Mail Archives: djgpp/2013/10/10/19:15:13
On Thu, 10 Oct 2013 17:43:10 -0400, RayeR <glaux AT centrum DOT cz> wrote:
<OT>
> You have EVGA Nvidia 7960GT 512MB, I belive that 79xx should be
> supported with unofficial driver but maybe 512MB on PCIE card is the
> issue so I rather preferred 256MB version (of 7900GT) which is not
> so spreaded.
I had an EVGA 7950GT. It was the first video card of mine with BGAs
to unsolder.
It worked for many years before it had problems. I got another six
months out of it. Unlike years ago, I didn't have access to a
industrial reflow soldering machine. I didn't want to destroy a
convection oven by using it for reflow or melt plastic parts on the
video card. Plastic has to be shielded from heat, or manually
removed and replaced later. I also didn't have a heat gun either.
So, I used a really high temperature Vidal Sassoon hair dryer and
Pyrex oven dish, focusing heat on just the BGAs with the hair dryer,
warming them up progressively, then heating solidly for a few
minutes, followed by a few hours of air cooling. It would've been
nice if I had some liquid flux e.g., technician's flux pen or an
ndustrial flux for wave soldering, to help resolder, but I didn't
have that either, and I couldn't get it locally. So, I did without
flux too...
The replacement card was an ASUS 8400GS Silent. Silent meant they
only put a heat sink on the video chip and memory chips, i.e., NO fan.
All the current versions you can buy of that card have a fan now...
I should've known or suspected, but 486's ran without a fan for a decade.
Why wouldn't video cards run fine too? That video card's BGA unsoldered
also. It was a smaller card without much heat too. It had no high power
PCI-Express connector either. So, why would it get hot? It was not
compatible with Tihiy's drivers. The chipset manufacturer re-used the
same number of an earlier chip for a newer chip. It's a different chip
from that in the supported list for Tihiy's driver. The only difference
in new and old naming is a space.
For some reason, Linux supports some resolutions for the integrated
video on this motherboard that I don't have available in SE with VBEMP.
It might just be some missing registry keys for the higher resolutions.
So, I think the lesson is:fans, fans, more fans, make sure there
is a fan for it, ... ;-) Now, I'm worried about AMD's processor fan.
Is it enough or do I need more cooling? They haven't had a problem
so far, but video cards didn't for many years either...
Rod Pemberton
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