Could a video card kill a motherboard?

Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited September 2003 in Hardware
Some of you may have seen pseudonym's "I fuxored my video card" thread, in which case you already know that I killed MY 9700 pro too...

Since I'm going to RMA it, I had to solder the chip back on so it'd look like nothing happened... it's a power chip thingy of some kind, one of the 4 under that heatspreader on the back of the card. I don't know for sure how many of the connections are actually good... I KNOW one is bad because the leg tore clean out of the IC... so, given that it's got a partially/non-functional power chip of some kind, would plugging it into a board to see what it does so I can describe what it's doing so I can send it back be a bad idea? I'd think that at worst it'd just kill the GPU or something, right?

Comments

  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited September 2003
    I'd have to know more about the sitation, but reading this it sure seems like you altered the card physically, so I think it's wrong (immoral in my book) to send the card back as if "nothing happened" and it just crapped out on you.

    To answer your question: Yes, it probably woud be a bad idea. Chances are nothing would happen to ruin your board, but there's always the chance. But, hey, why not take off a few chips and stuff from your mobo and then RMA that when it quits working. Also, next time you swap out the chip in your Mercedes so that it runs the engine out of spec you take it to the dealer and have it fixed under the warranty . . . just make sure you take that chip out first so it doesn't look like anything happened. You know. Wink wink.
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    i wouldnt do it...no point of risking anything...for all u know itll spark then ignite sumthing on the mobo...then ur whole house is fux0red
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    A2J, immoral? Probably, but I don't have another $300 to spend on a video card, so... (... = "oh well"). But ya know, I've killed 2 A7N8X-Dlxs by overclocking... All I have to do is send them an e-mail, give them a list of the problems, "forget" to mention overclocking, and they've replaced both of them. I killed a 1.4GHz TBird because I wasn't paying attention and put a shim on between it and a SLK-800, as well as the SLK's foam pads. The chip fried (of course)... I just cleaned off the AS2 and sent it back..
    It's not my job to care about the company in question's warranty policy... If they don't check stuff to see whether the warranty is still valid or not according to their policy, that's not my problem.

    Anyhow, I may try it... I dunno. I've got an A7M266, a KX7, and a KS75A-Pro that are all sitting around and which I don't anticipate using, so at worst, I'll loose an extra motherboard that I don't use anyhow... And the CPU would just be a Palomino 1700 so that wouldn't be a big loss... I dunno. Besides, if a solder joint is bad and it sparks/shocks someone like WuG suggested, I'd have a hell of a hard time getting them to replace it ;D;D I'll just take the butane torch and rubbing alcohol out of my room and grab a fire extinguisher before hand or something ;D
  • BDRBDR
    edited September 2003
    Geeky1, I'm not judging you personaly, but that's the reason companies get strict with returns.
    It only takes a few to ruin it for everyone.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    I'm not judging you personaly
    BDR, just so you know... you don't have to worry about insulting me. It's basically impossible to do...

    Anyhow, I agree with you... I mean, my grandparents own a precision machining company, so I have a (very limited) amount of experience regarding how businesses run... But it doesn't really bother me all that much because of the amount of money that I make these companies. How do I do that? I buy and recommend their stuff... the last video card I bought before the 9700 was an 8500 in november of 2001... but I've also had ATi cards put in 10, 15, or more machines for the shop... At least 5 of those are 9600s, 9700s, or 9800s. All of the new systems people have bought on my recommendations (including the ones for work that makes about 40, if not more) since I really got into this in 2001 have been AMD-based, with the vast majority of them having ASUS motherboards. My grandparents business spends $10k/year on computers that I know about, and every year I find out that they've bought at least 10 or 15 systems that I didn't know about (my dad's the sysadmin), which adds up to another $10-15k/year, if not more.

    So even though they've got costs to pay for (including my RMAs :D) at the end of the day, they're still making more money off of me and the people that have bought their stuff on my recommendations than they loose sending me a replacement board/card or two.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I'd RMA something I smoked if I could. But then again, I've never smoked anything.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    I've never smoked anything.

