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Bending Graphics Cards?

nands

nands

nands

Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2006
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A while ago I bought a 4850 ICEQ and it was all fine and dandy in my system for a month. After the month it started to artifact. I RMA'ed it and it was returned with no faults.

After watching the artifacts and monitoring the system I realised that it only produced artifacts for the first half hour of the PC being on. I eventually realised that there must be a tiny loose connection somewhere that closed as the card got warm. I got into a system of switching the PC on (it is never left on) and going into Bios for twenty minutes or so and then starting with no issues.

Since the cold weather this approach no longer worked and I thought a new motherboard was required (I am still on a 939 processor so will be upgrading soon).

Now the point of the post (sorry for the long winded explanation).

I have found a solution by wedging the rear top corner of the graphics card up a bit (in a tower case obviously) with a blunt pencil. The card is only bent by a couple of milimetres but all artifacting has gone away. Can I leave it like that or will the card break/die/catch fire?

The pencil is just touching the corner of the board not near any components.

Edit:- for photo scroll down.
 
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I am not an expert in electronics by any stretch of the imagination but one of the things you discribed is known as a dry joint where solder has deteriorated and has a connection to begin with but as the system warms up the crack widens and the fault presents itself.

That could be one fault but equally if you have managed to isolate the issue then I would consider setting up an RMA again.
 
The problem is the opposite as that you describe, as it warms up it closes.

I think (hope) that the problem is with my PCIe slot rather than the graphics card.
 
dry joints can work either way - the solder will expand as it heats up, therefore providing a better or worse connection, depending if it expands away from the joint or towards it. In your case, it seems to be creating a better connection as it expands.

Whilst the pencil 'mod' won't cause any untoward problems, it's incredibly hard to find and fix the joint, and solve the problem entirely.

I'd expect it's your card rather than the mobo, but as you're upgrading soon, I'd use the pencil to keep the card slightly bent until you have the new mobo, then you can distinctly tell if it's the mobo or the card that's causing the issue.
 
i would certainly get in touch with OCUK again about the card.

neat trick with the pencil please upload a photo its classic engineering at its best :D
 
018aml0.jpg


Sorry about the poor picture and the untidy cables but you should be able to see what I mean. The black pencil doesn't stand out much.

As you can see the card is only slightly bent, what is the long term effect of this?
 
I have the exact same card, IceQ 4850 turbo and it bends exactly the same as yours, I was going to make a thread about it aswell lol :) I think it must be something to do with the cooler that's fitted and how it's tightened up causing the PCB to bend?

I've solved the problem in a slightly different way, will post a pic later. I've put a 120mm fan on the Hard-drive caddy and it touches the PCI-E 6-pin power connector and holds it up by a millimetre or so and keeps it straight.
 
LOL, thats almost as insane as that guy who used the hammer on the cpu holder or something, what was that about now i forgot it was so long ago?

EDIT: i like the clever way of using the hdd cables to keep it from slipping out :)
 
I had a Sapphire X1950XT that was warped due to the cooler being too tight. I just left it and it's still working.

The stock cooler is just on a bit too tight, I'd leave it unsupported it I were you, but I can't see it mattering espescially since you worked out a way of keeping it straight.
 
The pencil is not there to keep the card straight - there seems to be a misunderstanding.

If I leave my card straight I get the corruption, by bending the card the connections are all made and the card works.
 
At the end of the day the card is faulty.

If you have to prop the card up in such a fashion to get it working its knackered :D end of.

Raise another RMA and get it looked at matey.
 
nands said:
The pencil is not there to keep the card straight - there seems to be a misunderstanding.

If I leave my card straight I get the corruption, by bending the card the connections are all made and the card works.
Click to expand...

Ah ok, then I would return the card.
 
I hear what you are saying but I am not 100% sure it is not the PCIE slot. I know that the way to test would be to try the card in someone elses PC but with me hopefully upgrading soon I thought I would wait and see.

Hence the question - is bending the graphics card by a few mm going to kill it?
 
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