Need some help guys and gals... possibly killed my 8800GTX

[bitdweeb]

Looking for some help, figured somebody out there may have seen this and knows what is causing this. I have two EVGA 8800GTX KO cards in SLI mode, both watercooled, one of the connections on my primary card (the one closest to the CPU) sprung a leak all over the card. Got the system shut down and everything cleaned up and dried off. Started the system back up and everything looked great, ran 3dmark2006 without any problems. I watched the system close for about an hour to watch temps and all with everything looking great. Figured I would let the system run all night to so that diskeeper could do its IFAAST thing. Anyway when I got up in the morning the system was crashed and now when I try to boot up the screen does not look right at all. Hard to describe but it is slightly distorted; there are pixels out of place and such, lines and garbage on the screen. I took the card out and took the heatsink off, cleaned everything up with the ArticSilver cleaner, reapplied ArticSilver 5 and get the exact same results. Have I fried the card or do you all think it is a residue issue on the card from the leak? I have been thinking about switching cards and run them in SLI to see what I get but have not had the time to deal with the watercooling on that project.

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[fender22]

you should put up more system specs.. and also did u try running just one at a time? Try that if u have not... Id just go through a process of elimination try one card at a time, try one output at a time.. and if that doesn't work.. try a whole nother video card.. Idk just go through the process of elimination. Oh maybe check the monitor too. if nothing works I suppose u know what to do..Return one or both cards.. Good luck!

 

[bitdweeb]

System SPECS:

Intel Quad Core Extreme 2.66
Corsair 800MHz DDRII 4GB
150MB Raptors running RAID 0
ASUS Striker Extreme MB
Viewsonic VX2235 monitor

I have switched out my second 8800GTX in and it works fine in any of the PCI-E slots. So I have narrowed it down to the one card. I have an air cooler I used to do it... right at the moment I want to get this all up and running without the watercooling, I only have one air cooler right now for the 8800GTX's with another on order.

 

[PCKid777]

Just a thought: if you tried running both cards in Sli when in crashed again, could it possibly be that the Sli bridge has residue on it or shorted?

 

[fender22]

Just a thought: if you tried running both cards in Sli when in crashed again, could it possibly be that the Sli bridge has residue on it or shorted?

thats a intuitive thought, yeah try that too

 

[bitdweeb]

Thought of that, if I put the one card in by itself then I get the crap on the screen. I have pretty much narrowed it down to the one card. I have rulled out the bridge, the PCI-E slot and the other card. The one thing I have not tried yet it switching the cards and see what happens. I will have to set up the watercooling in order to do that or wait until my second air cooler comes in. I trashed the ones that came on the card... they are crap. Also does anyone know what the best thing is to clean the cards with? Don't know if anyone has looked really close at one of these cards or not but the RAM does not sit flush with the card, there is a slight gap and I am worried water could have gotten in there and it trapped.

 

[plguzman]

Yeah well, doesn't look good. When you have this kind of trouble you have to disconnect any electrical equipment and let it dry for at least 1 full day, just to be sure there is not humidity anywhere. Also you should have used a drying tool (hair dryer for example), to speed up the process, and avoid further oxidation.

 

[fender22]

High purity isopropyl does the trick for themal grease on CPUs and stuff, and Im pretty sure u can clean off your gpu too..

 

[bitdweeb]

any ideas on where to get the good stuff?

 

[billystringer]

Something else helpful...are you overclocking at all?

-The String

 

[bitdweeb]

not overclocking yet. that is the goal but not while I am troubleshooting this. One thing I have thought of is that the 8800GTX's that I have are overclocked by the manufacturer, I was thinking about knocking the cycles down to what a stock 8800GTX is and see what happens.

 

[fender22]

any ideas on where to get the good stuff?

If you mean high purity isopropyl, then "the good stuff" can be found at most any regular store, Albertson's, Maybe Safeway, Target, or your local pharmacy..

Should be up in the 90s for % purity.. Like 97% or sumthing, thats good stuff..

 

[bitdweeb]

Cool! I did not know if that you get at places like Target was all that pure.

 

[fender22]

just make sure the bottle says something in the 90% area and your good.. Hope u get ur card workin

 

[bitdweeb]

Hey thank you! I will let you know how it goes and what I find. That is a lot of the green stuff down the toilet if it is shot.

 

[lx_flier]

If you didnt throw away the stock coolers Evga might of replaced it, unlikely but everyone raves about their cs support so who knows?

 

[fender22]

Evga has great CS, So they might still refund, I do believe that they still support cards with a changed heatsink, but I also think u must ship back the ones they put on.. Didn't u say earlier that u trashed them or threw them away?