Is my Graphics card Physically damaged

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ayushman9

Journeyman
I own a Geforce 8600 GT of XFX build,from say last 2 years when it was costing approx Rs 8k. Now at that time it was running quite smoothly

Problem started with release of GTA 4 .One day when i was playing GTA 4 with -nomemrestrict & -norestriction ,when suddenly the screen got garbled & whole computer got hanged .There was graphics corruption at every part of screen . I had to hard reset the pc.

This instances gradually increased exponentially to the extent that it began to occur in non graphics intensive games like Burnout paradise .And yesterday the worst happened. When corruption took place i hard reseted the computer . But the corruption was present even in BIOS Screen ,ie from the point where the graphic card version & Other BIOS Information is shown with motherboard logo.More over there were red cubes in staircase shape every where in screen & pc halted before Windows loading and only corrupt graphics were present.

My home has very bad earthing so i thought maybe electrical discharge had taken place .The first thing i noticed was that the power cable of cpu was burnt (smelling like carbon) ,at neutral point & blackish carbon particles were present in smps input slot

Also when i physically examined the graphics card i saw that 2 capacitor ( marked below) top had busted open (but with very small opening ) & one could easily see the underline material with naked eye .

*img80.imageshack.us/img80/8369/uploadv.th.jpg


I physically pressed the opening back so that the capacitor reverted to it's previous state albeit superficially & the underline material was not visible . I switched on the pc after say 2 hours when it booted normally and Uninstalled all games . The problem has not surfaced after that ,but i am very afraid what will happen in future as the guarantee has also become void after 1 year . Should i give it for repair or let it go like that and wait for it's complete destruction ? What is the probability of it's Recovery ? And what may be possible cost if given to official service center ? Also what precaution should i take if need to play games ? I am running The PC without UPS from last 1 year as every UPS i buy fails in 7 to 8 month so i just run the coputer directly .
 

pimpom

Cyborg Agent
Since your gfx card is 2 yrs old, I assume that it's no longer under warranty. Don't wait for the problem to recur and get worse. Those capacitors need to be replaced and it can be done by an experienced electronics technician. There's a good chance that the card can be saved.

And while you're dealing with the technician, open the PSU, clean the insides and ask the tech to tighten the screws attaching the power devices to their heatsinks.

These screws often become loose due to the heating and cooling (called thermal cycles) that they go through over several years of use. If they are not firmaly attached to their heatsinks, they heat up much more quickly and reach much higher temperatures.

You should also change the power cord if you have not already done so.
 
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