Help!! Installed VGA silencer screen full of green dots

M

MikeG

installed silencer rev 2 on 9800 AIW. screen full of dots. windows
desktop immediatly starts pixelating.can't run dvds. i f0llowed
intructions carefully.
tried alot of paste then tried a little. i noticed the heatsink won't
fully cover the shim is this a shim problem?is there any way to get
the shim off?will that help any sugestions?
 
L

Lou

MikeG said:
installed silencer rev 2 on 9800 AIW. screen full of dots. windows
desktop immediatly starts pixelating.can't run dvds. i f0llowed
intructions carefully.
tried alot of paste then tried a little. i noticed the heatsink won't
fully cover the shim is this a shim problem?is there any way to get
the shim off?will that help any sugestions?

I have read a post about someone that took the shim off and tightened the
screws too tight and broke the GPU. Others have just added a lot of paste,
but it seems you tried that.
Not all cards are the same and the some have big gaps from the HS to GPU and
some have no gap.
If you take the shim off then be very carful tightening the screws.

I would email arctic-cooling.

Lou
 
T

TMack

MikeG said:
installed silencer rev 2 on 9800 AIW. screen full of dots. windows
desktop immediatly starts pixelating.can't run dvds. i f0llowed
intructions carefully.
tried alot of paste then tried a little. i noticed the heatsink won't
fully cover the shim is this a shim problem?is there any way to get
the shim off?will that help any sugestions?

This was a known problem with some 9500 and 9700 cards - the shim sits
higher than the GPU. You will need to either modify your heatsink or remove
the shim. (You could always use a thick thermal transfer pad but this would
defeat the object of the exercise). See here for an example of shim removal
on a 9700 http://sid.nrgservers.net/9700mod/ I would recommend using a
credit card or other thin rigid plastic rather than a knife as there are
small easily-damaged components under the shim. I agree with the other
person who has replied - be careful not to over tighten the heatsink if it
is being screwed down to hold it in place.

Tony
 
D

Dominic Chin

I had this same exact problem with this cooler. I visual verified the cooler
made good contact with the heatsink. I put alittle paste on the core, spread
it out evenly and and places it on the cooler. The cooler, without very much
pressure touched the core and the imprint of the paste spread out evenly. I
also looks at the card sideways and the core in fact does sit alittle higher
then the shim, just a tad. Check this out:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=738150&perpage=&pagenumber=6

A few people have had the same problem. Its a known problem with this cooler
and out it sits. I wrote to Artic cooling and see what they have to say
about it. We shouldnt have to remove the shim since if you need to return
your card for some reason to ATI they will not accept it.

Dominic- HighLife on [H]ardocp.com
 
S

Sham B

Haha!

Its always the 0.01% of unsuccesful mods that get 99.99% of the airtime.
Dont worry, buy one, they are great.

S
 
J

John Dunn

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=738150&perpage=&pagenumber=6

A few people have had the same problem. Its a known problem with this cooler
and out it sits. I wrote to Artic cooling and see what they have to say
about it. We shouldnt have to remove the shim since if you need to return
your card for some reason to ATI they will not accept it.

Dominic- HighLife on [H]ardocp.com

Cripes! After reading all that I won't be buying this or any other VGA
cooler. I'll just stick with stock and save my money and grief.
 
D

Dominic Chin

I would not buy their products again. It killed my 9700 AIW and another 9800
AIW. The first time on mine, i didnt remove the shim. My friend tried it on
his cause he thought i did something wrong. He removed the shim and made
sure it wasnt to tight. It did the exact samething. I think its something to
do with the power connector being on the video card itself and not on a
molex through the PSU. I was reading that this fan draws alittle over
3watts. The AIW series of cards already draw a shit load of power on boot
up. As soon as the pc posted with the VGA silencer it showed
artifacts...like 2 seconds after being on. That cannot be caused by bad
contact with the chip cause its barely hot till about 10 seconds after boot
up.

I wrote to Arctic cooling and please do the same so they know im not the
only one with this problem. Also check out that HARDOCP.COM and RAGE3d.COM
they have a few people that have had this happen to them. Mostly with AIW
line of cards.

Another thing to is that if its a contact problem, then why after i put on
the stock heatsink back on the problem remains? I even UNDER clocked the
card to 290/290 and still the card shows it. This cannot be caused by
anything else but power...it draws to much through the card. Cause if the
cooler is replaced and knowing that the stock cooler will make contact and
cool, then why would the artifacts remain?

