Hey,
I have my Sapphire 9600 that started to be getting VPU Recovery Errors, and i read on some other forum that it may be overheating. So i put a fan on the heatsink, still was getting errors and the screen was now garbled and eventually would not even recognize the video card and wouldn't reboot. So I took off the heatsink, put some arctic silver on it, put a bigger heatsink on, and it still wont even recognize the video card. I know the problem isnt any other hardware since Im using my old Radeon 9000. I have the latest drivers for the card (4.7 I believe), and actually the problems started shortly after the driver update, but I havent heard of any other problems with the new drivers. Any ideas on what the issue might be?

Thx for any help in advance.

If cooling it more didnt help then the damage is probably already done - and permanent. Its probably hosed, sorry.

Your probably right, but I don't want to rule anything else out yet. My card went from perfect quality to not even booting in less than 2 days, and most of the time I had the card out of the computer and barely used it. It just seems wierd that it would breakdown so quickly.

Quote: Originally Posted by X_Vapor_X Your probably right, but I don't want to rule anything else out yet. My card went from perfect quality to not even booting in less than 2 days, and most of the time I had the card out of the computer and barely used it. It just seems wierd that it would breakdown so quickly.

3 words:

WARR AN TY

- or -

R.M.A.

I think I voided the warranty by taking off the heatsink. And yes, I always do get a warranty, usually well worth it. And by I had it out of the computer most of the time, I meant during the period of those couple of days, I've had the card for about six months.

my gf2gts did almost the same thing, then i threw it in my closet(quite literaly) and let it get waslked on for a month..... it works now.....

one thing i knowtesed was i smushed part of the pcb wafer that the core sits on with a screwdriver replacing the hs....


my 5600 randomly gets choppy(random blocks of color) once i broke off a voltage regulator, look around for a missing one

For the most part they can't tell if you removed the heatsink however I had a 9600 Pro and it ran pretty hot too. I thought all 9600's had fans on them too.

maybe on ATIs, mines a sapphire.

Quote: Originally Posted by j-dogg For the most part they can't tell if you removed the heatsink however I had a 9600 Pro and it ran pretty hot too. I thought all 9600's had fans on them too.

Nah, just put a 9600 all in wonder in a customers rig - no fan, just a heatsink. It was a made by ATI card too - I was disappointed but he didnt care.

I'm surprised and dissapointed they didn't just put a $5 fan on all their cards. That's all they needed for the 9000's, and they were fine.

Before we jump to conclusions lets rule out the possibility of a software related issue.
Uninstall your drivers as directed in my guide, then install the v4.6 Omega Catalysts.

After reboot from driver installation, disable VPU recovery and reboot once more. If problems persist, RMA.

k thx. I'll post what happens with it in a couple of days. I've got some other stuff to do...