X850 Pro PCI-E Fan Not Spinning

[quadomatic]

I've noticed that there is something seriously wrong with my Video Card and it's fan!

I've been playing various games and finding that after some time, the monitor stops receiving a signal from the video card. I checked the card and found that there were a lot of artifacts coming up. So, I uninstalled the ATI drivers, used Driver Cleaner, and then installed the Omega drivers. I then set the fan speed to 100% in ATI Tray Tools and ATITool, and to have it always run at that speed.

I started playing a game, and after maybe 15 minutes, I noticed that the fan stopped running at 100%. I checked ATITool, and it said the card was at 121 degrees Celsius! The fan started spinning at 100% after I closed the game, and the card has now cooled down to 73 degrees.

It seems like something is wrong with the fan control on the card. Can someone help me out and tell me what I should do?

It's a Sapphire Radeon X850 PRO PCI-Express with 256MB of ram. I'm using the latest OMEGA drivers It IS NOT overclocked. The rest of the specs are:

A64 3300+ (Socket 754, no overclock)
Biostar nForce 4 Motherboard
ULTRA 400W PSU
Western Digital 160GB Hard Drive
16x AOpen DVD Burner
768 MB of Ram

It might help if I let you know this...I recently had a power surge that destroyed my power supply. I replaced it, and now it works okay. I noticed the CPU Fan had started dying after the power surge (it may have been dying before, my PC had been crashing in games before), leaving my processor running at very high temperatures, so I had to replace that too. There is an occasional ringing noise coming from the system. It's been happening since after I replaced the power supply since the power surge. It's a very high frequency noise, and I know this for sure, because my parents aren't able to hear it. Nothing is wrong with the hard drive, so I know thats not the cause of the noise. I think the PSU might be making the noise though.

[bruins004]

Power Surges are never good.
It seems that it first damaged your CPU Cooler.
It also seems that it damaged the Fan Controller on your GPU.

I hope nothing else is damaged as sometimes they can take whole systems.
Looks like you might have to replace it.

[newtekie1]

I suggest you replace the heatsink/fan on the video card with something new.

[quadomatic]

The thing is, the fan never stops running like its supposed to unless I'm in a game. I can be out of a game for hours, with the fan set at 100% speed, and it will always be running at that speed. Only in games will it stop spinning.

Any idea why? Did I Mess up something while installing the Omega drivers?

[newtekie1]

My guess would be that the card begins to overheat and for some reason the fan controller decides to lower the speed instead of raising it, but again that is just my guess.

Personally, I would buy a new heatsink/fan that plugs into a normal fan slot or even directly into your power supply so you aren't relying on the cards fan controller.

[DaMulta]

Download rabbit(Lets you edit the Bios) off of the TPU and download your video card Bios with ATi try tools.

Then flash the card with the fan settings you want and see if that helps.

[quadomatic]

Download rabbit(Lets you edit the Bios) off of the TPU and download your video card Bios with ATi try tools.

Then flash the card with the fan settings you want and see if that helps.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/283/RaBiT_Bios_Editor_v2.2.html

Is this the program?

And, if I do have to replace the video card's fan, what do you think I should use? I looked for an Accelero S2, but I can't find one anywhere. Sadly, none of the Arctic Cooling fans that Newegg sells are compatible with the X850 PRO. I can't even find anything on ebay.

[DaMulta]

I would just get a Zalmen I think it would fit that card.

Yes, that is the program I was talking about.

[quadomatic]

I would just get a Zalmen I think it would fit that card.

Yes, that is the program I was talking about.

Anything cheaper than Zalman? Does anyone know where I could find an Accelero S2?

[DaMulta]

This says it will fit a X850

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109141

[DaMulta]

This would be better
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186001

[quadomatic]

Yea, but the last one you posted doesn't fit an X850, and neither does the other available accelero.

And the first fan you showed me doesn't look so great.

Are either of these fans good?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835124006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119064

[DaMulta]

I don't know, and I don't know about the ones I posted/

I know this one should fit and will work pertty good
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118117

It's a little bit more I know.

