[Gossamer]

So almost a year ago I came on here telling you guys about my HD4850 burning out. Well,... I was bored today so I thought.

"What the heck... I can't break it any more than it already is."

So I took the heatsink back off, cleaned it thoroughly and disassembled the failed mod components that originally broke it to begin with to get it as close to stock as possible.

After cleaning it up and putting some new paste on the heatsink I closed it up and decided to try it out in my PC. Maybe I did something, who knows. I uninstalled all of my nvidia drivers for my 8600gts which I'm using now and clean it all off. I boot up the PC after I shutdown.

It actually works.

When my PC booted up I got the same familiar Gigabyte boot-up screen but there were lines going through it with small black dots around the place... I figured it was the video card going through it's dieing paces. The rest of my bootup was just as chaotic, random code and bullcrap.

Then Windows starts up and I get the familiar low resolution stock driver situation. I go and download ATI's drivers, install them and start it back up.

Same everything but this time Windows blue-screens on me.

---
I know some of you guys have come into this situation before, burned out video cards. What if anything could I do at this point to solve this problem. The warrentee is so far broken on this thing that I'm not sure it could be any more void so talking to ATI is out of the question.

I just don't think I should give up just yet. Any suggestions?
As a replacement I have considered an XFX HD4770, with the more efficient design and cooling I think it would be a fine replacement, not to mention that newegg is selling them at $109 with free shipping. I've also heard of people getting very high overclocks on them.

 

[Cid Highwind]

Won't you be able to get a HD5770 for around the same price? It offers better performance and has some nice new features.

Anyway, if it's burnt through and you're having heavy RAM artifacts I doubt there's anything you can do other than replacing it.

 

[Phil]

try baking it yet?

 

[StriderVM]

Simply put, give up. As I don't think there's a DIY solution to bad VRAM or Core by overheating.

As for replacement, the minimum is the Radeon 5770, it's generally faster while also more overclockable.

 

[Gossamer]

Hm... I see where you guys are coming from. I just now noticed the HD5770. I'll have to consider whether or not the extra $50 is worth the upgrade from the HD4770.

 

[Cid Highwind]

Unless you want to have DX11 support, a 4870 1GB might be more interesting. If you run higher resolutions with AA it performs better. Of course, this might be compensated for in the future when DX11 titles appear.

 

[tuanming]

Did you overclocked that card or specifically how did it get burnt in the first place? Best to buy another GPU because nothing you can do to revive it back to its original state...

 

[KrossX]

Give the baking a try.

 

[Gossamer]

lol, I've heard of the baking trick... maybe when I can convince my wife I'm not insane I might try it.

 

[StriderVM]

And that "baking" thing..... It's awkward. I know about heat guns and how it's used to repair stuff like cellphones..... It also uses heat, but not baking it in an oven....

 

[Phil]

Baking is no different then reflowing a PS3 mobo. It works.

 

[Gossamer]

Tried out the baking thing, didn't work.
Kept it in there for a good 10 minutes on 400 degrees... same performance happened afterward.

 

[Ahielia]

At least you know it didn't work.
And what did the missus think of it?

 

[Gossamer]

At least you know it didn't work.
And what did the missus think of it?

She told me I was a terrible cook, that it was the most stale waffle she'd ever seen.

 

[Phil]

Well then the chip itsef is effed up. Do yourself a favor and get a 4870

 

[Gossamer]

Well then the chip itsef is effed up. Do yourself a favor and get a 4870

5770

-Near same performance
-DX11

I think so.