Silent Pipe.... Help please!

[Wakou]

GV-RX80256D (Radeon X800 Gpu, w/"Silent Pipe" Cooling


I recently bought this card. After many hours, driver versions etc, I installed ATI Tool and found to my horror that the GPU was at 77oC IDLE, and would go INSTANTLY to 128oC when any 3D app was used.
The card would cool down back to 77-79C very quickly after the 3D app was stopped.
This 128C temp, if sustained of courses causes a crash! The card has a "silent pipe" cooler.This cannot be "normal". Is there anything I can do to keep the card working? The case is open and there is plenty of airflow around it.

Would a BIOS update help?

I have tried Newest drivers, driver from Gigabyte website, Omega drivers, oldest drivers (on disc with card)
ps Mr Yeh, I have sent this same message to Giga-Byte via the Website (I enclosed a Screenshot of ATI Tool when this happens)


I received an almost instant reply, , which was the question:

"Have you performed any over clock are the Temp reading correct, is the card hot to touch?"

To Which I replied:


"No overclocking, as you can see from the ATi Tool screen shot. The Ati tool is the only thing I could find to give me a temperature reading from the card. When 3D is running the heatsink is just "nice" and warm to the touch i would guess around 40 deg C, I can comfortably hold the heatssink. This behaviour IS reliable however, as soon as any 3d is started, the temp shown max's out to 128 deg C, card crashes!"

I enclosed a Screenshot of ATI Tool when this happens

The only response since has been a request to fill in a survey (!),and they seem to have "closed" the issue







I wonder if Mr Yeh could point me to some diagrams/photos showing how safely to take off the Silent Pipe, and to reassemble it, I wonder if a re-application of thermal paste would help. I would also like to know what temperatures are "normal" for this card. I also wonder if I could "bodge" an old CPU fan somehow onto the heatsink.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model Name : GV-RX80256D
--------------------------
PCB ver :
Driver Ver : 6.14.10.6497
Serial No. : SN525000014
Purchase Dealer : ?
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Motherboard Brand : Asus
Model : M2N-MX
Operation System : Win XP SP : 2


450W PSU,2GB DDR2 Dual Channel (OCZ), AM2 Sempron 3400+ (1800Mhz)

IDEK iiYama Vision Master Pro 17

[Rewl]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Remounting the heatsink is the best course of action imo.
(look for some review-sites, to get hints from pictures showing the dismounted cooler)
As for the temperatures, the "normal" temperatures are actually rather high for more recent GPUs - meaning (for passive) 55~ idle up to 75~ load; shutoff temp is actually over 100.
Personally i don't trust those to be generally acceptable values, but they're official.
I wouldn't rely too much on the atitool though, try the beta version maybe?

[Wakou]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Thank-you Rewl.
There have been some developments!!

As Mr Yeh seems not to be about (Chinese New Year Holidays I guess) I decided to go ahead and begin the "rescue" operation.
I first fired up Giga-Byte's VGA Utility.... a big mistake, this is a useless piece of software. Update the utility which seemed to take hours, restart etc.

step 1, back up current VGA BIOS. No problem, a breeze. Emboldened by this I decide to flash new BIOS using the "Online" option, so as to get the most recent BIOS. This tried and failed to contact server. I have a copy of a more recent BIOS file saved, so, nothing daunted I opt for "flash from local file"

I get a flash fail error, screen gradually dissolves, on reboot, the card is not even "present" according to Windows. I try to reflash using the Util, it reports "No Giga-Byte BIOS Present" I am now going to have to investigate flashing manually with ATI Flash or similar.

So, now with a Hi-tech brick on my hands I decide to pull off the silent pipe assembly, this in the end is not at all difficult, although I can foresee it being a little more tricky to get back on. Inside I discover that Giga must have been using concrete or similar instead of thermal paste, an hour of scrubbing with solvent and there are still traces of rock hard geck on the chip. I haven't even started on the heatsink yet, as access is restricted!

Whilst cleaning the gunk a pot capacitor gives way and falls off of the board
So, in time-honoured fashion, one step forward, two steps back.

The annoying thing is that the hardened paste is 99% certain to be the cause of the original problem, and without having Giga-Byte's horrible software corrupting the BIOS I would now have a working card.

Oh well, it's all learning!

[Rewl]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Aww, what a mess i'm sorry to hear about those mishaps.
As for the hard paste, try to gently "scratch" it off with a piece of plastic like a credit card.
I renewed the paste on my GB Geforce 8600 and it was similarly resistant to my solvent, but easy to get rid of the remnants after i had "scratched" it off.
For the failed flash: i think a good method is putting in a second plain old PCI vga-card, then flashing from DOS-disk. (alternative is a blind flash with a prepared autoexec dos disk)
The capacitor uh-oh, since it's standardised components, maybe you can solder in a new one?

[Wakou]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Thanks Rewl,I have done some research re. flashing and I think it would be possible, I have an on-board GPU, so I don't have to flash blind. I am still hacking away at the "paste". The capacitor is a mystery, I can't work out it's value, and nor can the guys at my local maplin's. I will have to find some batteries for my camera and post it on a electronics site.

[Wakou]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Annoying this! heatsink assy all cleaned and re-prepped, just waiting now for help on the capacitor. I don't dare fire it up with the pot off/oc, in case of causing further damage to my poor abused card! Just in case anyone here can help, here it is:



The markings are in 4 lines thus:

509
S V P C
1 5 0 0
2.5

[Rewl]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

where'd the silent pipe go? :p

i think this is one of the famous solid capacitors, i'm assuming the standards for the markings might be different from regular capacitors

[Rewl]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

hmm okay that's what i could come up with about your capacitor

509 = capacitor material
SVCP = packaging type
1500 = capacity in μF (micro farad)
2.5 = Voltage

no guarantee, but that's most likely

[Wakou]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Morning Rewl and thank you for sticking with me and this thread!
I have been trawling all night, and have tracked it down! Amazing how many people have done EXACTLY the same thing, could be an Ebay business right there repairing graphics cards.
This was the most concise info I found:

451 is date code 2004 51st week
SVPC Im not sure but they sound like sanyo oscons to me (correct)

Model Number: 2R5SVPC1500M
1500uF farad not ohms
2.5 Is the max operating voltage 2.5V

They are not apparently "ordinary" caps, so I will have to find one on a scrap card or summat.

The photo is not MY card, just a photo I found on my travels (trawls).
I now have the heatsink all cleaned up and with fresh thermal paste etc and can't wait to fire it up! (not literally again, I hope)

[Rewl]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

it's a pain obtaining these kinds of non-consumer products :/
if you can't get your hands on a solid cap i think a regular
one with the exact values should temporarily do the job

good luck :)

[Wakou]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Hope nobody minds if I give this a quick bump, I am hoping Mr. Yeh is back from his holidays (Happy New Year Mr. Yeh!)

Could you tell me please what would be the consequences of replacing this component with an "ordinary" electrolytic 1500uF 6.3v?. Your "support" dept has already offered an RMA, I replied that I would not be eligible, as I bought the card second-hand, they then sniffily replied that "This card is obsolete and we do not support it"

Could you ask your tech dept about this please?

[GIGABYTE - Janus Yeh]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Hi Wakou
I told to our vga PM about it

please wait.

[Wakou]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Just a bump in case Mr Yeh has forgotten me

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

He was here a few days ago, when I see him again I will try to let him know. Have you asked this in email to him?

[GIGABYTE - Janus Yeh]

Re: Silent Pipe.... Help please!

Well, I am not forget you, Wakou. However our PM not answer me yet, can you mail me your question, and i can fw to our pm?

[email protected]