The guru has yet another 8600 task to complete.

Around 9:40pm yesterday The 8600 specialist to impress TPU users and bystanders more was attempting to preform yet another volt mod on his 1 and ONLY beloved 8600GT Solaris ED. the mod started normally....unscrewing the card from the case dock removing the retention bracket and cleaning the thermal paste...after lapping the core and re lapping the cooler solaris casually reapplied the thermal paste and proceded to put the cooler back on noting how much the thermal paste was spreading after examining the spread by peaking into the crack with a flash light he nodded his head this is a routine job for solaris...most ppl would bother with lapping and re applying ever week but he has spectators and big deams of world records to crack...and so he contined reinstalling the card and booting up...-4ºC pleased with himself he leaves his desktop and grabs his fluke meter from the closet...casually setting it to read DC volts he strides over to his parcially dissasembled rig....and measures the voltages.....1.4 core 2.2mem...intresting he thoght to himself....1.5 should be achevable with a pencil mod and 2.3 is the norm on the memory....he could have sworn it had been at 2.3v when he had first modded to.......after thinking about it he was sure of it and may also contribute to the fact that 1ghz(2 effective) wasnt stable anymore...his voltage must have dropped.....no problem he said...with the newely lapped cooler he figures he can beat 1075 mem and have an amazing bandwidth...he smirked a little he was already faster than all stock GTS's and faster than some overclocked...but the bug bit him and he needed mroe...he had ppl to impress and a title to withhold...and so he pulls out his trusty .5mm lead pencil..and clicks it 3 times casually. no lead....thankfully he is very organized and goes to a basket not 3 feet away and pulls out the proper platic tube with the lead sticks in it....as hes droppin 2 of them in he remembers he should search newegg and the net for a circuit writer life would be easy with that. preparing to volt mod was always a pleasure to solaris....for all the haters on TPU non had ever downed his 8600 though he had seem them to it to countless others he was proud and why not he had gotten the full backing of the tpu community he was known and popular and this was only going to improve his standing he loved helping ppl and when they asked or quoted or redirtected someone to him he felt all fuzzy inside...getting down to buisiness the takes a few passes over his mem transistor.....2.2/2.3 then dropping back to 2.2 steady no good he said so he tried it again....2.2/2.3 all the way...he took the nub of his eraser and took some off...2.1 traced again 2.2 holding this made him feel better as he knew the fluxuation could hurt the components hedecided to focus on the core for now...the card would need to be pulled and re traced to get the mem to its proper 2.3v...he traces the core..1.3...no good traces again 1.4...and again no change....he goes to take a sip of his MD on the desk HORRER!!!!! a white screen!!!!! this is no good he thought and quicky struck the restart button...the computer boots ARTIFACTS!! even in bios....he cits power to the machine something is dreadfully wrong impossible damage ugh and cant even finish thinking the word he simply cant accept it...he pulls the card and gets an alchohol swab...and cleans the transistors time to start fresh as he looks over horrer struck...it appears he was a little off and while tracng over the vcore resistor he has inadvertantly traced over one right next to it...and had no schematic infront of him as his computer is down..NOOOOO he though EPIC FAIL! but he cleans it eagerly quickly...though it means nothnig the card doesnt even have power to it...and whats done is done...though his card is flashed to high clocks without the volt mod he will get artifacts but he installes the card once again he wont get them inbios....and thats what he's watching for...but alas with a boot checker patterns and odd symbols make up his infinity logo as he powers on the system...Solaris17 has short cuircuited his epic 8600...


of course im sad however...im going to be completely rebuilding the card...a total overhaul maybe it will work after words.....i also have a few more tricks up my sleeve if it doesnt work im going to try soldering wires to a transistor that does work that is double the capacity of the one that is damaged then bring the wires back and solder them to the points after the transistro that is broken this will possibly divert the resistor bringing power and life back to my card.......

but if it is dead what should i do? spend 235 on a 512mb 8800GT or buy 2x 8600's for $200?

o if i get the 8800 i can promise you their will be another guide and it wont be stock for a single day after i get it i have decided though if i can get this card to work again im just going to sli them ill spend the rest of the money on a physx card or a better proc.

thats a possibility or ill get this card running...spend 100 on another 8600 and then drop the $$$ on an 8800 then their will be comparison! 2x sli 8600GT solaris ED. vs 1 8800GT i mean the guy with my resistors backed out but as soon as i get them i have get to get passed 1ghz core on the 8600 which let me tell you i WILL do

its not that simple it isnt a bios issue i voltmodded the card while it was running

stands erect and crosses arms...staring at the outlet.

not sure i follow on the palit model though waht do you mean? and yes they do

changed my system specs give them a look.

you know what im gonna do it ill get the 8800 and then pick up an 8600 or 2 and put them in my grls rig shed be the luckiest ting in the world(vein) solaris17 working on her cards......im sad but i know ill still get to play that and this is tax return money i dont make enough to atually be able to pick one up so its now or a year and a half from now....i guess iw ill good call guys...and remember youll still see 8600 updates from me i just found out my local radioshack has circuit writer pens and the resistors i need...can somone say breaking 1ghhz core?....that and with an 8800 i can help a bigger majority of the ppl here....i mean im willing to take the risks and then i tell you guys how to do it safely.


@DrunkenMafia ya i know right i had fun doing that story what do u guys think?

at the moment my rig runs....windows 2000 with my sweet 3dfx banshee 16mb pWnage.

and it really isnt...but with the things i know how to do...and transistors and tracer pens 3 blocks away i know if i spend the extra money to buy a good cooler i can beat 1ghz ore....which imo with any luck would beat the 8800....now in raw preformance not a chance...if i were to OC the 8800 it could do more than i could push the 86's to do but iv always wanted sli...and its really hard for me because well...it isnt about top end components to me...its taking what you have and pushing to the ABSOLUTE limit that gets me excited...i mean i could go out and buy a quad core intel witha sick mobo and sli 8800 ultras and beat everyone.......however its taking a dual core or a crippled quad amd....cooling voltage..and SKILL and pushing until im AS good that makes me glad im in the computer feild...its pushing what you have that makes me happy..i mean if im rich and i buy top end...what do i feel good about?...theirs nothing to be proud of...my money got me that score...not my skill......and iv helped alot of ppl with my knowledge of the 8 series......but i dont own an 8800......its teh fact that i study and tweak the cards that i can tell someone with an ultra about how much it can do...someone with $5000 to blow cant...having a big paycheck doesnt help anyone.....im torn ill admit...but i know you guysd will help im taking every post to heart and thinking hard.

its a good call that ill deffinately consider....i mean with a volt mod and a lapped cooler i had my card running at 810/1835/2000 actaully 2100..i was able to run it stabaly at 1050/2100 effective...with 2 cards....volt modded with transistors 86's have goten tops 1.2ghz core......im of course talking about VRzone...only their ram was only clocked at 950 i can beat that...so in essance..id have 2 8600's at 1ghz/2200/2000 that is F@$% crazy imo

ya i decided to put a little flare into it no reason making a bad sitch worse by saying o noes im gonna cry i killed my card!!!! i mean i volt mod i lap..flash i knew i had already voided w/e warrenty i had the min i got the card...and volt modding while the card had power......i knew what was involved..its dangerous probably more so than anything else i did....i knew what could happen and it did....w/e it happens rebuild repair and move n...in the future..i wont be doing that ill take the 30sec to remove the card.

10 to 20k variable resistor wolf