Dominic

PS-Write them a email when you get a chance. I wrote it to:

(e-mail address removed) & (e-mail address removed)
 
C

Chalky

MikeG said:
installed silencer rev 2 on 9800 AIW. screen full of dots. windows
desktop immediatly starts pixelating.can't run dvds. i f0llowed
intructions carefully.
tried alot of paste then tried a little. i noticed the heatsink won't
fully cover the shim is this a shim problem?is there any way to get
the shim off?will that help any sugestions?

Well, I installed a VGA silencer on my Radeon 9700 pro and about 10 minutes
after using it i heard a loud pop from inside my case and my card just died.
Totally dead. I think I might have tightened the screws too much--the core
might have expanded a bit and just cracked or something. I also was
overclocking quite a bit but there were no artifacts at all when it died and
I was using ATI tool. So I had to go out and spend $250 to replace it with a
9800 PRO, which is a nice card and it is clocked higher than my 9700 PRO
was, and guess what--really not much difference in performance. This all
happened two days ago. The bottom line, the benefit you get from
overclocking and messing with alternative coolers is really not worth it
because it voids your warranty. The silent part is certainly nice because
the 9800 pro is a noisy bastard, but I'm out $250. The installation process
is fairly simple, but the card itself is fairly delicate and there are a
hundred ways to destroy your card and not even realize it. All it takes is a
little bit of cooling gunk in the wrong place, or a tiny tiny component that
gets bumped, or who knows. And you really have no recourse...so I'm gonna
just play damn games and wait for the next generation of cards to come out!
 
D

Derek Hawkins

Instead of removing the frame or using globs of thermal paste or thermal
tape, why not use a metal shim between the GPU and the heat sink? You can
make this shim from a piece of 1/32" or 1/16" aluminum sheet, cut it out the
size of the GPU, sand off any burrs, etc.. Make sure it will be well seated
within the frame then put thermal compound on both sides and sandwich it
between the GPU and heatsink. It will certainly transfer heat better than
using thermal paste or tape to fill the gap. Surprised they don't sell heat
transfer shims for this purpose.
 
D

Dominic Chin

There are a few people who took the power connector to the fan and ran it
throught a molex connector. NOT 1 of them had this problem. That is more
reason to belive that the problem with this is the power being connected
through the card. It draws to much power from the card, alittle over 3
watts. Considering that the 9800 and 9700 are power hogs. The 9700 AIW more
so then the 9800 AIW. I wrote to Arctic Cooling and still havent heard from
them. Im going to spam their email till i get a reply. They probaly know
whats going on and dont want to recall these since its only a problem with
the AIW line of cards. Its a fuggin shame, I will never buy another one of
their products again.

Dominic
 
M

MikeG

Dominic Chin said:
There are a few people who took the power connector to the fan and ran it
throught a molex connector. NOT 1 of them had this problem. That is more
reason to belive that the problem with this is the power being connected
through the card. It draws to much power from the card, alittle over 3
watts. Considering that the 9800 and 9700 are power hogs. The 9700 AIW more
so then the 9800 AIW. I wrote to Arctic Cooling and still havent heard from
them. Im going to spam their email till i get a reply. They probaly know
whats going on and dont want to recall these since its only a problem with
the AIW line of cards. Its a fuggin shame, I will never buy another one of
their products again.

Dominic
I sent several emails to artic cooling, no reponse yet. It looks like
my card is dead. As for sham b if you don't have anything helpful to
add to this thread then don't post. grow up.
 
S

Sham B

I sent several emails to artic cooling, no reponse yet. It looks like
my card is dead. As for sham b if you don't have anything helpful to
add to this thread then don't post. grow up.

Okay.

My post was to a comment in the thread that diverged from your original
question. I was not answering to your original post. this is the nature of
threads and newgroups in general. You dont own a thread if you start it,
and they tend to meander by their own accord.

On to the issue in case...

I have installed two artic coolers, one to a 9500 pro, and one to a 9800
pro. both took me twenty minutes each and significantly increased the max
overclock capabilities of the cards in question. I therefore believe that
the cooler is a useful addition to an ATI card, although as with all
modifications, it carries some risk, as well as invalidating your guarantee
on the card. This is not something new.

My experience is as follows (with relevent comments to your situation)...

