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2 Graphics Cards 1 Problem

Griffinballs

Jul 23, 2015
24
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
24
Hi all

Got a problem, I have 2 GTX670 4GB. They were running in SLI on the same machine. One day, I believe due to a dodgy iron that has since been replaced. One of them died.
I was using my PC on youtube and all of a sudden, it froze, nothing was responding, not even the hard reset button. Turned it off and on again, PC wasn't starting correctly, kept getting to windows then would black screen and not respond.
Took out one of my graphics cards, problem resolved. Swapped them over, sure enough, one had fully died.

Ran just one graphics card for a few days, then after a while, exactly the same thing happened, to the letter.

So now I'm down two graphics cards.
Just for reference here, I am a PC technician by trade so my diagnosis has been tried and tested and true, they cards be fubared!

Since then I've replaced the iron that was causing the power to trip (the last time one of my gpu's died was immediately after one of these power spikes, the pc was on while I was ironing, iron shorted the power, pc wouldn't come back on, gpu was dead)
I have also now put my PC on a surge protected socket extension (never saw the value of these before, lol, go figure).

I have also replaced my power supply as it was used when I bought it and about 5 years old so I bought a new one. Since then my PC has been fine but I don't currently have any extra GPU in it, I am running intel graphics now.

So anyway, I have these two dead graphics cards, I believe they have pretty much the exact same fault. Hoping maybe you guys can help me figure out what needs replacing. I'm including a load of pictures of the cards, let me know if you need close ups in any particular area.
So far, the only clue I have is, one of the cards has a bit of brown staining around some caps which I've included in the pic, but the other card doesn't appear to have the same set of caps and no staining anywhere.
I'm handy with an iron, but don't know much electronics theory so am clueless as to what component may be at fault. I'm guessing something power related.

The models of each card are
Gigabyte Windforce GTX670 4GB
KFA2 EX OC GTX670 4GB

I do intend on buying a new graphics card anyway, the new 1070's are too hard to pass up. But if I can actually fix these, then even if I don't continue to use em, I can sell em on knowing they're good.

Any and all help would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time

Griff
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hevans1944

Hop - AC8NS
Jun 21, 2012
4,878
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
4,878
Without a set of schematics, a test fixture, an oscilloscope and a logic analyzer it looks pretty hopeless. Have you tried contacting the manufacturer(s), who will have all these things plus experienced technicians, to see if they will repair the boards at a reasonable cost? It's sad that so much consumer electronics is considered disposable, but I am afraid your boards are destined to end up being held over a fire somewhere in Asia to be salvaged for parts. :(
 

Gryd3

Jun 25, 2014
4,098
Joined
Jun 25, 2014
Messages
4,098
You included great info in your post, but I'm with Hevans on this one...

The brown 'stain' you are showing looks like a cosmetic issue, not a heat or electrical related fault.
Given the description, you feel the iron has caused a spike that damaged the board, it would be difficult to home in on a specific part... The PCI-E port will supply data lines and power, but you also have the external 12V source on the opposite side of the board to worry about.

To make matters worse... these boards are almost always multi-layer, so you can't exactly trace the lines between parts unless you have an ungodly amount of spare time to remove a large number of components from the board in order to use a multi-meter to determine which pins/pads connect to which other pins/pads... At this point, you might as well test each components by itself anyway, but there will be a few parts you simply can't test without a detailed data-sheet... I'm talking about the actual GPU on the board here.

Time to scrap it... or invest tons of time randomly prodding at it.
 

Griffinballs

Jul 23, 2015
24
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
24
Thanks for the advice guys.
I'd already written them off, just thought I'd give it a last ditch post just in case someone had experience with graphics cards specifically. Totally understand its like a needle in a haystack type situation, ah well. Need a decent heatsink for a tv I'm repairing. A GTX cooler might be a bit much. But sod it :)
 
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