[newtekie1]

The VF700-ALCU for $20 seems good enough:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118124

[quadomatic]

Can anyone think of why the Fan works perfectly fine in everything, except after maybe 20 minutes into a game, and the second the game is closed, the fan spins fine?

I don't think this ever happened until after I replaced the CPU fan...maybe it has something to do with that?

[DaMulta]

Have you changed versions of ATi tool?

[quadomatic]

No I haven't. I have ATITool, ATI Tray Tools, and Rivatuner. Right now I'm letting Rivatuner handle the video card.

[DaMulta]

why do you have all of those installed?

[quadomatic]

why do you have all of those installed?

alright, now I just have rivatuner. I'll reboot and check later how it all works out.

[quadomatic]

I don't think it's getting any better...I played CS: Source and the fan literally STOPPED SPINNING after a maybe 20 minutes...and the second I closed the game the fan started spinning like normal...I can't understand why this keeps happening, and why the very second I close the game the fan spins like normal.

[Kursah]

I'd almost say something with the 2D/3D changing, but hard saying...

I personally installed an AC cooler on my x850, set it to 100% in ATI Tool and went with it.
Ensure ATI Tool is set to load your settings. Also try regular ATI drivers, clean the Omega's completely, could be a bug affecting your card.

[quadomatic]

I'd almost say something with the 2D/3D changing, but hard saying...

I personally installed an AC cooler on my x850, set it to 100% in ATI Tool and went with it.
Ensure ATI Tool is set to load your settings. Also try regular ATI drivers, clean the Omega's completely, could be a bug affecting your card.

well, before this i was using ATI drivers and I was having the same problem, but I think I had made a mistake when installing the original ATI drivers...I'll go ahead and try out the ATI drivers and see what happens.

[Kursah]

What version of drivers are you using? I found 6.9's to be the the best for my x850 I believe...try those.

Hope that helps. Also, in ATI Tool, check to see what the fan speeds are set at for different temps, that might be an issue...force it to 100%. Save it as a profile with your clocks, Set ATI Tool to load it every time it is started or windows is loaded.

[quadomatic]

What version of drivers are you using? I found 6.9's to be the the best for my x850 I believe...try those.

Hope that helps. Also, in ATI Tool, check to see what the fan speeds are set at for different temps, that might be an issue...force it to 100%. Save it as a profile with your clocks, Set ATI Tool to load it every time it is started or windows is loaded.

Well I just tried the latest catalyst drivers, and they didn't work. The fan stopped spinning just like last time. I'll try out the 6.9s like you said then, hopefully those work...

[Kursah]

If not, then possibly try a reflash on your VC bios..I see you downloaded RaBit, you could edit your Bios for 100% fan speed, just make sure you have a backup of your current Bios should problems arise. Or if you're not comfortable doing that, I'm sure someone has a bios or could help you make one.

[quadomatic]

I tried the 6.9 catalyst drivers, and the fan still had problems. I tried ATITool and decided to keep the 3D view open and watch the temperature monitor and stuck my hand under the fan of my video card.

The hotter the card got, the more it seemed like the fan was slowing down, like it was under too much stress. Once it reached 100 degrees Celsius, the fan stopped spinning. I closed the 3D view, and immediately, the fan started spinning at full speed.

I guess I'll try flashing the BIOS with it edited to have the fan running at 100%...but I don't see how that will fix anything.

Any other ideas?

[DaMulta]

Maybe the fan is dieing on it.

Do you have any 80mm fans lying around? Rubber band one on your video card and see if it keeps it cool.

[quadomatic]

Maybe the fan is dieing on it.

Do you have any 80mm fans lying around? Rubber band one on your video card and see if it keeps it cool.

I probably have one...I guess I could stick it to the video card, but I wouldn't want to remove the heatsink already on there because of the video card memory...would I have to worry about the heatsink melting the fan?

And is a 120mm fan okay? Would that be able to keep it cool during gaming?

EDIT: The case fan in my PC that I'm not using is an 80mm fan, and I also have a massive 120mm fan.

[pbmaster]

I have a standard 80 mm breadtied on the side of my card...that works great! The 120 should be enough also.

