Think my video card may be done for...

[oboe]

Was playing last night with 38maw when my screen fritzed out - vertical white banding and a buzzing sound.  I rebooted and next time I went into AH and spawned to the runway it did it again, this time producing a full screen of pale yellow vertical bands.  I started a video card monitor and did it again, and did not notice hi temps but the GPU usage spiked off the scale at the point I get the lockup.

Next time I got into AH I got a solid white screen, and the system was totally locked - had to hold the power button down to reboot.   I left it sit overnight and this morning I got the white screen and hard lockup just surfing the net.   I sedated my system and removed the video card (XFX R9 280X) and its now resting comfortably, using integrated video chip on the mobo.

Examining the card I noticed one of the two fans spins freely but the other seems to have a lot of resistance to spinning.

[MADe]

yes, a fan failure will lead to overheating, will crash card.

[Bizman]

Sounds like the memory of your video card has fried.

That's the con-side of silent fans, you won't notice that they've stopped especially with earphones on.

[oboe]

Interesting, I WAS wearing a headset last night which I rarely do.

I have been experiencing quite a bit of fan noise, and had decided its my power supply fan.  I've been running with the sides off the case to help find where the fan noise is coming from.

Probably an OK time to replace a card, with Black Friday upcoming and all.   

[Bizman]

For future use, an easy way to find out which fan makes the noise, try stopping them one at a time by gently pressing the center of each fan. When the noise stops, you've found the faulty one. De-dusting is another recommendable maintenance task.

[oboe]

For future use, an easy way to find out which fan makes the noise, try stopping them one at a time by gently pressing the center of each fan. When the noise stops, you've found the faulty one. De-dusting is another recommendable maintenance task.

Yes, that's basically how I decided it was the power supply's fan that was making the noise.  However I remained suspicious about the vidcard's fans, and turns out one of them did go.

I periodically take my computer case's sides off and blow it out with a shop vac hose - it spins the fans up very fast and blows out alot of dust.  I don't *think* that should be hard on them, the power is off after all, and they spin freely.

[Skuzzy]

Yes, that's basically how I decided it was the power supply's fan that was making the noise.  However I remained suspicious about the vidcard's fans, and turns out one of them did go.

I periodically take my computer case's sides off and blow it out with a shop vac hose - it spins the fans up very fast and blows out alot of dust.  I don't *think* that should be hard on them, the power is off after all, and they spin freely.

Oh no, that is very hard on the fans.  Always tape the fans so they will not spin up when blowing out the computer case.  The bearing and support for the fan blade are designed for a specific RPM range.  Most of them use a sleeve bearing, which will wear and distort very badly if you push the fan blade at high speeds.

[Bizman]

Umm... if you make your fans spin very fast with a blower there's two issues.

First, if you make them spin faster than designed you'll kill the lubrication of the bearings by excess heat. And then of course the bearings will die because you've burned the lubricant off.

Second, if you make any kind of an electric motor spin by other means than electricity, the motor turns into a power generator pushing electricity backwards into the system. Again, excessive speed may produce more power than your system can handle. I bet you haven't unplugged the fans during the cleaning process...

[Edit] Skuzzy the Lightning Finger was faster again 

[oboe]

Oh no, that is very hard on the fans.  Always tape the fans so they will not spin up when blowing out the computer case.  The bearing and support for the fan blade are designed for a specific RPM range.  Most of them use a sleeve bearing, which will wear and distort very badly if you push the fan blade at high speeds.

Oh man, I've always been pushing them hard then!   The rear case fan and the CPU heat sink fan always took the brunt of the air stream; the power supply, front case, and video card fans were more indirectly hit.   Thanks for the tip.

[oboe]

Umm... if you make your fans spin very fast with a blower there's two issues.

First, if you make them spin faster than designed you'll kill the lubrication of the bearings by excess heat. And then of course the bearings will die because you've burned the lubricant off.

Second, if you make any kind of an electric motor spin by other means than electricity, the motor turns into a power generator pushing electricity backwards into the system. Again, excessive speed may produce more power than your system can handle. I bet you haven't unplugged the fans during the cleaning process...

[Edit] Skuzzy the Lightning Finger was faster again 

Oh dear, I never unplugged the fans, and never thought about them being turned into mini-generators, but can imagine that's not good for the motherboard circuitry.  Will definitely take precautions in the future to ensure the fan blades don't spin.

[Drano]

Oboe, I had a problem with my 6950 recently with lockups and the white banded screen all of a sudden. I tracked mine to the HDMI cable not being seated properly due to looking at other things around the PC case.

Silly I know but I thought mine was a goner too.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[MADe]

Interesting, I WAS wearing a headset last night which I rarely do.

I have been experiencing quite a bit of fan noise, and had decided its my power supply fan.  I've been running with the sides off the case to help find where the fan noise is coming from.

Probably an OK time to replace a card, with Black Friday upcoming and all.

I'm very bad at fan maintenance. everytime my fans got noisy was because they were filthy and the bearings dry out in the dust eventually freezing. some vid cards you can replace a fan.....................

also opening the case may help but it should be kept closed so air patterns can happen efficiently. control of air flow and its direction can be very beneficial.
 

[oboe]

Oboe, I had a problem with my 6950 recently with lockups and the white banded screen all of a sudden. I tracked mine to the HDMI cable not being seated properly due to looking at other things around the PC case.

Silly I know but I thought mine was a goner too.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Thanks Drano, I will check into this.  Not sure how the cable may have been unseated but you never know, and it also matches the fact that I wasn't seeing high temps on the vidcard monitor.

[pipz]

I periodically take my computer case's sides off and blow it out with a shop vac hose - it spins the fans up very fast and blows out alot of dust.  I don't *think* that should be hard on them, the power is off after all, and they spin freely.

I did the same thin once. Now I hold the fans so they wont spin. Live and learn. 

[Bizman]

Hint: Some fans can be lubricated! Detach the fan, and if there's a sticker or a rubber plug or both on the back side, a drop of sewing machine oil at the end of the axle can do wonders. Caution: Don't use WD-40, CRC 5-56, lock oil or any other ultra thin stuff! They'll flush away the last drop of grease from the bearing and it will die with howling like a banshee. Knowledge by experience here...