8800GT not working, DOA?

TankJitsu

I just ordered a EVGA 8800GT 512MB off Ebay, with the intention to SLI it to my existing EVGA 8800GT 512MB, and pursue gaming bliss. It is literally the exact same video card from the same mfg, same ram, everything. However, problems arose:

When I installed the card as a secondary/SLI card, it was not recognized by the Nvidia driver or control panel. Windows did seem to recognize the card and install drivers for it, but then said it had a problem: "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)" Upon researching this code, it pointed to a driver error. I decided to test the card by itself, so I pulled out both cards, then only installed the faulty one as the primary card. Upon boot, jagged lines and weird pixels were visible on the BIOS screen.

BIOS Screen:

Windows Background:

Things only got worse after that, as Windows would only show 640x480 (or whatever it's lowest resolution is). The card was still not recognized. I un-installed and reinstalled the most recent Nvidia drivers several times, with no luck. I tried the other DVI connector on the back of the card, no luck. I pulled the card out, checked all the power connectors, and put it back in, no luck. I checked the BIOS to see if there was some sort of "Enable SLI" setting, with no luck.

I pulled the faulty card, put the original one back in, and everything works great. So it's not anything else in the system.

At this point I think the card is just dead, and I should start the process of getting my money back. If anyone has any other ideas, please let me know.

My system:
Antec Nine Hundred Case
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R motherboard
Intel I7 950
EVGA 8800GT 512MB (the good one)
EVGA 8800GT 512MB (the one that's broken)
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Antec EarthWatts EA650 Power Supply
Win7 64 bit

Thoughts? Ideas? See if it will blend?

Synthesis

Honestly, I think you got a bad card. I suppose potentially, maybe, you could have some PSU issues (they're both kind of power hungry cards), but I doubt it, given that you already tested it by itself.

The socket isn't bad either, thankfully. A LOT of 8800GT cards had problems, both hardware and software wise. Sounds like you got a bad one....

Lucky Cynic

Double check the drivers and the driver settings to make sure those aren't the trouble makers but looking at this points to a suspiciously acting hardware issue.

TankJitsu

Thanks all, I've contacted the seller, and they are offering to replace it. I'm going to send it back and hope the next one works!

jinkumabuta

This might sound like a bunch of voodoo magic at first but I promise it's actually legit.
The short version is a huge amount of 8800s are failing due to smt joints cracking under excessive thermal stress and a short trip inside a ghetto reflow soldering station, or a kitchen oven as those are more readily available, will fix your card with a success rate that pretty much floored me the first time I heard about it.
Having done it myself, I can confirm that it works. Some douchebags even buy busted 8800s off of ebay, fix them and resell them as working parts...

You can read more details about this here: http://www.overclockers.com/forums//showthread.php?t=606658
or the google search of your choice using the keywords "8800 oven fix" or any permutations of the relevant theme.

That said, even those who had success with fixing multiple cards admit that if your warranty is still good, you're better off doing that since the manufacturers might in some cases send you a new or even more recent one; this trick's more for the sake of the homebrew mad science factor than anything else.

Satsumomo

Afaik, baking your card fixes it only temporarily.

jinkumabuta

Technically, any hardfix on old computer parts should be considered only temporary and AFAIK, the reason people say that is to be a little conservative on the promises of a hack that's dodgy and doesn't have heaps amounts of room for shit to happen; that said, I've heard of people effing it up or even doing everything right but still not getting it to work but the point was that it's definitively worth the 15mins invested in the not-so-unlikely case that the card dying is indeed due to smt joints cracks and the warranty's gone so you have nothing to lose.
...or at very least, an interesting bit of serendipity if it happens to be your case.