just installed new VGA silencer... uh oh

[Willber123]

hi, i just installed a vga silencer onto my hercules 9800pro 128mb.
I turned on my computer and to my suprise, the colours are all odd. ecerything seems more red than it should normally be, kind of like the old power saving mode my old computer would go into after the screen had been on for too long.
i am worried that this could be pretty bad, does anyone have any idea what it could be? thanks

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Are you absolutely sure you installed it correctly? Was the VGA Silencer's aluminum heatsink making good contact with the 9800 Pro's core?

And you say the screen seems more red? i'm not sure i'm familiar with any problem like that. Have you noticed any graphic artifacts or overheating at all?

 

[NYHoustonman]

Maybe go to the ATI control panel and adjust it there? I did the same operation, and while my hands were shaking uncontrollably and I was nervous as hell, it worked ... Also trying touching the heatsink (there is an of aluminum all the way around that you can touch) or feeling the air coming out the back, make sure it's hot... If not, you're not getting proper contact.

 

[Willber123]

well i installed it properly i think, i have a hercules so it has the extra heatsinks on. so what i did was, i took the screws out of the blue clip, and where the heatsink is on the opposite side of the chip i put the nails through the holes in the heatsink which went perfectly through to the holes in the cooler. Now i am curious though because although the cooler looks like its on the chip, now take the diagram that i drew, the red lines indicate where the cooler seems to be covering. there is no excess "cooler" on any of the sides so it cant be moved along, and the screws fit in whilst its like that so i assume its in the right position.
it is really odd thought because i cant decide whether or not it is the screen that is acting wierd or its the card. i jsut ran ati tool's artifact tester and got nothing for 600 seconds, and i ran that "DX9 Real-Time High-Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting" programme thing and got no sparklies or anything. so i have no idea at all whats going on.

 

[PistolOnly]

I've got an artic vga silencer on my 9800pro and it works fine. I'd say you've probably not seated it properly, or knocked a chip pin out in the process. Or you've shorted something out in the process - The cooler is aluminium after all. On mine the cooler is like 2mm from touching a bank of aluminium contained capacitors! An outstanding cooler though. If the card's screwed, then you better swap back its stock cooler on pronto and hope for an RMA.

 

[jonbob]

I have the same card, is it safe to use the VGA silencer with Hercules' unique ram sinks?

 

[PistolOnly]

It should be because the ramsinks have a lower depth than the highest components: The bank of aluminium capped capacitors near the VGA/DVI outputs

 

[Willber123]

update: i took the card out and put it in my brothers computer and amazingly it worked perfectly, so my one assumption is that when i tried to put the VGA cable in the back of the computer it was quite hard so i ended up jamming it in, i might of damaged that, so im going to try another cable, lucklily though, my card is not b0rked.

 

[RABIES]

Ramsinks are fine to use on the VGA silencer.

Check to see if you seated the card right in the slot after you "jam" the VGA cable in.

The VGA silencer has a metal shim used to help ground the heatsink, make sure it is grounded properly.

Also make sure you didn't crush the board on the underside, the clip has a pin that puts pressure near the center of the underside of the chip. Too tight and you could crack, snap, bend, or hell even smash something. :O

 

[Sprafa]

The same thing happened to me.

The problem was that my monitor is 6 years old and I think the 1280x1024 res (too high) combined with a bad cable made it. I figured that when I twisted the cable and it went to other colour filters (blue, green, yellow....) and eventually I got a new cable. Everything is fine now.

 

[Willber123]

yeh kind of the same thing happened to me sprafa, i checked the end of the cable and some of the pins were bent, i rearranged wiith a knife,fork and kebab screwer. i pluggeed it back in carefully and hey presto, it worked.
thanks for everyones help.