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Radeon 4870 Quits after mod?

Q

Questor

Member
Ok, so I buy this XFX Radeon HD 4870 ZHFC 1 GB. I follow the temperatures and feel like they are a bit high for constant long term usage. Since I want to reduce temps and like to OC a bit, I buy a Thermalright T-RAD². Installation is easy, I reinstall the card with the new aftermarket heat sink..etc and nada.

I can't even get into the BIOS. Just a message floating around my LCD "No Display"

MB: GA-MA790GP-UD4H (790X)
CPU: Phenom II X2 550
RAM: Corsair XMS 4 GB (2GB x 2)
PC&C 750 Watt PS
XFX Radeon HD 4870 1 GB ZHFC

If I uninstall the Radeon, I can get into the BIOS, enable the onboard video and all is well. Reinstall the Radeon again and nothing yet again.

Let's see, the card was modified on an anti-static mat, an anti-static wrist strap was used, thermal interface material is Noctua NT-H1 which is not electrically conductive, no tools were dropped on the card while working and no liquids/foregin substances were spilled, dropped, used or other came in contact with the card.

I have put in a ticket with XFX - hoping they answer as the card was modified

Ideas?

Questors
 
Kakkoii - Perhaps, but nothing is broken or crushed. It has rubber bushings which were not fully compressed and all indications are they are not supposed to be for proper installation.

Zagood - you link two power sockets for power supply plugs - the point? Of course I plugged the thing in. I may not know it all, none of us do, but I do have 70 or so system builds to my credit. Stupidity, at least of that nature, is not the problem.
 
Does the cooler you put on allow any view space to see how close the chip is sandwiched to the block?
 
Obviously two things come to mind - electrical open or electrical short. The latter you kind of suggested is ruled out by mentioning the TIM as being electrically non-conductive. As Kakkoii is mentioning, are you absolutely positively sure that nothing is being electrically shorted by the new heatsink coming in contact with various components on the system?

Have you undid the mod to see if she starts functioning again?

As to the former, electrical opens, this would be a concern relating to overstressing the chips and PCB while removing the old HSF or attaching the new HSF and you either broke a PCB trace (but not the board) or desoldered a bump on an IC or a solder connection for a vrm.

If this is the case, electrical opens, you aren't likely to detect them yourself unless you are prepared to do some real dissection work with a multi-meter and some deprocessing skills. And it isn't recoverable, undoing the mod and going back to stock won't mend electrical opens.

Just some thoughts, no real solutions to offer.
 
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Obviously two things come to mind - electrical open or electrical short. The latter you kind of suggested is ruled out by mentioning the TIM as being electrically non-conductive. As Kakkoii is mentioning, are you absolutely positively sure that nothing is being electrically shorted by the new heatsink coming in contact with various components on the system?

Have you undid the mod to see if she starts functioning again?

As to the former, electrical opens, this would be a concern relating to overstressing the chips and PCB while removing the old HSF or attaching the new HSF and you either broke a PCB trace (but not the board) or desoldered a bump on an IC or a solder connection for a vrm.

If this is the case, electrical opens, you aren't likely to detect them yourself unless you are prepared to do some real dissection work with a multi-meter and some deprocessing skills. And it isn't recoverable, undoing the mod and going back to stock won't mend electrical opens.

Just some thoughts, no real solutions to offer.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if it does come down to that, and warranty most likely isn't going to cover your card. Unless you put the old one back on and hope they can't notice lol. Then the last resort could be the oven trick I've seen other people do to bring a bit of life back into their card. Popping the card in the oven at a certain temperature to mend the broken connections a bit, but not so high that it destroys the card. Forgot what temp it is though.

Edit: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jUqoKVY-k
 
Kokkoii - Yes, there is the slightested of space. If you put a strong light source behind (portable flourescent strip or desk lamp), you can see the sink and the gpu area. Also, you are correct, the warranty is void. Some companies allows changing of heat sinks and fans. XFX is not one of them.


