sixate

For the past few days my PC has been acting weird as hell. It's been freezing up for no reason at all. Well I think I found my problem. This one time I rebooted I got a message that said the power connector was not plugged into my vid card, but it obviously was, and the time before that it said that my display driver would not load because the video driver was fucked up..... Well, it didn't say that exactly, but I'm sure you all know what I mean.

So, I take out my 9800PRO and here's what I see.

Here's the molex connector that plugs into my card. The pin on the far right is burned. It's kinda hard to tell in this pic, but believe me, it is.



Here's the connector on the card itself. Hard not to see the burns here. Now I have to RMA this bitch and get a new one. For now I have to deal with a piece of shit 64MB 8500...
Looks like no gaming for me for a while.





What the hell would cause this? Just some shitty luck or what? I ask because I have absolutley no overheating issues at all. The hottest that my sytem ever gets is 49°C on the CPU, and my case temt tops out at around 34°C, but they're usually much lower.

I'll also add that I've never overclocked the card, so I don't wanna hear: That's what you get for overclocking.....

hrdwareguy

Damn...never seen that before.

Tell ya what though, since you don't like your 8500, you can send it to me, and I'll let you use my 7000.

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primal

The connection at that pin may have been a little loose. This could cause arcing between the pin and it's sleeve which would make some extra heat. You could try a different molex connector in your PC. When I had a 9700 pro I had similar problems (no visible burns on anything, but I had the lock ups, and such). It just happened out of the blue after having the card a few months. I just switched to a different molex connector and it worked.

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yodapaul

Well, it looks like you burned out the +5VDC on your power connector. Maybe from a short of some kind. I would check your power supply as well, you might have a bad power supply.

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sixate

My power supply is fine.
Already got an RMA # from ATI. That bitch will be in the mail tomorrow after work.

This just started a few days ago. I had to move my PC because I got new furniture. Before that my PC ran nearly perectly ever since I built it 4 and a half months ago.

yodapaul

I only suggest checking your power supply so that you next video card doesn't have the same problem. I have a client who had that same thing happen to him, except no burn marks. I have never seen burn marks on a WORKING Power Supply. I have seen it on burned out Power Supplies. If you have a volt meter, I would check the connectors to see if your voltages are within specs.

Just a friendly suggestion, based on what I have read.

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sixate

I'm getting 4.86-4.9 on the +5VDC.

yodapaul

OOOOK, I'll be quiet now.

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oblar

I am wondering (i have no experience in this, so it is of more of a curiousity), do you have your system on any sort of UPS system?

just wondering if you had a power surge on your system that caused a bit of extra power to your entire system, but your video card took the brunt.

have never had a video card with that sort of connection, so never a chance at that sort of problem.

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Gotenks

Hey six, I always have contant troubles connecting/disconnecting that damn adapter. Everytime I try to remove the cord from it, I almost feel like i'm gunna break the damn thing off. If you've had similar troubles, it could've been too much taking off/putting on the connector? Hope the RMA goes through w/o any problems.

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Redjake

If it was me, I'd just snip the molex off and wire another one in until it burns up again That's my johnny-rigging prowess though.....

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BoCo

If you don't have battery backup, you better get it. Seriously. If that problem was by any chance caused by a power surge, then a UPS would have stopped it because they all have surge protection built in.

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oblar

BoCo, I have a UPS on parts of my system mainly due to the constant surges I get in my place. It has stopped all of those now. Tempted to get a few more to stop it on all of my major appliances.

was curious if he had one or not, because if he did then it would rule out a power surge.

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sixate

No, I don't have one, and recently my power flickered, then lost it completely while I was uploading something to BoCo, and shortly after is when I started to have problems.

Oh well, live and learn. Time to get this bitch in the mail.....