So my fan on my Radeon 8500 is dying.
It was a pain to find out, because at first it wasn't going slow enough for me to tell that it was dying.
Symptoms - in intense games (like a nice 30-man shootout in Wolf:ET) I'd get lockups with repeating sound for like 5-10 seconds, then nothing. Solid picture onscreen.
Also some other graphical glitchiness, some of which is an intrinsic Radeon problem (like some VESA modes leave the screen corrupted when you come back into WinXP, and you have to change resolutions back and forth to make it "wake up" again).
Tried reinstalling (always suspect software first, heh). But that was unsuccessfuly. Thought it might be my extra-hot AthlonXP (yeah I was one of the unlucky ones with a nice HOT XP1800+), but that's not it either, especially after I cleaned the Volcano9 and turned it up a notch).
Moved cards around, reinstalled XP. No, and no.
Finally got a look at the fan while the card was running. Yikes! So slow I can almost see the ATI logo on it. When off, it's stiff to turn. *sigh*
So I'm sunk. I'm too broke to buy a new card, I'm pretty sure ATI doesn't sell fans, and my other option (which I'm pretty close to pursuing) is to pry the current HeatSink off there (problem is of course that the heatsink is DINKY, and shaped for the fan to sit in it - bizarre ATI overheating bastard engineers!) and slap on an old Celeron HS/F combo, securing it with Arctic Silver and ripties.
Unless anyone here has a BETTER idea? Or an 8500-class card they're looking to unload for $20? (Which is, truthfully, more than I ought to spend this month!)
Like, is there something cute and elegant to be found at Radio Shack or You-Do-It electronics?
Anyone know how many volts the ATI fan header puts out?
- Gurm
It was a pain to find out, because at first it wasn't going slow enough for me to tell that it was dying.
Symptoms - in intense games (like a nice 30-man shootout in Wolf:ET) I'd get lockups with repeating sound for like 5-10 seconds, then nothing. Solid picture onscreen.
Also some other graphical glitchiness, some of which is an intrinsic Radeon problem (like some VESA modes leave the screen corrupted when you come back into WinXP, and you have to change resolutions back and forth to make it "wake up" again).
Tried reinstalling (always suspect software first, heh). But that was unsuccessfuly. Thought it might be my extra-hot AthlonXP (yeah I was one of the unlucky ones with a nice HOT XP1800+), but that's not it either, especially after I cleaned the Volcano9 and turned it up a notch).
Moved cards around, reinstalled XP. No, and no.
Finally got a look at the fan while the card was running. Yikes! So slow I can almost see the ATI logo on it. When off, it's stiff to turn. *sigh*
So I'm sunk. I'm too broke to buy a new card, I'm pretty sure ATI doesn't sell fans, and my other option (which I'm pretty close to pursuing) is to pry the current HeatSink off there (problem is of course that the heatsink is DINKY, and shaped for the fan to sit in it - bizarre ATI overheating bastard engineers!) and slap on an old Celeron HS/F combo, securing it with Arctic Silver and ripties.
Unless anyone here has a BETTER idea? Or an 8500-class card they're looking to unload for $20? (Which is, truthfully, more than I ought to spend this month!)
Like, is there something cute and elegant to be found at Radio Shack or You-Do-It electronics?
Anyone know how many volts the ATI fan header puts out?
- Gurm
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