Idontcare - I am in the process of undoing the mod. The broken trace or disrupted component is of course my big fear (I hate the thought of buying another card) and probably the issue. The idea seems to fit. A short was my first thought but, I could see no obvious problems. Unfortunately, there are way too many - for all intents and purposes - unseeable possibilities.

I guess I have a new target for skeet shooting.

Thank you folks for you input. I appreciate it.

Questor
 
Originally posted by: Questor
Kokkoii - Yes, there is the slightested of space. If you put a strong light source behind (portable flourescent strip or desk lamp), you can see the sink and the gpu area. Also, you are correct, the warranty is void. Some companies allows changing of heat sinks and fans. XFX is not one of them.


Idontcare - I am in the process of undoing the mod. The broken trace or disrupted component is of course my big fear (I hate the thought of buying another card) and probably the issue. The idea seems to fit. A short was my first thought but, I could see no obvious problems. Unfortunately, there are way too many - for all intents and purposes - unseeable possibilities.

I guess I have a new target for skeet shooting.

Thank you folks for you input. I appreciate it.

Questor
Click to expand...

Well, there's no harm in doing the oven trick I posted links to in my last comment, as a last resort. That is how these cards are made, they go in huge ovens that melt the connections together.
 
Since reversing the mod has yielded the same faulty results, the card is obviously damaged. I appreciate the oven suggestion, but I guess I broke it, so I will pay-the-piper.

Thanks folks, it was good of you offer the help.

Questor
 
Originally posted by: Questor
Since reversing the mod has yielded the same faulty results, the card is obviously damaged. I appreciate the oven suggestion, but I guess I broke it, so I will pay-the-piper.

Thanks folks, it was good of you offer the help.

Questor
Click to expand...

Uhh dude.. Just do the damn oven thing. You've got nothing to loose. It takes a few minutes of your time to take it apart, pop it in the oven, take it back out, let it cool, re-attach the parts and pop it in your computer.

If not that, then mail it to me and I'll take it, instead of it going to the trash. I'll send you money in paypal for shipping.
 
Originally posted by: Kakkoii
Originally posted by: Questor
Since reversing the mod has yielded the same faulty results, the card is obviously damaged. I appreciate the oven suggestion, but I guess I broke it, so I will pay-the-piper.

Thanks folks, it was good of you offer the help.

Questor
Click to expand...

Uhh dude.. Just do the damn oven thing. You've got nothing to loose. It takes a few minutes of your time to take it apart, pop it in the oven, take it back out, let it cool, re-attach the parts and pop it in your computer.

If not that, then mail it to me and I'll take it, instead of it going to the trash. I'll send you money in paypal for shipping.
Click to expand...

hey i will pay him to take it off his hands if i can get it working!
 
Dude, put the damn orginal heatsink and RAM sinks back on and try to make it look as original as possible. Send it back to XFX. Just do it.
 
Originally posted by: shangshang
Dude, put the damn orginal heatsink and RAM sinks back on and try to make it look as original as possible. Send it back to XFX. Just do it.
Click to expand...

just FYI suggesting or admitting to committing warranty fraud is against the forum rules.
 
Actually XFX allows you to mod the cooling but no hard volt mods I believe. HOWEVER, if you damaged the card with the mod then it wouldn't be covered.
 
I was honest with Sapphire after installing a Water Block. They said they would take a look at it and sent me a new card.
 
Put a PCI card in the system, set bios to initialize PCI video first, put monitor on PCI card and confirm video output.

Next put 4870 back in, leaving PCI video card and monitor connected to it, confirm system still posts with video. If it does, proceed to load a dos bios flasher, check whether it sees the 4870 and if so, try to flash the 4870 bios. Maybe there was no ESD event that scrambled the bios, but if possible this can be ruled out easily enough if you have a spare PCI video card and the bios settings to make it the primary (or else just disable onboard video if it doesn't disable when another video bios is found).
 
Originally posted by: faxon
Originally posted by: shangshang
Dude, put the damn orginal heatsink and RAM sinks back on and try to make it look as original as possible. Send it back to XFX. Just do it.
Click to expand...

just FYI suggesting or admitting to committing warranty fraud is against the forum rules.
Click to expand...

