My Radeon 9800 just died. Any clues what might be wrong?

[LiekOMG]

Had this R9800 for a good 3 years now. Its always worked great. One day I turn on my PC, all fans spin and computer powers up, but no POST beep, no BIOS, just black screen. After a lot of diagnosing, I took out the video card and put in an old card I had laying around - and it boots fine. Put the R9800 back in, again no POST. Tried it in another computer, no POST there either.

The power line is hooked up correctly to the card. There was no damage or anything like that to the card. It has not even been taken out of the case for years. Any clue what might be wrong with it, or is it just garbage?

 

[mruffin75]

if it's another AGP card you've installed and it works fine, then I'd suggest the 9800 is toast.. (although you may want to install it in another machine just to be sure before you toss it)..

 

[LiekOMG]

Like I said, already tried it in another machine. It won't POST there either. What I don't understand is why it would suddenly not turn on one day. If I was gaming for 3 days straight and the card overheated and died, then I might understand. But for it to just break while the computer was off? Seems odd to me.

 

[Sniper82]

Thats the thing with computers. You can turn a perfectly good working computer off for the night and the next morning it not post. I've had it happen several times. The card is likely dead. Simply turning the PC on could have shorted something out on the card. Look for burn marks around the power connector or anything else also the AGP pins on the card. Try a different power connector aswell. If it has DVI and VGA try both ports out if your able to.

 

[mruffin75]

It happens...I've been in the computer business for...11 years... and I've seen MANY failures, exactly like that...one minute it works...you turn it off..on again.. no go...

There's how many components on a 9800? And I'm sure quite a few of those are critical... if any of those went you'd be stuck with a dead card..

You're lucky it wasn't a power supply... I went to look at a company's PC once that they did their books on (no backup..cheap company)... They were complaining that the PC would turn off on it's own unexpectedly.. I couldn't fault it while I was there but suggested that they replace the power supply as it was the most likely cause. They looked at the cost of the power supply and said no thanks..

The next day they called.. they went to turn the computer on, heard a bang and some smoke came out of the back of the computer.. I told them it was probably the power supply finally giving up.. so they brought the PC in straight away because it had all their data on it...

Well...not anymore it didn't!!! The power supply had let go... and taken out the mainboard, memory, cd-rom, and most importantly...the hard drive as well (one of the chips on the hard drive had blown in half!)..

When I told them what the cost was to repair it they flipped out... but not as much as when I told them that their data was gone unless they wanted to pay a small fortune to a data recovery company...

Moral of the story is....computer parts fail...and sometimes for no real reason...

 

[Zenoth]

Well, you know in what environment your own system lies, you should know what might have caused it to perish a horrible way, or not. Were those three days hot summer days ? Have side panels taken off ? Any children or animals playing around that could have physically damaged it ? Power surge ? Sudden power cuts ? Magnetic thunderstorm ? Bad case air-flow leading to over-heating ? Very subtle fan speed issues running lower than it should ? Bad over-clocks ? Bad voltages ? NVIDIA secretly uploading malware directly to your Radeon via Internet ...

Seriously though, there can be many causes, and you're the first one that should list things that might have been possible, and then we could try to make a simple elimination process and put the finger on the single (if only one there is, or if any) issue that made your Radeon rest in peace from one day to another.

 

[Sniper82]

Originally posted by: mruffin75
It happens...I've been in the computer business for...11 years... and I've seen MANY failures, exactly like that...one minute it works...you turn it off..on again.. no go...

There's how many components on a 9800? And I'm sure quite a few of those are critical... if any of those went you'd be stuck with a dead card..

You're lucky it wasn't a power supply... I went to look at a company's PC once that they did their books on (no backup..cheap company)... They were complaining that the PC would turn off on it's own unexpectedly.. I couldn't fault it while I was there but suggested that they replace the power supply as it was the most likely cause. They looked at the cost of the power supply and said no thanks..