In the case of my 9500 pro, I saw that the core was below the shim, and took
appropriate precautions. In all honesty, I feel that your problem is that
you did not see this and probably fried your GPU. Once you have destroyed
the GPU, adding more paste would not help. It cannot be a power problem
caused by the bigger artic fan because as you say, your problem is
permanent - undervoltage problems would not destroy your GPU

In the case of the 9800 pro, I saw that it tended to crash after a few hours
of play at stock speeds (something that it doesnt seem to do now, even when
overclocked agressively). I bougt an artic to fix this but during
installation I also found that this issue may have been down to insufficient
and cheap paste on the GPU, something that may well be a feature of all
cards like mine (Sapphire 9800 pro, boxed in the 'lite' package). After
seeing this, I stopped my heat sink mod and took the precaution of ordering
better paste (Artic silver 5), and putting my heat sink installation on hold
until I was sure I could perform the job adequately (ie I waited for
delivery of the paste). Far be it for me to say that you may have rushed
you rmodification, but it is worth noting that heat is a major killer of
high performance video cards, and if there is any doubt, you should hold off
finishing the work, irrespective of whether this prevents you using your
video card for a short time. Do it 'right slowly' is better than do it
'right now'.

I understand that you are angry about losing your card in the process of
modification, but that is no cause to belittle others who have had a
different experience with the same modification. It is just another
relevent fact and I mean no harm by saying it, and certainly wouldnt ask you
about your age.

Hope that helps

S
 
M

MikeG

okay Sham B, nice response. However, I was not refering to you age
just the tone of your comments:

"Haha!"

"Its always the 0.01% of unsuccesful mods that get 99.99% of the
airtime.
Dont worry, buy one, they are great."


I have an 9800AIW and from what I read on this board and several
others it looks like a lot more than 0.01% of people are having
issue's with this VGA cooler.

I have been modding and overclocking for over ten years and have never
fried anything The installation of this cooler is pretty easy
actually and i followed the directions to a T. I know how fragile the
GPU is and was extra cautious in tightening the screws. Based on my
experiences and others with similar posts there is something that is
not up to par with this silencer.
the companies refusal to even answer post is what has totally turned
me off.
 
D

Dominic Chin

ShamB I dont think this was the problem here. I think the problem has to do
with the draw amount on the card. I did look at the core and on the 9700 AIW
the core sits a tad higher then the shim. To verify this I placed some paste
on the core and spread it evenly. I didnt use all that much. I laid the card
on top of the cooler and pressed down gently. Enough to simulate the
pressure of the card. The paste spread out evenly and even buldged a bit on
the sides. I wiped off the excess and started with the attachment. Another
thing that also told me it was the fan was the when I booted up I noticed
that the Post screen fonts were messed up. I turned off the computer about 4
seconds into it. I touched the card on the bottem where the core is and it
was hot at ALL. There is no way, no how that a core could fry without being
hot. If that wasnt enough I took this to a friends house and used a 9700 Pro
(Not AIW). I told him I just wanted to check out something and wouldnt mount
it. I plugged the fan into the card and started up. Guess what happened? The
machine would power up for a sec and then power right off. Even hot plugging
the card didnt work. I belive some of these coolers fan draws over the rated
3 watts. Under powering your card could in theory cause damage also.
 
J

Julian Richards

I'm fairly hamfisted at this sort of stuff and haven't had much
experience at it. Having got an Arctic Cooling VGA cooler just because
it was only £7, I have had no problems and overclocked my 9800SE to
438/364. I had it even higher but for some reason the Geothermal level
of UT2003 didn't like it and added some random polygons.

What significance is there to the ratio of GPU speed to RAM speed?

I am of the opinion that the Arctic Cooling fan is the one that
Radeons should come with as standard, It would have added a minimal
cost to a card.
--

Julian Richards
computer "at" richardsuk.f9.co.uk

XP Home
L7S7A2 motherboard
Powercolor 9800 SE 8 pipelines with Omega drivers
1 GB RAM
10 GB + 80 GB HDs
CD+DVD/CDRW drives
 
D

Dominic Chin

The problem is mainly with the 9700-9800 pro card and the 97-98 AIW cards.
They take alot of power to boot up and this is a known fact.

Like i said before I think some of their fans are faulty and causing these
problems. I even tested the fan on another 9700 pro card and it didnt get to
post screen before it turned right now.
 

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