I've heard a few stories as well... Card seems fine, nice and cool, no
problems... then one day it doesn't work.
Had it happen to me with my 9600XT. Put the ATI sink back on and it came
back to life.
Normally I'd just say it was a bad installation, but I was very careful and
checked it over before installing and again when it failed.
My friends 9800Pro is quite noisy so I'm thinking about selling it to him,
but I don't know if it's worth the risk.
More likely due to using too much artic silver compound. I have come across
cases where too much A/S was used and it has shot out when hot due to capillary
action similar to an inkjet printer. Once the cpu was brushed thoroughly with a
soft brush using isopropyl all was well again. I cannot think of anything else
that would stop your card from running, other than total stupidity of course...
such as over tightening the 2 pressure bolts. BTW the instructions state to
tighten down those bolts until the gap is taken up between the rubber spacers,
IMO this results in lots more pressure being required than is really
necessary.... too much IMO. To remove the space between the clamp arm and the
spacer you have to tighten it so the clamp arm actually bends... the
instructions say this is okay, but the clamp pressure to do this is hell of a
lot, Its sufficient just to clamp it up so the heatsink is secure with no
movement.
So maybe some people are over tightening the clamp causing the gpu core to crack
or become damaged in some way.
Mike
Mike
