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58 bucks i didn't want to spend
23 Jul 2008
Earlier today I was working on my computer and *plik*, my monitors (I have 2) just shut off. The computer was still running however. So I fired up the laptop and remoted in to the big box and yep, everything was still there.
What did this mean? Dead video card.
So I ran out, spent 58 bucks on an EVGA 512MB DDR2 e-GeForce 8400 GS. Why 512? Because Circuit City didn't have a 256MB PCI Express 16 card in stock. Otherwise I would have bought a 256.
After I got home I cracked open the case, took out the old card and smelled it. No burnt smell at all so it wasn't fried (I think) - yet something happened to it that caused it not to work. Darned if I know what it was. Maybe something burnt on it so small I couldn't smell it? Whatever.
Popped in the new card. Didn't work. Reseated the card. Worked. Downloaded the latest nVidia drivers, installed, configured. Life goes on.
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I hate doing forced upgrades like this. Truly I do. Anyone else would be THRILLED to upgrade from a 256 to a 512 video card. Not me. I was perfectly happy with my 256.
I notice absolutely no performance difference with this card at all. And to be honest I didn't expect one. I have a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo proc with 2GB RAM on board, so if I wanted any real performance increase I'd have to upgrade the processor - which I have no intention of doing because I don't need to.
I really, really wanted to save up for another hard drive instead of replacing a frickin' vid card.
Oh well. Guess the drive will have to wait.
UPDATE:
The capacitors were blown on the old card. See image below (click for a larger image). Yep, definitely needed replacement.
UPDATE II:
It's a very likely cause that lightning busted this card. And yes there was lightning today.
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As I said on PC Mech; it must've been something large to blow the electrolyte out of them like that: Those type of electrolytic capacitors are extremely good quality components and designed not to leak through general usage.
How did lightning manage to hit your monitor lead though, and why did it only take out the graphics card and not the monitor also?
Lightning works in mysterious ways. Some say there's absolutely no way lightning could knock out a card and nothing else. I know different, both from present and previous experiences. :-)
Same thing happened to my EVGA 7600 GT today. After doing a search for blown caps on video cards, it seems the EVGA 7600 series makes up nearly all the cases.
Had the same thing happen to my Evga 7600 GT after about 15 months of "easy" service (no overclocking, over voltage, etc.)
A couple of times (weeks apart) I heard a "pop" as if someone had fired a cap gun in the room, but couldn't figure the source until the card died completely after Four capacitors literally exploded.
Photo submitted with the Jul 23, '08 post might as well be of My card. same four cap's in the row of 5 have ruptured tops!
Fair & sunny here in CA for weeks - couldn't have been lightning as previous poster suggested.
I suspect a batch of faulty parts went into this model. . .
I'm a technician and I see 7600 GT's (EVGA) with blown and leaky capacitors all the frickin' time. BFGTECH is where its at, boys and girls! Their techs and rma service rock. No leaky/blown capacitors!
No video this morning on my Vista PC pulled the card and have the exact same problem. EVGA 7600GS with all 5 caps blown. We did have lightning and a power outage earlier in the week so that may be my cause as well