The next day they called.. they went to turn the computer on, heard a bang and some smoke came out of the back of the computer.. I told them it was probably the power supply finally giving up.. so they brought the PC in straight away because it had all their data on it...

Well...not anymore it didn't!!! The power supply had let go... and taken out the mainboard, memory, cd-rom, and most importantly...the hard drive as well (one of the chips on the hard drive had blown in half!)..

When I told them what the cost was to repair it they flipped out... but not as much as when I told them that their data was gone unless they wanted to pay a small fortune to a data recovery company...

Moral of the story is....computer parts fail...and sometimes for no real reason...

LOL what kinda company thinks a PSU is to high. That IMO is a funny story. I don't think I could have kept from laughing at them when they brought the PC to me.

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: LiekOMG
..... or is it just garbage?

Yep, its garbage. More than likely a Mosfet or something in the power control section, but who knows.

 

[Bateluer]

There is always a reason for electronics failures, its just usually not apparent. Likely, there was a problem with your card already and the sudden jolt of electricity was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Once turned on on one of our avionics test stations and blew an EMI filter out the back panel. Wasn't pretty.

 

[LiekOMG]

Thanks for the help guys. Was just wondering if there was something specific I could look for, like a blown cap. I don't see any burn marks, so I guess a chip somewhere just decided to go. I just feel so bad throwing this guy away

 

[Chadder007]

If it has a lifetime warranty, send it in for replacement and hope they send you a newer model chip.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
Well, you know in what environment your own system lies, you should know what might have caused it to perish a horrible way, or not. Were those three days hot summer days ? Have side panels taken off ? Any children or animals playing around that could have physically damaged it ? Power surge ? Sudden power cuts ? Magnetic thunderstorm ? Bad case air-flow leading to over-heating ? Very subtle fan speed issues running lower than it should ? Bad over-clocks ? Bad voltages ? NVIDIA secretly uploading malware directly to your Radeon via Internet ...

Seriously though, there can be many causes, and you're the first one that should list things that might have been possible, and then we could try to make a simple elimination process and put the finger on the single (if only one there is, or if any) issue that made your Radeon rest in peace from one day to another.

Agreed. LMAO on the bold possible reason

 

[Killrose]

Dont mess with it, leave it complete with the fan/hs on it and I'll paypal you $6 shipped for it. I have a box of these I can use for parts. Maybe I can get it going.

 

[Modular]

Originally posted by: LiekOMG
I just feel so bad throwing this guy away

That's how I'm going to feel when my 6600gt bites the dust (or gets replaced)

*Clutches 6600gt*

 

[manimal]

Well 3 years from a gfx card is a good run)))))stares at his dead 7800GTO))))


The fans on those 9800s usually die before anything else or at least start having intermittent operation. Its possible it cooked your ram a bit, Get a cheapo fan to replace, and undervolt the card considerably if you ever get to the point where you can boot up again, otherwise put it in a box and pull it out in 10 years and then throw it away like I do with all my old dead hardware.

 

[Zenoth]

Originally posted by: LiekOMG
Thanks for the help guys. Was just wondering if there was something specific I could look for, like a blown cap. I don't see any burn marks, so I guess a chip somewhere just decided to go. I just feel so bad throwing this guy away

I know how you feel. I've owned a Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB for quite a long time and I've never been disappointed with it, it was a great performer, a 9700 on steroids, I just liked it so much. I still have it though, in its original box. I'd probably sell it very cheap but I can't really do that for a couple of years since I moved in Europe, and I've never been interested by credits cards so I can't sell it online. I also have an X1800XL 256MB sitting in its box since last Saturday (GTS took its place).

 

[SergeC]

The best way to break a piece of electronic equipment, especially if it's old and seen a lot of use - is to turn it off, let it get cold, and turn it back on again.

Just physics.

 

[effee]

same here, 9800 pro was a good workhorse, I bought it around the same time as you, and I've changed to a 7600GS, works great, OCs great at stock cooling too.