    That wasn't nice. You almost made me choke on my crackers because I was laughing so hard. ;D;D
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    BDR said
    Geeky1, I'm not judging you personaly, but that's the reason companies get strict with returns.
    It only takes a few to ruin it for everyone.

    No offense, but that doesn't really mean anything, just because if a company has a "strict return policy" then it just means they'll check for stuff like that, then it won't happen anymore, so be it, if some people can fix some "mistakes" theyve made along the way, who cares? If you have a truly legitmate return then you should have no problem getting it RMAed, even with 'stricter return policies' so I don't see the problem. If I had bought something and it didnt work, and the company didnt take it back because of their new 'strict' return policies, well I guess I wouldnt be handing that company any of my money anymore, as a matter of fact, I probably wouldnt have bought from there in the first place because I check return policies before buying stuff.

    Like Geeky1 said, these companies are making more money off us anyway, no one at that company is gonna lose a meal because of returning a card like that. Personally, I've never done it, I've RMAed one thing once (a Gigabyte mobo that just randomly stopped working, after further inspection, some of the caps had gone bad) and got it back within a few weeks. This was a legitimate return, and I was rather irritated that it took the company almost 3 weeks to get it back to me (after it had been received at their offices!) Luckily I borrowed a mobo from a friend, but if I hadn't been able to do that I would've had a lot of down time, but that's besides the point. Guess my only point is, these companies aren't losing any money and I'm surprised to see people attacking him for RMAing his card.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    It really is a dual-purpose statement. But you get the context. :D
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Thrax said
    I'd RMA something I smoked if I could. But then again, I've never smoked anything.

    Or at least, you never inhaled
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited September 2003
    Rationalizing things is always good... (... = oh well)

    I hope you enjoy your new 9700 Pro.
    Just don't blow this one up, eh? :)
    You gonna put a bit more distance between you and Thrax?

    Perhaps I should go sell my blood and use that money to purchase an AIW 9800 Pro!
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    Camman, it's the situation surrounding the RMA... the fact that I killed the board and I'm trying to get them to replace it (understandably) irritates some people... but like I said, given that I haven't got the $ to replace it, and that I made ATi a great deal more money this year than it's going to cost to replace the card, it doesn't bother me...
  • BDRBDR
    edited September 2003
    Geeky1 said
    I'm not judging you personaly
    BDR, just so you know... you don't have to worry about insulting me.

    I'm not here to offend. :)
    So even though they've got costs to pay for (including my RMAs :D) at the end of the day, they're still making more money off of me and the people that have bought their stuff on my recommendations than they loose sending me a replacement board/card or two.
    But surely you realise it raises the overall costs for them and ultimately gets passed down to us?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    A2J, I'm not quite that accident prone (I hope!)
    Besides, I have to find that little plastic retaining clip pin thingy for the spring clip that holds one side of the hsf on otherwise I may be fuggered anyhow...

    Also, shwaip... that's one of the funniest things I've read/heard in a long time :thumbsup:
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Yeah, I mean, I understand why people are seeming irritated about it, but, I just have no sympathy for bigass companies when it comes to money matters, only because they're screwing everyone anyway, one video card, hard drive, CPU, etc, here and there isn't losing them any large profits, if it was, you can be damn sure it wouldn't happen at all.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    I'm not here to offend.

    I know, I just figured I'd try to save you the effort of typing a "disclaimer" of sorts in the future, since (with me anyhow) it's not necessary. :)

    Anyhow, yea, it does raise overall costs, but I don't see it as that big of a problem really. I mean, yes, if everyone and his brother were doing it, it would be, but I doubt that they're recieving more than a few hundred or at most a few thousand (<5k) of cards that were not really under warranty but which were replaced anyhow every year... so it's so small of an impact that it's immaterial.

    Oh! I just had a really, really, REALLY good idea. I paid $231 for this 9700 Pro (newegg refurb). Fry's still sells them for like $350...

    I ought to go to Fry's, buy a card, and return this one... get a new card and $119 ;D;D (I'm joking... I'm not THAT morally bankrupt)
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