BobDaMenkey
Diamond Member
I was sitting here happily playing CS:S before I have to go to work at 5pm AZ time, when I smell something like burning plastic. I think nothing of it for half an hour, then when it still persists, I turn off my computers and investigate the rest of the house. Nothing was left on a burner in the kitchen, so I crack open both cases and check the power supply connections.
I had a power supply go bad on me in the past, and it made a similar smell, and fused the connection to the mother board. So I checked them, but they were both fine.
Then I got a little curious, and booted both machines to make sure all the fans were working. My secondary was fine, there are only 2 important fans in there anyway(CPU and PSU) and all of them were working.
My main machine however, didn't pass that test so well. My Gainward GeForce 4 Ti 4800 SE's fan wasn't spinning up. That explains the bad smell while playing CS. So $20 and 30 minutes later, I return from my local Fry's Electronics with a replacement HSF combo. I apply some Artic Silver to the GPU and pop the heat sink on, except the power connecters don't mach.
The card has a 2 pin connector (which didn't want to let go of the old one) and the new fan has a 3 pin connector. At this point I'm very unhappy with it, so I void both warrenties and make the 3 pin fit on the 2 pin connnector(red and black). I pop the card back in the case and she fires up and spins up. Hooray!
I go to start my IM and net surfing secondary computer back up, but get a 3 beep code. No video. Reseating the card didn't solve it. It's a GeForce 2 MX 400, no active cooling, just a passive cooler on the GPU.
So yeah, at the moment, I'm not very happy with nVidia. As that is my second dead GeForce 4 Ti 4600. The 4800 is just the 8x AGP version of the 4600, I previously had the same thing happen to me with a BFG 4600, except they epoxied the HSF to the GPU so I couldn't replace it, and the warrenty had already expired.
I've currently had 2 dead 4600s, my first dead GeForce 2, and 2 dead 6800GTs. Wonderful company, why do I keep buying your products?
I had a power supply go bad on me in the past, and it made a similar smell, and fused the connection to the mother board. So I checked them, but they were both fine.
Then I got a little curious, and booted both machines to make sure all the fans were working. My secondary was fine, there are only 2 important fans in there anyway(CPU and PSU) and all of them were working.
My main machine however, didn't pass that test so well. My Gainward GeForce 4 Ti 4800 SE's fan wasn't spinning up. That explains the bad smell while playing CS. So $20 and 30 minutes later, I return from my local Fry's Electronics with a replacement HSF combo. I apply some Artic Silver to the GPU and pop the heat sink on, except the power connecters don't mach.
The card has a 2 pin connector (which didn't want to let go of the old one) and the new fan has a 3 pin connector. At this point I'm very unhappy with it, so I void both warrenties and make the 3 pin fit on the 2 pin connnector(red and black). I pop the card back in the case and she fires up and spins up. Hooray!
I go to start my IM and net surfing secondary computer back up, but get a 3 beep code. No video. Reseating the card didn't solve it. It's a GeForce 2 MX 400, no active cooling, just a passive cooler on the GPU.
So yeah, at the moment, I'm not very happy with nVidia. As that is my second dead GeForce 4 Ti 4600. The 4800 is just the 8x AGP version of the 4600, I previously had the same thing happen to me with a BFG 4600, except they epoxied the HSF to the GPU so I couldn't replace it, and the warrenty had already expired.
I've currently had 2 dead 4600s, my first dead GeForce 2, and 2 dead 6800GTs. Wonderful company, why do I keep buying your products?