[quadomatic]

I have a standard 80 mm breadtied on the side of my card...that works great! The 120 should be enough also.

This is probably a dumb question, but what does breadtied mean?

[pbmaster]

I use bread ties to hold it to the side of my vid card. :slap:

[suraswami]

If you are interested I can sell a brand new never been opened Artic Silencer that I bought for the 850 Pro card that I ordered from Newegg. Apperantly they ran out of stock and the system took my order anyway. They have to refund for the card, but they shipped the cooler that I ordered along with it. Later went with a HIS 1600 Pro. Send me a PM. Where do u live, I can check on the Shipping charges. $20 + shipping would be fair I think.

[Kursah]

That's a very fair deal for such a good cooler, did wonders for my x850...it made it an OC beast!

[Kursah]

To me it seems your fan algorithm is backwards...hard saying how if you haven't been flashing unknown "modded" bioses...but the fan could be overstressing under the heat and eventually stopping. Your best bet is that AC cooler quad...it's worth it.

[Random Murderer]

go with this. (http://e3wwwtest.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109141)
i know damulta posted it and you said you didnt like it, but its a thermalright cooler, and thermalright makes some of the highest quality coolers around.
as far as the accelero's go, you wont find one that fits an x850, because they were never made for the x850 :slap: the accelero s1 and s2 never made it to production.
Arctic cooling made some coolers that were specifically for x800/x850 (http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=61), but they were discontinued along with the x800/x850's.

[suraswami]

I think the fan is connected with a 2 pin wire. May be there is a 2 pin to 3 pin converter. Buy one and plug it into a open mobo header and u will be done and back into gaming.

Or u can sell that card to me, I can use my Arctic cooling to upgrade my wife's PC:D

[Kursah]

go with this. (http://e3wwwtest.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109141)
i know damulta posted it and you said you didnt like it, but its a thermalright cooler, and thermalright makes some of the highest quality coolers around.
as far as the accelero's go, you wont find one that fits an x850, because they were never made for the x850 :slap: the accelero s1 and s2 never made it to production.
Arctic cooling made some coolers that were specifically for x800/x850 (http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=61), but they were discontinued along with the x800/x850's.

I forget how fast things change...I guess it was a while ago when I got my x850 and AC Silencer 5 rv. 2...damn! That Thermalright would probably perform just as well if not better due to design and heatpipe efficiency. Sure it doesn't exhuast heat out of the case, but for the price it's an excellent buy and it will do a great job of cooling that card, and if you have decent case cooling, especially on the exhaust side, then there should be no worries. I'd recommend that cooler! But if suraswami has the correct versin of AC silencer and revision, has to be 5 rv.2, then it's an excellent cooler and 20 bucks + shipping is worth it as with my experience, I modded my x850pro to XT PE (w/16 pipes enabled) and OC'd beyond XT PE speeds and still kept below 60C on the core! Plus it's not loud at full speed, and does exhuast the hot air from the card out the back of the case. 2 choices..both of them good, get the one that works for you.

[quadomatic]

Well, I'll try strapping the 80mm or 120mm fan (or both) to my video card and I'll see how that works out. If that doesn't help, then I'll probably go ahead and get another fan.

This isn't the first time a video card fan has given out on me...my 9800 PRO's fan died after a year or so. I bought this X850 PRO secondhand as well, from some guy on anandtech...I guess it's probably time for me to get a new fan anyway.

[Agility]

Have you tried sticking your gpu fan to the motherboard pins rather then the pins on the card?

[suraswami]

Here are some images of the ATI Silencer

:toast:

[sneekypeet]

If you live in the states hit up ebay...type in "zalman" in the search....VF900(remanufactured) $19.99 +shipping. New hardware kit included. Really ,what is there to "reman", the fan is the only thing that might need work. So basically its a 900 with a new fan ,slightly used, with new hardware and sinks......not too shabby ,concidering the almost $50 price when bought new!

[quadomatic]

Have you tried sticking your gpu fan to the motherboard pins rather then the pins on the card?

No I haven't. That sounds like a good idea. I'll give it a try.

Thanks