7950 heatsink sometimes does not start up

[PerkPrincess]

Hello,
This is a rather strange thing. Recently my last 6850 ended up dying out when the heatsink began to chug and churn really loudly. The next few days it would slowly wind down before dying completely.

I ended up deciding to just replace it with a new 7950 for the power and I have been having a great time with it!

Except every now and again, the heatsink will not start up on boot. And I did not realize this was an issue until the computer would shut down because of it overheating. Usually when this happens I can just start and restart until it finally does spin.

I have searched around and have not really found much of an answer for this one. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Sunius]

What is your power supply?

 

[PerkPrincess]

550W!

 

[Sunius]

Brand/model?

 

[PerkPrincess]

Sorry, ended up having to do some digging. It's an Antec 550w Plus.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

 

[Sunius]

Are both PCIe connectors plugged in?

 

[photonboy]

(I assume by "heatsink" we're talking about the FAN on the graphics card. The heatsink is the metal with fins that fans usually sit on.)

The fan in a graphics card is controlled by the card itself. If the card wasn't getting enough power you'd probably have artifacts and/or crashing BEFORE the fan stops. Can you play a game no problem?

Still, it does sound odd that fan isn't working properly in a new graphics card. That's pretty rare.

If your PSU isn't a good quality one you may wish to replace it, though I'm not certain that's the problem.

Summary:
While it appears that you should RMA your graphics card, the rarity of the issue and your past problem makes me wonder if you have Power Supply issues.

Maybe checkout NCIX sales for PSU's. You can get a deal for about $60 on a quality PSU.

I also suggest you run Memtest ( www.memtest.org ) or www.ultimatebootcd.com (use memtest v4.3).

 

[PerkPrincess]

Both PCIe's are in, yeah.

And yes, I can play games just fine! It runs incredibly cool even on high loads.

Also I shall report back on the memtest after I come back from work. Thank you for your help so far!

 

[PerkPrincess]

Best answer selected by Perkprincess.

 

[PerkPrincess]

AFTER A LONG SERIES of hilarious ( not really ) incidents, I have managed to pin the problem down with just a bad DoD fan. The good people who I bought the card from were more than happy to exchange it for a new one when I brought it in. They had no explanation why it was dead when they tested it either.

Thank you all for your help. <3

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey