any agp video card that does not burn mobo?

[sharonpst]

hi all

does anyone know of an 8x agp video card that does NOT burn itself and the
mobo if the molex connector is not used?

i understand that the agp standards are old and do not provide enough power
for recent gpus. but do they have to burn themselves up and the mobo as
well? can't they just put a circuit breaker?

if i buy a very good psu with protection against overvoltage etc..., will
that help?

my psu blew up at a time when i was very busy. i hooked up another psu for
a quick test. i forgot that my video card, which was installed more than a
year ago, has a molex connector. it was the most expensive smokeworks i've
ever watched ...

thanks

 

[Paul]

hi all

does anyone know of an 8x agp video card that does NOT burn itself and the
mobo if the molex connector is not used?

i understand that the agp standards are old and do not provide enough power
for recent gpus. but do they have to burn themselves up and the mobo as
well? can't they just put a circuit breaker?

if i buy a very good psu with protection against overvoltage etc..., will
that help?

my psu blew up at a time when i was very busy. i hooked up another psu for
a quick test. i forgot that my video card, which was installed more than a
year ago, has a molex connector. it was the most expensive smokeworks i've
ever watched ...

thanks

That is not true of all cards. My ATI 9800Pro card, puts a warning message on the
monitor screen, when the connector is missing. It doesn't seem to smoke while that
is going on.

Video cards may have more than one power converter (switching regulator) onboard.
If there are two, one could be powered from the slot, and the other powered
from the auxiliary connector. And in doing so, the designers should take into
account, the scenario that the connector is missing.

(Core regulator)
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce7600gs-voltmodding_4.html

(Memory regulator)
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce7600gs-voltmodding_5.html

(Another example)
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/sapphire-9800xt_6.html

A guess here, is that whatever the original failure did to the system, set
it up for the second spectacular failure. What you were viewing, may not
have been totally due to the missing connector, but to some other
complicating factor. You'd have to check where the smoke was coming
from, to formulate a theory.

Paul

 

[sharonpst]

If the agp slot and card are toast, it would seem a good

time to move to a PCI Express based platform instead of
buying both a board and video card that're AGP.

hi all

thanks for your replies. come to think of it, you guys might be right. it
could be just a coincidence, but at least five components have died in
quick succession: the pci usb card, the psu, the agp card, the mobo, the
cpu adaptor, the mobile rack, the dvd burner, one of the ribbons. well, i
should admit that my system, at 6.5 years old, already has long teeth.

the smoke comes from the agp card. i have thrown it away but i believe
it's an ati 800 with a built-in molex connector. the agp slot is toast.
but i still have a backup motherboard with an agp slot.

i will install a new agp card once i can find some written assurances
from the manufacturers that their video cards will not toast themselves
or the agp slot. otherwise, i will have to find another backup
motherboard.

thanks again

 

[Andrew Smallshaw]

thanks for your replies. come to think of it, you guys might be right. it
could be just a coincidence, but at least five components have died in
quick succession: the pci usb card, the psu, the agp card, the mobo, the
cpu adaptor, the mobile rack, the dvd burner, one of the ribbons. well, i
should admit that my system, at 6.5 years old, already has long teeth.

Such widespread damage is almost certainly down to the PSU. If
the AGP was drawing too much current the damge would be much more
localised than that.

 

[sharonpst]

Such widespread damage is almost certainly down to the PSU. If
the AGP was drawing too much current the damge would be much more
localised than that.

if it were an el cheapo psu, i wouldn't get angry. but the psu that blew
up,as far as i can recall, was an antec 480w true power that cost me almost
A$150. it lasted less than two years, maybe 1.5 years.

anyway, my next psu will have protection against overvoltage, undervoltage
and everything else, including earthquake ...

cheers

 

[RobV]

You're sure the _AGP_ versions don't have one? It sure
looks like they do in pictures.

I missed the AGP part. Just noticed the GPU number and gave info for
the PCIe version, which I have.

Thanks for clearing that up and sorry for the mistake.

[snip]