6950 broken fan HELP!
 

I bought a Sapphire 6950 2gb reference card (dual bios switch) on May 2, 2011. Worked fine, and this Sunday i decided to flash it to 6970. Again it worked fine until last night, when the fan suddenly stopped working. Restarted system, no response. Flashed back to 6950, no response. After the 3rd restart, after the Windows booted, the fan started working. I thought it was because of the flash, but few hours later it happened again, so I turned off the system.
Before last night I had no problem whatsoever with the card, flash or not. Please give me an advice to the cause of this.

P.S. The fan moves slightly from time to time, like it tries to start, but quickly stops again.

System spec:
i5 750 @ 4Ghz 1,3v with Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B and Arctic Silver MX-2
Gigabyte p55 UD4
2x2Gb Kingston Hyper-X 1600Mhz
Sirtec 560W power supply

er perhaps the fan is stopping becouse its cold enough that it dosnt need to spin?


if you open a game up, does the fan start again? or can you use Afterburner to boost your fan speed.

try to spin the fan, does it spin well, is there any unusual noise?
is there any strange, i mean on the motor area, like burn trace or someting that should b there
or it just need get oiled
btw dont forget to check the cables too

I tried to spin it myself and there is no unusual movement, nor there is a burn trace there. The card is brand new and i don't want to open it up myself and void the warranty. As for the cables, i pulled the card from the pci-e and re plugged it, as well as the dvi from behind and the two 6pin power supplies and still no result. I was using msi-afterburner at the time, and it does not respond anymore to fan-control settings (it shows 0 rpm on the tachometer and that's it, no matter to what percent for the fan i use). This applies also for the Ati Catalyst (last version 11.5). Any more ideas? :(
@slyfox2151: No matter the game or just idle, the fan will not start for nothing.

l.e. It heats up to 100+ Celsius and still no start for the fan :( Therefore I stopped gaming so I don't damage the card.

It sounds like you have faulty card there, as in hardware fault. Whether your BIOS flash provoked it or not, I don't know, but I doubt it.

Regardless, as it's still so new, you should return it to the shop for a full refund and then buy another one. I dunno which country you're in, but a lot are like in England, where I am, where doing this protects your consumer rights more than simply getting an exchange. Don't even consider doing anything else. Do this quick, before this initial period runs out.

Heck, cards can and do fail like this and is exactly why we have warranties. :)

Just make sure that the original BIOS is flashed back before you return it!

Flashing back to the original bios was the first thing i did:) Thank you for your response mate; just can't believe my luck :| I wanted this card so bad and now I have to walk around with it to exchange/refund. Still don't know what the hell caused this. Btw, I'm from Romania :)

Glad to help, metilic. This is what we're all about here on TPU. :toast:

As you're new, you might not realize that you can go to your User CP and complete things like your system specs and also a little about yourself, such as general location. The system specs is an especially good idea, because it helps others to help you more effectively and it looks cool too.

For an example, have a look at my mini stats on the left and click on the system specs link. Also, click on my username and select the view public profile option to have a feel for what goes in there.

if theres no err on the fan, its from the card, so better flash to original and rma it.
except you wanna replace the fan or mod it
but better rma it

Thank you all for your responses. This is indeed a kick-ass community, and I'm glad I joined you guys here.

RMA it. I know taking the thing apart is tempting and doing it yourself would be a wonderful adventure but the smell of new hardware wrapped in plastic is its own reward.

You all make me feel bad for not being able to buy you a beer :D

That's such a great way to put it! :toast:

You could always get us a virtual one. ;)

Free virtual beer for everybody :toast: :D

UPDATE:

Got a new replacement 6950 card, works great with no problems. I don't know if this fan problem was flashing-related, but I'm not sure that I want to try flashing it to soon :D

If youre not 100% confident about flashing don't do it. Its already a very powerful card so just slight OC it and enjoy. Awsome that you got a whole new card!

Excellent, I'm glad for you. :toast: Thanks for coming back to us. :)

I agree with LDNL that it's probably best not to flash it. There's not enough gain for a lot of risk.

Also, if you can't resist flashing in the future, maybe consider the shader unlock rather than flashing to a full 6970 bios.

A new video card is great, but finding nice people like you guys that enjoy helping others is much better in my book :)

1. You guys :toast:
2. -
3. -
4. -
5. Video card :D

does sapphire mention what if anything was wrong?

maybe there was just a bad connection with the fan power cable

I sent the card back to the retailer I got it from, not to Sapphire directly. They did not sent me a notice until now, and I don't think they will; I'm still curious though :)

No, the shop won't tell you what was wrong with it. Chances are they'll send it back to Sapphire and will never know themselves anyway.

I'd hazard that it was either a bad solder joint or some component in the power circuitry feeding the fan has failed.