The Death of a Ti4600

[Afturmath]

I relocated my temp monitors for my eVGA e-Geforce 4 Ti4600 earlier today. They are flat temperature probes from a DigiDoc 5. I taped one to a RAM chip near the AGP connector on the underside, and the other was taped under the VPU heatsink. I had the probes on the card before, but I had them in different spots. When I turned my computer back on, my video card gives me vertical green and white lines approximately 2" long and 1mm wide on my POST screen (17" monitor) in groups of 4 evenly spaced on the screen. It looks like this:

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The vertical lines are solid, though, and it is 7 rows high. The lines go right over text, so at first I thought it was a monitor problem. I ruled that out by installing a GF2 MX (which I am using right now), and that works fine.
Once it goes to the PNP/IRQ detection screen, I get big (1/4" thick) red vertical stripes across the screen from top to bottom. On the XP Pro boot screen, it has the groups again. Once it gets into my login screen, it tells me the system has recovered from a device failure and windows must restart.

Does anyone have any idea if this can be fixed? My findings lead me to believe it's a video BIOS corruption. I want to see if there's anything I can do before I RMA the card.

[AMDdoolbooter]

Ive recentlyhad the same problem on 2 NEW Gainward FX5900 cards. You, my friend, have a bad RAM chip on that card. When you removed the tape from the previous sensor install, did you damage or loosen he chip? Perhaps check to make sure your new install isnt shorting any pins. One thing for sure, vertical lines in BIOS screen is bad video memory. I also had the same "Device recovered from a serious error" in windows, when I was able to get into the OS.

[Afturmath]

The first thing I did was check the physical condition of the board thinking maybe when I removed the heatsink I disloged a resistor or such. I checked it out under 2.5x magnification and everything is fine. I know the seating was perfect, as I once killed a GF2 MX (back when they were around $110) and a motherboard because of not seating the card properly.

I just found out I can't RMA it either

[AMDdoolbooter]

Maybe it was just time for it to go to the Great AGP Slot in the Silicon Valley. It will be missed. *Bows in solemn salute*

[Afturmath]

I guess I'm going to get a Gainward Ultra/1200 XP 128mb Golden Sample (Gainward's version of the FX 5900 128mb non-ultra). I hear this card overclocks very well (top i've seen is 490/1000). Anyone have any horror stories?

If anyone still has any ideas for my Ti4600, please share.

[CSOFT]

I'd RMA the card if you can.

[Afturmath]

I got an email from eVGA earlier today saying that I can't RMA due to the card being out of 1 year warranty.

[AMDdoolbooter]

For more entertaining horror stories about the Gainward FX5900 just read this subject, it chronicles my headache so far.

http://www.amdforums.com/showthread....49#post1956749

[Afturmath]

I was reading your thread earlier. Hopefully the card I get will be a later revision that will be a little more stable. I will also be running it on a Leadtek board that is not available in the US

[AMDdoolbooter]

Good Luck!! I have to admit that the card loox tits and ballz awesome, the blue lights are sweet in my windowed case, I just wish I could get one that runs perfectly. All im looking for in an OC is 450/900, which is basically Ultra standards. My biggest problem is that I need a red PCB to match my Mobo and cables. Maybe ill post some pix o da Dragon 2NV when I get this digicam working.

[Afturmath]

Well, being the Case Mod freak I am, I plan to mod the card with white LED's instead of blue (to match my case). I also plan to overclock, but I plan to push mine to 490/1000 (as seen in the August 2003 issue of PC Extreme). I am going to work on a sig pic so you can see my current setup as well ;p

[AMDdoolbooter]

Well I got to play with a friends 5MP cam tonite. Heres a shot of the dragon!!




Hoping to SOOn replace that lame FX5600 with a sweet FX5900.

[Afturmath]

YAY! I just found my old NewEgg invoice from when I bought the card. Apparantly I purchased it on October 4, 2002, thus it still qualifies under the 1 year warranty. I get to RMA it afterall.

[AMDdoolbooter]

Newegg Roxors!!!! Good luck with your new board.

[CSOFT]

Originally posted by Afturmath
YAY! I just found my old NewEgg invoice from when I bought the card. Apparantly I purchased it on October 4, 2002, thus it still qualifies under the 1 year warranty. I get to RMA it afterall.

So are u ganna RMA it to newegg or EVGA?