Video card destruction

[wingman358]

Hey everyone. I was recently sorting my pile of computer hardware and I found a Sapphire Radeon 9800 128MB AGP video card. It's not a very powerful card, but it's definitely better than the Geforce MX440 that's in my secondary computer.
I popped it in and powered on, but nothing happened. The screen displayed the "No signal" message. I checked the card, and it turns out that the fan on the heatsink wasn't even working. I took the card out to examine it closely, and it looks as if the fan froze up some how and the card overheated. The fan was difficult to spin with my fingers. I looked at the heatsink fins and there was a rust-colored dust =/. On the fan itself, the ATI sticker had cracked and looked off-color. Anybody have any idea what happened? Any suggestions as to what I can do?

[onelegout]

you tried it with a new fan?

All I have is a radeon 9100 and you are just finding a 9800 while sorting through your pile of pc hardware?!?!
Bastard!
lol

[wingman358]

Haven't tried that. I guess I'll go try...

[UK-Blade]

Sounds like the bearings in the fan failed (which is why the fan is difficult to move). This normally happens when the owner lets the fan get clogged with dust. Then the card overheats and if left too long dies....(also causes stickers etc to peel, crack, discolour)

Generally the card should still POST, even with a naff fan, but you could rip it off (CAREFULLY) and replace the whole heatsink/fan combo.

Then just keep your fingers crossed. :D

Good Luck

[Xato]

Stock fans will always have problems, its just a fact of life.
The exception being the high end market cards, which are the ones that are advertised for on websites etc.
I've had the fan problem on two of my previous cards, MX440 and 4200. The fan had nearly ceased up and would often stop spinning during usage (probably the bearings as blade said). The sticker on the MX440 fan had also discoulered and started to peel off also, whether this is due to cheap manufacture or overheating, i dont know.

Eitherway, a graphics card, whether cooled or not, should still allow the computer to gain a signal, and even boot up, but should overheat after a small amount of time.
It sounds as if the card has died due to the overheating problems and is beyond repair, if you have another fan lying around somewhere then try it out, but i wouldnt spend any money on it.

[wingman358]

****. =(