• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Burnt My Graphics Card To Death?

taz488

taz488

taz488

Associate
Joined
29 Jun 2006
Posts
2,458
Location
Manchester
Hi guys, I think I've just gone and burnt my card to death...what do I do?

Upon starting my computer today i get a long beep then 8 short beeps from my mobo and nothing on screen whatsoever (light stays orange on monitor so nothing at all is sent to screen) so turn it off and look up what it means on lappy, apparently its video memory or video card failure. I've recently moved my PC so initial thought is no problems its just not seated properly.

Then when I was reseating the card as you do, the computer turned on by accident when the card WASNT slotted but WAS plugged into power, cue mad panic to turn off pc, followed by burnt smells :( :(

I now get the same beep followed by 8 beeps and absolutely nada, and the GPU does smell burnt, although there is no visual damage.

Is the card a goner do you think? The smells were 100% coming from the GPU My specs are...


8800GT
MSI K9N mobo
2GB corsair RAM ddr 2
load od hard drives
Corsair 450w psu (recently replaced, old antec one died)


I've already made sure all connections inside the case are firmly in place.

I'm going to get a VGA cable tomorrow to plug into onboard (only got DVI at the min) to check thats still working.

If I plug into onboard and it works, i guess the trusty old 8800 is dead :(

If so what is the best card to get for 70 - 80 quid that will give me similar or better performance, I'm not up to date these days.

Any help or suggestions much appreciated!
 
Looks like it could be more than just your card.

From what I recall from mistakes I've made I have never had a GPU burn out when plugged into power without being in the board. I even had a rig that ran a seperate PSU for a card as my single PSU was not enough to run it all. And in testing I know I powered up the psu with the card plugged in whilst sat on the floor.

To me it sounds like you have/had a short. And that short has now done damage. It could be that nigh on everything in the PC is fried.

Hopefully it is just? your GPU (I say that because either way it's a shame :( )
 
A painful lesson to learn. Always turn off power supply and unplug from the mains before u work on the inside of a pc.
Hope you get it sorted and the damage aint system wide :(
 
Uh oh, this is NOT good. :(

In the mean time while i see if it is just the GPU, I'm going to need a new one anyway, what is the best mid range card available at present?

I'm thinking of a budget of less than £70, and just want performance to be as good as that of the 8800GT, the cheaper the better, any suggestions?
 
lol i tell you what you lend me the other 500 quid ill let you know how good it is :P

Unplugging graphics card and then not plugging the monitor in means it should still start up at least if everything's not fried right?

Same beeps, i feel this is a very sad day, my hard drives wont be borked will they?
 
Bobisuruncle54 said:
If you can, go for a 6770 with 1GB of GDDR5, but they are about £80.

It'll easily outperform an 8800 GT, and I'd say it's probably the best card for around that price.
Click to expand...

This.....Just bought one of these for my daughter, to replace a 7900GS, a very good card indeed... The XFX 6770 is a tad noisy because of the basic HSF - but speedy none the less - go with an Asus, or the likes, and you should have a quiet yet fast card
 
Cheers for the help guys, gonna take my card round to a mates and check it in his PC, then get the 6770 if its broken, along with a new mobo and everything else by the looks of things :(
 
I booted with the graphics card disconnected, but with no display connected to the mobo, which means it should still boot normally right?

Still got the 1 long beep then 8 short beeps, so I tried to boot with the bare minimum in, i.e. 1 stick of RAM, 1 HD, no sound card, no dvd drive and still got the same beeps.

So not sure how to diagnose further? Other than take it too a shop for them to mess about with...which i don't really want to do, might have to though.
 
Baldrick1001 said:
i'd be inclined to use your onboard first - and if that works then its your card. I wouldn't want to put a potentially damaged GPU into someone elses PC - just incase.
Click to expand...

^...This... you might not have fried your system with a broken GPU but you might fry your mates, use the on-board first to rule out a damaged motherboard too, you may have fried the PCI-E Socket on your motherboard and not aware yet and then fry your mates PCI-E socket. I wouldn't want to risk my mates pc in that way, you may end up with two damaged pc's by end of that experiment because you clearly know the GPU smells burned and you saw it go up in smoke.


You may want to try clearing the BIOS/CMOS on the motherboard so it defaults back to on-bourd graphics if it was originaly changed to use the PCI-E graphics card on boot. There will be a reset CMOS/BIOS button on the motherboard or you will need to short out 2 pins by moving a jumper or removing the battery on the motherboard for a good hour to be sure.
 
Last edited:
You can get a second hand 8800gt/4850 off of the members market for about £25. I personally wouldn't buy a 6770 now at those prices as the 5770 (same card) was priced lower than that 6 months ago. I can even remember the 5830 selling for £70! The new midrange cards from ati are coming out soon too.
 
You can get a 6770 for circa £75. Although it is the same card as the 5770 they do run slightly better, for some reason. The mid range ati cards are still a little way away. I'd rather plump 75 into card now that will last a while than 25 into an old card.
 
Great news! just borrowed an old card from a friend and were back up and running, it seems i shorted the graphics card and it is most certainly dead.

So now its a cheaper upgrade, woooop! whats the best card to get that will be an improvement on my dead 8800GT but wont be bottle necked by 2GB RAM and an amd 5000+ cpu?

Price range around 70 - 100 but dont want to go much higher, and cheers for the help again!
 
taz488 said:
Great news! just borrowed an old card from a friend and were back up and running, it seems i shorted the graphics card and it is most certainly dead.

So now its a cheaper upgrade, woooop! whats the best card to get that will be an improvement on my dead 8800GT but wont be bottle necked by 2GB RAM and an amd 5000+ cpu?

Price range around 70 - 100 but dont want to go much higher, and cheers for the help again!
Click to expand...

I'm glad for you mate :D.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-174-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-204-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

Just depends what has the better fan/cooling. Your CPU will probably be a bottleneck but at this price it's insane not to get one. If you overclock that CPU it's even more of a reason to buy it. Also if you ever upgrade the card can come with you :).
 
Hi guys i bought the XFX HD6850 and it came today, turns out it has 2x6pins for some reason, and my corsair 430W power supply only has one 6 pin for PCI-E

Do i need to plug into both power pins for it to work? Or shall i have a go with 1 and see how it fairs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom