Fan Fell Off GPU, Still Safe to Use?

A

AEracer7

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
119
Earlier today I noticed my temps hit 90 while mining on my second card (an XFX 7970 double D, usually stable at 82/83C with 100% fan). So I shut down the miner for a while and started it back up later after it had cooled. Temps were fine (86/87C 100% fan) for about an hour, then as I was leaving for work I noticed it climb up to 100 really fast and hit 101 for a few seconds. I immediately shut the pc down and left, when I got back home I opened up the pc case and this is what I found below.

Card still installed:
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae330/AEracer7/Mobile Uploads/20140106_220438_zpse8acc903.jpg

Card pulled out and picture of from underside (bottom where pci-e is) of card.
You can see that the entire assembly for the fan is not seated although after pulling it out gravity did seat it much more than it was in the case.
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae330/AEracer7/Mobile Uploads/20140106_221135_zps05d1eb9f.jpg

Card after reseating the fan.
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae330/AEracer7/Mobile Uploads/20140106_221159_zps116a4cb0.jpg

Is this gpu still safe to use with careful monitoring? Or should I turn it into XFX on warranty, or change the cooler? I've been wanting to change it for a while, just waiting on a reply from XFX about these new warranty stickers on the back of the stock heatsink.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Edit:
After I finished posting this I put the gpu back into it's original box (didn't bash it around or anything) and just from setting it upside down the fan came off again which instills even less faith in this cooler.

Pics of gpu in box:
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae330/AEracer7/Mobile Uploads/20140106_235902_zps6d891cf2.jpg
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae330/AEracer7/Mobile Uploads/20140106_235849_zps04712ba7.jpg


Also one other worry. Why did the gpu hit 101C and not shutoff immediately? I have read (unfortunately after buying this card) that these gpus don't have the best cooling (especially for me in crossfire) and there have been a few account of people melting their gpus (literally, some great pictures in those threads) but that was all supposed to be fixed in this neutered version I have without a bios switch.
 
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Pretty sure it is not safe. Try to RMA but XFX is going to give you a headache before you see another card from them.
 
Okay thanks. That's about what I figured as far as XFX and gpu don't often cover fans but this might be a special case.
From a closer inspection it seems that the fan came out of the motor itself, do gpu fans have a little plastic retaining ring like case fans do? If so I can unscrew the motor from the front of the heat sink without touching the warranty stickers and try to fix it myself.
 
Here would be my order of things:
a) Try XFX Warranty
b) Try to put a fan on the side and see if it fixes the issue or do a small 80 mm fan strap on :p
c) Try to fix the fan yourself

XFX sucks ass and their double d cooler is louder than reference in all benches that I saw whilst purchasing my 7970 last year. Your only real hope is warranty claim since these things aren't just supposed to fall off lol.
 
Okay thank you very much for your help, I'm just going to call them tomorrow no matter how long I am on hold. Their email support is useless. They haven't replied to me in over a week with my new account because I needed to recover my old account after they upgraded their support in the spring and lost my old account from my 4850.

Also I agree completely that XFX is awful but I scooped this card up on Black Friday for 210.... The same time cards were 300 plus on ebay.
 
The card might still be fine, but I would send it back to XFX anyway. They should at the very least replace the fan under warranty. If it's a bad card, you'll know soon enough when you start mining on it again.
 
If you are going the warranty route DO NOT tamper, remove screws, or anything to the card. If they suspect you did you might be SOL.
 
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