If you had a graphics card break - how long did it take?

[uOpt]

I am thinking about using alternate cooling on my graphics card.

However, I would prefer to void the warranty only after I am sure that the card is sufficiently "burned in" so that there won't be a manufracturing defect coming up requiring a RMA.

So, if you had a card failing in the past, how long did it take?

Please only answer for failures that "just happened", not if your elephant stepped on the card or something.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
I am thinking about using alternate cooling on my graphics card.

However, I would prefer to void the warranty only after I am sure that the card is sufficiently "burned in" so that there won't be a manufracturing defect coming up requiring a RMA.

So, if you had a card failing in the past, how long did it take?

Please only asnwer for failures that "just happened", not if your elephant stepped on the card or something.

You need to add a "never" option.
Besides, nobody's results will mean anything to you even if you think your getting the info you need.
Your mileage may vary (YMMV). No 2 video cards are alike. One will never have the same exact life span as another. And not all failures are attributed to the same reasons or exact hardware.

I understand your question, but there is no way in hell to predict if your video card will fail or not.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Yeah, I don't think I've ever had a video card fail on me. Failing power supplies though, I do have experience with. (And the motherboards they sometimes take out with them :|)

 

[uOpt]

I added two "never" options.

I'm aware of the problem of updated product quality on one hand and higher power usage and temperatures on one hand, but that is hard to measure in a poll.

 

[canalcrab]

I built a system a year ago based on a P4C800deluxe-E with an AIW 9600pro in an Antec Sonata case. I like my quiet and early in January I replaced the stock ATI fan with an Arctic Cooler vga silencer rev 3. I did some minor lapping as the heatsink was nowhere near polished, then installed it using the provided thermal paste. I don't OC this computer and things usually run cool; the new vga cooler actually made a difference in the noise level.

I use this machine daily, generally it gets powered up at 0500 and is left on whether or not I am using it till about 2200. Two weeks after the installation I came home one day to find the machine locked up (it had just been sitting there in a blank screen saver); I had to do a hard restart on it but it came back up and ran fine. Same thing happened the next day but this time when I powered back up I had garbage on both screens. Opened up the case and the vid card was HOT. Fired it back up, the fan was spinning, couldn't figure out the problem so I slowed the fan down (by sticking a finger in it) and looked at it in a mirror and the FAN WAS SPINNING BACKWARDS!

Now I have no idea if it had been spinning backwards since the day I installed it because I never in my dreams would have expected that, and I could feel air coming out of the slot at both high and low speeds, and it ran for almost two weeks without a hitch (although this machine rarely if ever gets stressed, no gaming, have not been vid editing lately). My email to Arctic Cooling detailed how the blades of their VGA cooler were in the opposite orientation from the stock hsf but the wires on the plug were in the same polarity, they wrote back saying their fan is designed to run in the opposite direction and suggested I did not have the thing seated properly. I responded that it WAS seated well, when I removed it everything looked correct, it had been firmly screwed together and not overtightened nor was it loose; I have not heard back from them yet (going on a week now).

Most likely I am out the $$$ for that card as I doubt that ATI will honor the warantee with a non-stock hsf and it seems like ArcticCooler, judging by their silence, is not going to do anything either.

 

[canalcrab]

Coincidentally, two weeks prior to my AIW biting the bullet with the AC vga cooler, my old faithful BH6 with a Matrox Marvel G200 TV fried due to the Antec SL400 power supply sending up a large cloud of smoke after a firecracker popping noise. That card had run happily for probably 4 years or more in that system till the PS fvcked it.

 

[Keysplayr]

I chose the:

"Never had a card fail, but I don't have cards for more than 2 years now" option.

But then again, it is a very rare event that I o/c or mod any component in my systems. I modded my 6800nu to 16pipes and 6vs and o/c'd to 350/800, but that was the extent of my modding over the last three years.

 

[TStep]

Only card i can recall that ever broke on me was a TNT, forget which brand it was so long ago. It was under a month, but I was working away from at the time, so it more than likely had less than 20 hrs use.

 

[Zebo]

Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die.

So true. And kill.