with. Even a solid strip adds thermal mass and helps dissipate heat. You can attach them with thermal tape (makes it removable if necessary). You can use thermal adhesive too, but that's usually not removable.

If you don't have that available you can still use regular thermal paste (gonna need it for the core GPU anyway) and just add a dot of super glue to a few corners as necessary (again very hard to remove).

The red lines represent a possible aluminum strip solution (bent back over for more area). Yellow dots represent possible glue locations with white being the thermal paste. Gotta be careful if you bend the aluminum, not to bend the bottom contact strip, if it doesn't sit flat and get good contact with the parts you are just blocking airflow and making things worse. Make sure to press them down good and firm when you do the final application. Also not pictured are the RAM chips on back, you'll want to make a strip for those as well.

I cant really tell how your cooler fits and what it covers, so you'll have to come up with your own solution, but it doesn't need to be expensive or complicated. Do a dry fit first, set the parts on there and mount the cooler before adding any pastes or anything to make sure it will all fit and not collide with anything. Make sure there will be airflow to help remove heat from the added heat-sinks.

You may be able to find a silicone or other heat resistant adhesive that's a little flexible instead of superglue to make things easier to remove later...I don't know what you have available in your area. I've used an acid free non conductive automotive silicone before and it was fine. Make sure it cures all the way first before powering on. Edit: Oh also silicone is an insulator, so again don't use much, just a touch here and there where you have a clear spot available.

 

[bononos]

Hi!

A few months ago my gpu failed. I shelved it in the hopes of buying a new one but cant seem to afford one at the moment.

It boots only in safe mode not in windows with drivers installed (BSOD with "atikmdag.sys" or "atikmpag.sys").

As such I would really like to try my had at fixing it, its out of warranty. On thing I did notice is that the memory chips get quite hot, could it be that they are being delivered excessive power?. If so what components would i need to replace?

Here are a few pictures of the GPU.
........

Did you monitor the gpu temps before it failed?
If its a driver issue, AMD put out a driver uninstaller for windows.
That model seems to be stable and works ok even without memory heatsinks because they have some headroom. It could be your psu/power quality.

 

[folaf]

Did not get the opportunity to do so(monitor temps), Definitely not the drivers/psu tried the card on multiple machines.

Will definitely try out the above mentioned soln and get back...

Thanks a lot all of you'll.

 

[tweakboy]

This card is a beautie.. How much you expect. thanks

 

[monkeydelmagico]

If it won't boot there is no reason to waste time or money on heatsinks.

 

[Erenhardt]

Is it possible to run GPU stress test in safe mode windows?