Graphics card!

Well shit,its one damn problem after another for me. We were fixin to go to bed last night and my wife heard a loud pop. She asked me if i smelled smoke..(NO).. tryed to get on computer this afternoon, and had nothing on my monitor. Checked cables, then opened the tower and the little silver tubes( im an idiot) on the bottom of the graphics card(8600gt) exploded! holy shit what caused that! Well anyway im down again, and i was looking forward to Saturdays Scrim too. Yall have fun, any ideas on what caused this please let me know.

thats supper shitty man

what happed is your graphics card overheated

the lite silver tubes "called a heatsink" couldn't take the heat and they blew up

your warranty should cover this depending on where you got it from

time to start calling people lol

wow--never heard of that happening to anyone--------hope you get things fixed soon

DAng man....that sucks. I hope it isn't too lame to fix lol

I guess that is a common problem with those cards (Nvidia Geforce 8600), of the capacitors exploding (I'm assuming that's what you mean by little silver tubes...Idk, I'm a noob too). If you registered your card w/in 30 days of purchase they offer a lifetime warranty.

I googled "video card exploding" and all the sites that came up were all Geforce 8600 cards (one was geforce 7600).

Anyway, if it is the capacitors and it's not warranted, then here is a link to a website that has a tutorial for replacing them:

http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/23703-my-vid-card-explodedd-2.html

Or if you need,I do that sort of work. The problem lies in the fact that they use very close to maximum tolerance rated components in many of the nVidia reference designed cards.

The biggest concern is that there may be many other components damaged on the board and just replacing the swollen or blown caps may not net you a working card. If it's under warranty...let them deal w/ it and RMA it a.s.a.p.

Or an alternate trick I sometimes use if I'm in a hurry is to clean the old one well. Buy a new one of the same make and model and put the old one back in the box to return it. If it's still under warranty,it's just a way of shortcutting the RMA process (which takes 4 for-freaking-evers )

I won't go into a diatribe here about why I don't like nVidia unless someone really want's to know. But their business practices are pretty underhanded (concerning their customers.)

Thanks everyone, i have talked with some others that had the same prob. with the same card. I have a buddy that works on mine and he has a 6800 he is going to put in Sat. afternoon for free..wootwoot! He said i shouldn't notice that much difference between the 6800 and the 8600, what do yall think?

You will definitely notice a difference. The 6800's are 2 gens behind the 8600 in architecture and that will make a huge difference on your graphics performance.

I'd consider it as something just to get you up and running again,but I'd be looking for something a bit more up to date than either as soon as I had a little extra in my pocket (cash you perverts!!!).

If your a die hard nVidia fan,start looking at the GTX series cards. Or,if you prefer bang for the buck and less power draw go w/ Ati 5*** series cards. Personally I use Ati, nVidia's price per performance ratio stinks imho. And the 10.3 Ati drivers are very,very stable.

Well i never really have extra in my pocket( cash or the other ) The 6800 fell through anyway. Anybody have one they would like to sell. Post back here or pm me. Im on forum on my daughters laptop.

I'll keep an eye out for you,I'm always looking for deals myself to help out friends and I'll see what I can do. Can you give me a budget to work w/ in?

Unfortunately,I sold my last card to a friend dirt cheap about 1 month ago and just got my new one 3 weeks ago.

http://www.newegg.com/DailyDeal.aspx?name=DailyDeal&Page=1

This is for 2day only,so move quick. nVidia 9500 GT for $46.99 after mail in rebate w/ free shipping.
New Egg is pretty well always going to have the best deals you can find. Take a look around the site before you decide and pick what best suits you. I would say depending on what you do w/ your computer....80 shaders would be the bare minimum that is usable. More ofc,is always better.

If you need more help choosing...just post links of the ones your considering and I can tell you which is the best for the money

DQ has the 6800 up and running. I just couldn't remember the command for showing his fps to see how well it was running. DQ I'm fairly certain that the "/cg_drawfps 1" is the correct command. I know Bun told us that earlier in game. We tried it with "drawFps 1".

I'm still curious what you are getting. I'm guessing well over 30 from watching it earlier. I can't remember exactly but I think the human eye doesn't notice anything unless it is under 30 or so.

I get between 115 and 160fps....but I have a pretty powerful card that OC's very strongly and it's ridiculously overpowered for ET. Msi R5770 Hawk running at 1014Ghz/1405Mhz (gpu/memory).

"/cg_drawfps 1" is the correct command.

Im getting around 90

Man...nVidia's go in pairs. I'm working on my brother in laws system and his 8800GTX is dead. On the bright side,his is an Evga w/ a lifetime warranty.

it's because the caps arent solid state on 8500's half the reason the lines got discontinued and got a nice revamp, pixel shader and the caps are the reason for the discontinue and came out with the new line of 9000's and 200's (you probably remember seeing or looking at 2 different say 9500's that were totally different (i.e. $80 for a 9500 and $150 for a 9500)and that's why) now the new lines come with the solid state compacitors and a brand new shader 4.0 making em much more stable. The reason your's blew is probably cause you didnt have enough power to it, they require at least 125watts alone so unless you have a nice 750 or above power supply to compensate for your processor MB card and others. also it could of been a voltage problem with not regulating the proper voltage to it (most MBs dont) so you have to do it yourself. but the best part is nvidia is lifetime warranty so you should get a new card on the house
hope this helps

p.s. nvidia lines are as follows Nvidia>EVGA>XFX>BFG>PNY etc so all these are nvida

p.s. you want a nice cheap card go with BFG 7900GS its cheap and reliable for wolf (wouldnt recommend for crisis or anything

I edited you posts Deadpool, to include w/ your original post....pls use the edit button next time. Thnx

Correction....XfX does Ati cards as well as nVidia. They're not exclusive to either manufacturer.