Severe Graphics Card Problem

[Wheelman56]

Today I wanted to do a test run on my new system to see if my graphics card would display video. I plugged the graphics card into the the pci-e slot of my motherboard that was sitting in my case, put in a stick of ram, plugged the included pci-e adapter into the psu and the graphics card, removed the cpu (don't have heatsink for it yet), plugged in the 24 pin adapter and the power button from the front of my case. I flipped the switch on my power supply, and pressed the power button and almost instantly smoke starting coming from the back of the card. I paniced and turned off the PSU. It looked like it was kind of coming from where I plugin for the 6 pin PCI-e slot... I checked to make sure i put it in correctly so that can't be it. So, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? I'm extremely worried, and I really hope my card isn't done for. :/

 

[Dahak]

Unforunatly, that does not sound good, if you where trying to see if there would have been video output, you couldnt without the cpu. As for the video card, it does sound like it from that, without looking at it hard to say, the other possibility it could be from the ram slot if it was installed backwards.

I have personally installed ram in backwards, the ram died but the slot was fine and continued to work fine for years

As for what happend, not sure

 

[Wheelman56]

The RAM is definitely installed correctly. I tried working it again (not just now but right after the panic), and then smoke came from another part of the graphics card. I turned it off and felt the part that was smoking and it was pretty hot, but not super hot. The fan on the graphics card seemed to run and blow air out fine. I don't know what to do

 

[Wheelman56]

Could it have anything to do with the fact that the CPU wasn't in the motherboard, and the 4-pin 12v cable that supplies power to the CPU wasn't plugged in?

 

[Jeff7]

If smoke appears, something has been permanently damaged. Subsequent applications of power may only further the damage, as the normal pathways for power are no longer available.

Maybe you managed to install the power connector backwards somehow? That would definitely kill something quickly.

...removed the cpu (don't have heatsink for it yet), plugged in the 24 pin adapter and the power button from the front of my case. I flipped the switch on my power supply, and pressed the power button and almost instantly smoke starting coming from the back of the card

Why'd you remove the CPU and then power on the system? Without a CPU in there, you will get nothing, no more than a person will get up and start walking without a brain.
That alone though shouldn't cause damage to anything - powering on a system wiithout a component (except maybe the CPU's heatsink) won't damage anything; the system just won't POST. Same goes for the 4-pin 12V cable. If it's not plugged in, and the system needs it, it won't power on.

I'd say your graphics card is toast though, if you're sure that's where the smoke is coming from.

Not to deliver insult here, but are you sure that both the card and the slot were PCI-E? Was one AGP, or standard PCI by chance?

 

[leedog2007]

What video card was it?

 

[CraigRT]

Just out of curiousity, why did you not have a heatsink for this CPU? did you buy it used or is it OEM?

Just seems odd, I buy retail CPU's myself and they come with heatsinks.

 

[Wheelman56]

Jeff: I'm sure they were both PCI-e, the graphics card was an ATI Radeon X850XT, the X850s only come in PCI-e, and the motherboard was an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum, and it fit into the slot, but it was loose in the slot, which is why I installed it all into the case, to stabilize the card so it wouldn't move.

Craig: Yes, the CPU was OEM.

 

[digiram]

Oh, damn. That's alot of money, bro.

 

[Aisengard]

Oh, ouch. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Wheelman56]

Yeah, I'll probably end up sending it back or something, I'll attempt it one more time after I get everything set up. If they don't take it, well there went $570 down the drain.

 

[PoopyPants]

dont even touch that video card due.
no offense but smoke was rolling out of it why the fvck would you even want to try it again
i guarentee you that the video card is dead.
and the only reason right off the top of my head that i know of that it might smoke like that is if you plugged in the power cable upside down on the video card.
and yes some video card makers make the power cord plug on the video card loose enought that you dont know that its upside down until its too late.
i did it last night to my 6800 GT. plugged it in, the power plug went in nicely just like it always does nad poof! when i turned it on the video card smoked.

so,,, me and BFG have a few words to exchange,, they cant expect something like this to not happen when they make the power plug loose enought hat you can plug in the cable upsaide down/backwards and not even know it.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Um, hmm. I just got finished reading Flexy's post here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1478987&enterthread=y

It seems to indicate that the 6-pin PCI-e adapter is there for people using 20-pin power supplies. A 24-pin power supply should be providing the extra power necessary for PCI-e cards that can/will draw more than 75W. Using both a 24-pin power supply connection to the motherboard AND the 6-pin PCI-e adapter to the video card itself could be supplying much more power to your video card than it can handle.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Wheelman56
Jeff: I'm sure they were both PCI-e, the graphics card was an ATI Radeon X850XT, the X850s only come in PCI-e, and the motherboard was an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum, and it fit into the slot, but it was loose in the slot, which is why I installed it all into the case, to stabilize the card so it wouldn't move.

My guess? Either the pins on the card, vs. the socket, perhaps something was crossing another pin and shorted out, or, when you "installed" it into the case, it shorted something that way. Did you properly install and screw down the entire board to the case, using the proper standoffs? Or just lay the mobo in the case, and use it to screw down the card's I/O bracket?

I can't imagine why you thought it was a good idea to do the "smoke test", without a CPU and heatsink also properly installed, but I guess you learned from this. Sorry to hear about that. (Btw, "smoke test" is what it really is called - guess it failed, in this case, since the magic smoke got let out prematurely.)

 

[aatf510]

I don't think he is at any kind of fault.
A smoking video card has nothing to do with no CPU installed. Just call whoever makes the card and yell at them!