Who's commiting warranty fraud? The OP said he did not think he break anything. He followed sound procedure to replace heatsink. If XFX allowed him to send it back and XFX dertermined it's a lemon, then XFX will replace it. Let XFX decides. It's a gray area.

I once had an AGP video card that had one of its gold contacts peeled when I pulled it out of the m/b. I didn't know. When i put it back it, the peeled gold contact caused damage to the m/b too. Now you tell me, who's fault was it? Was it my fault for not knowing what i was doing? I don't think so. Was it the m/b maker's fault that perhaps the AGP pin on the board caused the video card to peel? Or was it the video card itself that was cheaply made? Who's to blame here? I ended up RMA'ing both the board and the vid card, although in principle I should have only RMA'ed one item, and then make the responsible party pay for the other item. Do you think I would want to waste my time doing that?

For all we know, the OP got a bad card to begin with, or a poor quality card to begin with, and the process of removing the heatsink alone was enough to cause the damage. Does removing the heatsink considered modding? And if so, does such modding allowable by XFX? XFX (and EVGA) built their reputation as "overclockers and modders"-friendly. So I expect them to be friendly too in time of need. Why don't we let XFX decide. To me a warranty fraud is something like you switch serial# of an item to try to get an RMA for it. What I'm suggesting to the OP is not suggesting any fraud, but interpreting a gray area.

And I've seen a few video cards go dead after you pull them out, and a few motherboards that go dead after you took the CPU fan out and snap the fan back on. It's not like it's an uncommon to see them die like that.



Take two weeks off this time, for yet another instance of encouraging RMA fraud.

AmberClad
Video Moderator
 
Wowser, talk about spawning a conversation or three.

First off, yeah I am a Boy Scout I guess and would tell/did tell XFX tech support what I had done.

Secondly, they have yet to answer me in any form, email, mail or telephone (not that I expected a call). Since I believe in customer service, this will probably be the last thing I ever buy let alone consider buying with an XFX/Pine Group branding.

However, there IS good news! (and no, I did not put it in the oven and bake it)

After ordering a new Gigabyte video card, I looked at the mess of heat sinks, fins, heat pipes and fans and figured on giving it another try. I have no idea why I did, but I did.
It worked perfectly from the second I snapped the power back on and has now been working perfectly for 3 days of nearly constant operation. Go figure.

I cancelled the Gigabyte order.

I wish I could tell you folks how, what, why and where, but I have no idea what was different and why it suddenly decided to work. As far as I know, I assembled it exactly the same. It is afterall an easy install. Maybe Noctua's claim for the NT-H1 TIM being completely non-electrically conductive is not completely true and some smeared where it need not be. I don't know.

 
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Obviously two things come to mind - electrical open or electrical short. The latter you kind of suggested is ruled out by mentioning the TIM as being electrically non-conductive. As Kakkoii is mentioning, are you absolutely positively sure that nothing is being electrically shorted by the new heatsink coming in contact with various components on the system?

Have you undid the mod to see if she starts functioning again?

As to the former, electrical opens, this would be a concern relating to overstressing the chips and PCB while removing the old HSF or attaching the new HSF and you either broke a PCB trace (but not the board) or desoldered a bump on an IC or a solder connection for a vrm.

If this is the case, electrical opens, you aren't likely to detect them yourself unless you are prepared to do some real dissection work with a multi-meter and some deprocessing skills. And it isn't recoverable, undoing the mod and going back to stock won't mend electrical opens.

Just some thoughts, no real solutions to offer.
Click to expand...

This

I accidentally shorted my 8800GT with my finger after installing HR-03GT. So I cleaned off where I touched with alchohol and ran it again later and it worked
 
I accidentally shorted my 8800GT with my finger after installing HR-03GT. So I cleaned off where I touched with alchohol and ran it again later and it worked
Click to expand...

Probably something silly like that. I tend to be very careful, antistatic mat, wrist-strap, dust free cloth...the whole deal, but it's an imperfect world.

I just wish I could be more helpful to others in the solving of the problem.
 
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