Did I kill my son's GPU card?

[myklc]

Chasing a dodgy power issue, I swapped out the PSU for a known working unit. I only connected the mainboard power but had left the Gigabyte 7770 plugged in. When I hit the power, a component on the GPU card failed spectacularly. Did I somehow cause this by making the card draw too heavily through the PCIe power rail???

 

[ZionZA]

Define "failed spectacularly" please?

 

[myklc]

Define "failed spectacularly" please?

Smoke, orange flames (small) and the well-known crackling sound of an electrical arc or short.
Small singed area on card and a small bubble of molten solder on the centre of the singed area.
Either a capacitor or a resistor I think.

 

[Guest]

LOL. Are you in denial and hope for us to say no?

 

[myklc]

LOL. Are you in denial and hope for us to say no?

Nope, hoping for an educated response. AFAIK, not supplying the additional PCIe power should simply disable the card, and not in this fashion.

 

[ZionZA]

Well you say you had a dodgy power issue before swapping out the PSU. What was this issue? For a GPU to fry like that you either have one serious problem on your motherboard and I would recommend you send it in to get replaced or something is touching the motherboard and in doing so shorting out the board.

 

[HumdrumPenguin]

I've seen it happened before. A friend of mine didn't plug the psu cable on the vga and it got useless after the power on. So basically, yes, you need to get a new vga now.

 

[myklc]

For simplicity, my basic question is: Do PCIe GPU cards usually fry themselves if the additional power cables are not connected?
If so - my fault. If not - mainboard power regulation issue.

 

[tshrimp]

For simplicity, my basic question is: Do PCIe GPU cards usually fry themselves if the additional power cables are not connected?
If so - my fault. If not - mainboard power regulation issue.

I think many of us have forgotten to plug in the power to the GPU. I know I have and never experienced anything other than no video posting. Shut down, plug in, booted up and all good.

Sorry to hear about your issues.

 

[mastrom101]

I've forgotten to plug in a GPU's 6 pin power connector before. It didn't work, but once I plugged it in it resumed normal functionality. Seems weird that it would fry the card.

 

[myklc]

Thanks tshrimp and mastrom101! That was my assumption, but I couldn't rationalise the flaming component issue. Adding the previous power errors to this current disaster strongly suggest the mobo has power regulation issues.
So time for a new mobo and gpu. Hope I can reuse the cpu and ram.
Giving this one to tshrimp simply because first answerer.

 

[ZionZA]

Thanks tshrimp and mastrom101! That was my assumption, but I couldn't rationalise the flaming component issue. Adding the previous power errors to this current disaster strongly suggest the mobo has power regulation issues.
So time for a new mobo and gpu. Hope I can reuse the cpu and ram.
Giving this one to tshrimp simply because first answerer.

I told you to take a look at the motherboard lol

 

[myklc]

Thanks tshrimp and mastrom101! That was my assumption, but I couldn't rationalise the flaming component issue. Adding the previous power errors to this current disaster strongly suggest the mobo has power regulation issues.
So time for a new mobo and gpu. Hope I can reuse the cpu and ram.
Giving this one to tshrimp simply because first answerer.

I told you to take a look at the motherboard lol

Indeed you did, but that wasn't my question.

 

[HumdrumPenguin]

According to tshrimp and mastrom101 it wouldn't fry. But it happened to someone I know on a GTS 8800. So I guess the vga model may differ on what happens. Hope yours is still working though.