What damages video cards?

axer

Hi y'all,
I just fixed a friend of mine's dell computer. The screen was showing green lines and it just came up with a blue screen after the windows splash screen. So obviously the video card was fúcked. There was onboard video on the mobo so thats ok.
What would be possible causes for this card getting damaged?
I was thinking maybe bad card or power surge. What are other causes do you think?

Thanks.

Blub2k4

a hammer would do a good job on it.
If you took it out of the pc and stood on it with heavy shoes.

Seriously, overclocking, fan not working.

prospect

Usually it is something relating to overheating.

Vents blocked, alot of dust, and as Bulb said, overclocking, fan not working, etc.

Gilgamesh

was the dell computer still in warranty?
if so, contact them instead.

otherwise, what graphicscard is it.
I mean it will hardly be overheating if it is something like a Radeon 9200

McClane

Games really damage graphics cards. Whatever you do don't play any games or if you have to don't play for longer then 10 minutes at a time with an hour break in between. I once played counter-strike for 12 minutes and my geforce 6800 Ultra got fecked.

:rolleyes:

overheating.

Endurance Man

Sounds like DUST<<<<<<< .

jozi

Over clocking and heat i think would be the main reason gfx cards die.
Gfx not getting enough power fed from the psu cant be good either, same goes for getting to much juice.

And whats with the stuppid replies standing on a gfx card, wtf and not playing more than 10mins Last i checked this wasnt the humour forum

irlrobins

Endurance Man wrote:

Sounds like DUST<<<<<<< .

Yea could be. I remember working in tech support for an irish ISP (back when 56K was the fastest you can go!). Anyway one weekend we had to move to the sales dept to handle calls due to work being done in the support room. One PC screen had a nice yellow hue to it. Opened case, and it was full of dust. gave it a quick blow and hey presto, screen was grand again. So maybe remove your card, and make sure contacts on it are clean, etc.

you never know, sometimes its the simpliest of things that fubars it all up.

Sorry for the length, but you know u love it!

Blub2k4

jozi wrote:

And whats with the stuppid replies standing on a gfx card, wtf and not playing more than 10mins Last i checked this wasnt the humour forum

show me a gfx card that will take being stood on.

I was perhaps making a point about such an open question as the OP had made, my answer was not stupid it was a possibility with the parameters provided.

Gurgle

axer wrote:

What would be possible causes for this card getting damaged?
I was thinking maybe bad card or power surge.

The fact that the semiconductor industry grades these ICs as 'Toy', carries out no burn-in or any other stress tests & minimises test time (and therefore coverage) for maximum throughput.
(In other words, bad card)

the_syco

Dell, eh? Check to see how close the graphics card is to the next card. In my own Dell, I had a problem that the graphics card fan was 5mm away from the soundcard, thus died over a 6 month period. I fixed it by moving the soundcard to a free PCI slot, thus making room for the graphics card fan to "breath".

jozi

Blub2k4 wrote:

show me a gfx card that will take being stood on.

I was perhaps making a point about such an open question as the OP had made, my answer was not stupid it was a possibility with the parameters provided.

Even a little bit of comon sense would tell somone not to stand on a gfx card, fine if you broke yours that way but it dont think the op was looking for answers along them lines

CyberGhost

Blub2k4 wrote:

a hammer would do a good job on it.
If you took it out of the pc and stood on it with heavy shoes.

LOL!!!

Blub2k4

jozi wrote:

Even a little bit of comon sense would tell somone not to stand on a gfx card, fine if you broke yours that way but it dont think the op was looking for answers along them lines

If you look back at the answer, after my moment of astoundingly offensive levity I did give the most useful answer, seems you're the one short on common sense.

Gurgle

Blub2k4 wrote:

brevity

Em levity surely ?

Blub2k4 wrote:

I did give the most useful answer

My answer was more informative.
*sulks

Blub2k4

Gurgle wrote:

Em levity surely ?

My answer was more informative.
*sulks

levity it is

axer

Gilgamesh wrote:

was the dell computer still in warranty?
if so, contact them instead.

otherwise, what graphicscard is it.
I mean it will hardly be overheating if it is something like a Radeon 9200

Its a nVidia GeForce FX5200. Its not under warrenty as its a good few years old. I have GeForce FX5200 aswell and when I took it out of my computer to test it on this dell computer I found my card to be really hot. There is only a heat sink on the card. I have a fan on the cpu and an 80mm fan my artec case. I leave the computer on the whole time. There is 2 slots free below the card and nothing above the card. Couldn't believe how hot it had become. The 80mm fan is def working. Should I get a second fan or attach one to the heat sink on the card?

stevenmu

I think it's quite normal for it to get very hot. The default slowdown temperature in the nVidia drivers is 127 degrees :eek: so while it could be running at 60+ degrees and feel very hot to touch it could be well within normal temperatures.

Malafus

It's not unusual for GFX cards to run at 60, 70, 80 or even 90 degrees.... it's not good for the card, but it's not unusual. Once you start reaching the 100+ degree mark, it's really getting too hot. Personally, mine (XFX 6600gt) runs at 40 idle, then jumps to 72 within 60 seconds of running ATItool - at least that's what my nVidia tools are reporting - I don't trust them much. The temperature continues to increase to about 88 or so, then it seems to stick.

Gurgle

General spec ICs: -40C to +85C.
Running over 80C, you're slowly toasting it.

Malafus

Gurgle wrote:

General spec ICs: -40C to +85C.
Running over 80C, you're slowly toasting it.

Holy ****, -40C !!??! You phase cool or something?

Gurgle

Malafus wrote:

Holy ****, -40C !!??! You phase cool or something?

-40C is bog standard.
Probably because you get that kind of temperature outdoors in winter over quite a portion of the occupied world.

Fair enough it would be very difficult to keep it at that temp, as the IC is going to heat itself up, but it has to work as soon as its powered on too.