 

[omniviper]

quote from the Mask "SMOOOKINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!"

and thats a big card loss there.
and yes, i would think that its the card manufacturers fault anyway

 

[akugami]

I have a 24pin PSU, OCZ Modstream 520 that is plugged in my motherboard which is a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. I also have the 6pin PCI-E power plug plugged into my X800 and nothing is burned out so I don't think it matters if you have both plugged in.

 

[Wheelman56]

I don't think ATI can do much in this case, I bought the card off of eBay so I don't know what I'm going to do if the guy doesn't give me a refund.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5166403633

Seller's payment instructions
Thank you for bidding ! Please provide payment via money order, cashier's check, or Paypal. Buyer must pay for the shipping cost also.. Since this is New ATI Radeon X850XT PE VIDEO CARD. so All sales are final, no returns, no refund, no warranty,no exceptions for this video card. Thank you for your consideration. any other questions please contact seller.

yay.

 

[aatf510]

Where the heck does it come up with that many x850xt PE for that cheap?
Are you sure that they are not remarked products?
for example, he get a regular x850xt, voltage bump it, mod the bios.

 

[Wheelman56]

I'm not sure, I just e-mailed ATI with the serial numbers and part number and I'm going to have them confirm that its a PE. I already had them check the serial numbers and stuff once but they didn't say whether it was a PE, they just told me it was a Dell card (I was asking about the power adapter that came with it, I was worried it wasn't strong enough and they said it would work with the card and that dell would also confirm this). This guy claimed on the eBay auction that this card was new, still sealed in the static bag. I got it and yes it was sealed in a static bag... but... where can a person buy these cards directly from Dell OEM? Wouldn't he have to buy a bunch of computers with the card, pull them out, and sell them? If he really pulled this directly out of a computer and put it into a static bag, does that mean he advertised this card falsely? (Trying to think of things I could get him on so he HAS to refund the card).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Without a CPU in there, you will get nothing, no more than a person will get up and start walking without a brain.

"Morning brain"? I think I've seen that. In fact, I've experiencd that.

 

[generallee01]

Originally posted by: Wheelman56
I'm not sure, I just e-mailed ATI with the serial numbers and part number and I'm going to have them confirm that its a PE. I already had them check the serial numbers and stuff once but they didn't say whether it was a PE, they just told me it was a Dell card (I was asking about the power adapter that came with it, I was worried it wasn't strong enough and they said it would work with the card and that dell would also confirm this). This guy claimed on the eBay auction that this card was new, still sealed in the static bag. I got it and yes it was sealed in a static bag... but... where can a person buy these cards directly from Dell OEM? Wouldn't he have to buy a bunch of computers with the card, pull them out, and sell them? If he really pulled this directly out of a computer and put it into a static bag, does that mean he advertised this card falsely? (Trying to think of things I could get him on so he HAS to refund the card).

Do you even realize you botched the install and burned up a really expensive video card because of your inexperience and carelessness? The seller shouldn't refund you a dime. Holy sh$t, you f*cked up baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

 

[Wheelman56]

WOW NICE OBSERVATION, register just to say that? I think its very obvious. Oh well, there's always one in every crowd, congratulations on being him.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: generallee01

Originally posted by: Wheelman56
I'm not sure, I just e-mailed ATI with the serial numbers and part number and I'm going to have them confirm that its a PE. I already had them check the serial numbers and stuff once but they didn't say whether it was a PE, they just told me it was a Dell card (I was asking about the power adapter that came with it, I was worried it wasn't strong enough and they said it would work with the card and that dell would also confirm this). This guy claimed on the eBay auction that this card was new, still sealed in the static bag. I got it and yes it was sealed in a static bag... but... where can a person buy these cards directly from Dell OEM? Wouldn't he have to buy a bunch of computers with the card, pull them out, and sell them? If he really pulled this directly out of a computer and put it into a static bag, does that mean he advertised this card falsely? (Trying to think of things I could get him on so he HAS to refund the card).

Do you even realize you botched the install and burned up a really expensive video card because of your inexperience and carelessness? The seller shouldn't refund you a dime. Holy sh$t, you f*cked up baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

Thank you for that informative and helpful post, I'm sure the op appreciated it almost as much as the rest of us. In the future, try not to be a moron and post such obvious insulting flamebait. Personally I feel for the OP. Most of us have had parts "go up in smoke" sometime in our history of dinking with computers, I know I have.

Now as that post was your first, pay attention and watch, you will see what a semi-helpful post looks like.

OP, Dell does sell graphics cards but I have not heard of them selling OEM versions. First thing I would do is call Dell and ask them about it. They tend to be pretty helpful when you are not troubleshooting a pre-built system. They should be able to confirm whether or not they sell OEM graphics cards and whether you, as the buyer of the ebay card, are covered under and subsequent warranty.

Also, I would call ATI. Tell them that the card was purchased off Ebay as a dell OEM but ask their opinion on what happened as well as what steps you should take. People can be very nice even if it is not their responsibility to help you. I have delt with both ATI's and Dells customer care before and was impressed.

I hope that helps!

-spike

 

[Wheelman56]

Thanks spike, I have already contacted ATI with the steps you indicated, I have yet to contact Dell (too late here to type another e-mail out about this card, did 2 already and they were really long). I was going to contact the ebay seller, but he's not going to help at all I can probably guaruntee that.

For those of you that would like to know:
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/X-850article/x850pics/x850pics%20014.jpg

If you look at the far top left corner of the graphics card in that picture, you'll see 3 little black squares going down the card, directly above the "CE", those seem to be what went up in smoke, since there is blackness all around them on the base of the board.

Whether or not I can't get some good deal from ATI or Dell, this card will be replaced with another X850, but I'm definitely leaving the assembily of this new computer to someone else.