9800s are known to be failure prone, unless you're doing something very basic such as forgetting to plug in the power molex and it doesn't POST at all I wouldn't count on fixing it.

Try cleaning the contacts, either by using a little bit of rubbing alcohol or with a rubber eraser. This has worked for me on many occasions, however 9800s are indeed failure prone unfortunately!

I have cleaned the contacts, of course, tried booting with only the card powered, so no hard disk or anything else , and no sign of life 🙁
I'm afraid there's no way to save it.

nali wrote:

https://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/12/47/40/91/dsc04612.jpg […]
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Was it used without the fan? Any broken off ICs, SMDs or cut traces?

nali wrote:

https://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/12/47/40/91/dsc04611.jpg […]
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I know that case. Unfortunately I already recycled mine since it was in bad shape otherwise would have grabbed parts for you. Got it part of this lot a little over a year ago. Wasn't crazy about it TBH.

dann86 wrote:

Was it used without the fan? Any broken off ICs, SMDs or cut traces?

I can't tell for sure. When I got it it was outside, under the rain. The fan was totally seized by rust, so I don't think it just happened in one day.
The screws for the fan were rusty too. And what is funny it's the only place I found rust in the whole computer !
I've never seen a fan stucked this way ... I haven't be able to disassemble it 😀
I suppose it's the primary reason of the failure.

I don't see anything bad on the pcb, even with a magnifying glass.

liqmat wrote:

I know that case. Unfortunately I already recycled mine since it was in bad shape otherwise would have grabbed parts for you. Got it part of this lot a little over a year ago. Wasn't crazy about it TBH.

Thanks 😀
But in fact the case is complete, excepted of course where there's the drives. It's in perfect shape, there's no single scratch.
It's not that I love it, but it's not so bad and "period correct".
Even if I don't consider a circa 2003 computer beeing "retro" 😀
What would be nice to have is the panel for the Audigy. Not that I need it, but nice add-on.

This tall tower case is nice !

Chuck it in the oven maybe? I mean your hardly gonna make it any worse!

That's what I plan now.
Can't be worse then it is 😀
I just wait my french fries to be ready before 😜

Sometimes things just need to be very dry. It can take longer than expected. I carted a Core2 home in a drizzle. It didn't complete POST for about four days, then fine ever since.

Maybe there's hope !
After baking in the oven, Linux tried to load the "radeon" module.
Since the primary card is a (strange) Savage 4 Dual screen, it can only be the 9800.
It failed to complete to boot, and the next one doesn't find it.
Nothing in "lspci" .
But it's better I suppose 😀

Progress !
I baked the card, and changed the main capacitors.
When the card is cold, Linux see it, but after a reboot it's already hot and no sign of life. so there are chances there's a bad solder.
Need to reflow correctly ...

Booting with "nomodeset" :

1#dmesg :
2[    4.535280] [drm] VGACON disable radeon kernel modesetting.
3[    4.535488] [drm:radeon_init [radeon]] *ERROR* No UMS support in radeon module!

1#lspci | grep VGA :
201:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] R350 [Radeon 9800 Series]
304:01.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Graphics Ltd. Savage 4 (rev 03)
404:02.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Graphics Ltd. Savage 4 (rev 03)

I would suggest getting a new card. Baking and reflowing are not the same. Maybe the card is just dead. Did her time. RIP