Water block installation problems on ati9800. Bad card?

N

No Name

n00b
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Mar 9, 2005
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So when I turn on my computer and my screen is WAY corrupted, does that mean my video card is bad?

Because it started doing that ever since I installed my water block on it. At first the water block wasn't cooling the gpu down, and it locked up. And since then it has kind of gotten worse and worse till I can hardly see anything and after a min or so it will lock up.

Any help would make me happy! ;)

Oh and sorry if this is in the wrong section.
:rolleyes:
 
Oh sigh, So no one has any ideas. that's okay. Poor me. Poor poor no name. Sigh,
 
Seems you damaged the card with the watercooling setup, a leak maybe?
 
What waterblock are you using on your ATI 9800? How much did you tighten the fastening hardware? If you tightened it too much, you could have crushed the GPU core. Also, did you check to see if the video cards shim is preventing the waterblock from touching the GPU core? If the waterblock isn't touching the GPU core, it will instantly overheat and cause massive artifacting to the point where the screen is just plain fubar'ed. If you give us more info, we can possibly help you out. :)
 
Yeah, sounds like it is not seated correctly or your crushed your core :(
 
Well the block I was using was the zalman zm-gwb1. And the very first time it didn't seat right because I used the big one instead of the smaller water block. :rolleyes: but the second time I had the correct block installed but it still didn't cool. After a few reinstalls of that block, I changed from the thermal past I got from radio shack, to that crap that came with the package. IT then cooled it to about 55c.

As for water leaking it didn't. I was using compression clamps that I got from my dad's auto shop, and all hoses were brand new. The thought did come to me about over tightening it, but I highly doubt it. I've installed a few of these in the past. ;)
 
Have you checked the core to see if it is chipped? Did you remove the shim?
 
No I havn't looked at the core nor did I remove the shim. The shim shouldn't need to be removed because the water block is notched out for the shim. And if the gpu is chiped is there anything I could do? Or is it trash?

and one thing is like the 5th time i reinstalled the card and water block, it was working just fine, and the temp was under 60c. But after 5 min or so it started getting artifacts and then got wose. It has yet to work corectly since.

I will look at the card when I get home. Posting from work!
 
you may have tightened the block down too much, so it flexed the card and did Bad Stuff. i think i did that to my 9000. other than that, i dunno.
nothing to see here, folks...
 
I feel your pain, that really sucks. Hopefully it's not a cracked/chiped core. Try putting the stock cooling back on and pray for a working video card.
 
If that block was notched for the shim than you could have easily over-tightened it and damaged that card. Sounds like you have some experience so hopefully that's not it. Possibly you damaged something when you put the wrong block on there. Did you run it with the wrong block on it? Do you still have the stock cooler? You should probably reinstall that to see if it works without the wc block.
 
Well I did install the stock cooler and there was no change.

As for the gpu,,, I took the heat sink off and noticed at the corner a very small "Scratch". So I got out my camera and took a pic http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v403/Merchise/DSC01133.jpg and in the pic it looks LOTS worse then it does in real life.

Oh and on a side note, I installed that water block on my old 9000pro and I immediately got massive artifacts just like on my 9800. But I felt the back of the gpu and it was cool to the touch. And I know that it wasn't installed to tight because I was holding the block in place
 
I have very bad news for you, my friend. I had a 9800 Pro, and did the SAME exact thing the first time I watercooled. There was a slight chip in the corner, and the screen was very distorted. Basically:

The card is DEAD

It will never work again, you can't fix it.
 
<bones> He's dead, Jim</bones>

The card is FUBARed, but at least you have an excuse to go buy a shiny new card now :)
 
Wow...this is sad to hear. From looking at the picture, I figured it was toast too. Small scratches on any processing core is a very very bad thing. :(

If your interested in another ATI 9800pro 128mb video card, take a look over at Fry's Electronics. They normally have these cards for only $180. Oh, and they are the ones with thr R360 core which means you can flash the bios to that of a 9800XT. Its a toss up however if they are the ones that have the Hynix or Samsung memory. Me and a few friends picked up a couple of these cards at a local Fry's Electronics store and every one of them had the R360 cores and some had Hynix memory whilst the others had the Samsung.
 
(tear,)

Oh man, I thought so. I was hopping for anything else but that, but I can't say I didn't see that coming. Sigh, I guess it may have slid just a bit when I was installing the hoses or something. I feel like crying!!! lol
The worst thing is I can't go up to my friends and say, "Dude! I just fried my 9800xt because I over clocked it to much"... NOOO I had to install the block wrong and screw it up.

So any recommend a good replacement for it? Must be agp though. I don't think I can spend too much, right now, but something like $200 or so should be fine. I was thinking of another 9800xt or maybe even a 6600gt or something.

Oh and thanks guys for helping me out. :)
 
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