OK, so last week I bought a 4870X2 that was sold as known to have issues, and the issues cited was overheating. Which was not uncommon for these cards, and was certainly not shocking for this card in particular as it had about half a kg of dust in the cooler. I took it apart completely, cleaned it thoroughly, repasted everything, and tried it in two systems..

On my LGA775 system the R819/D15 LED keeps blinking, and this is supposed to be a "Thermal issue" alert. Interesting. So I think: "Maybe this card overheated at some point and went into thermal protection, and now doesn't boot because I need to reset that?" But I can't find any proof that this is how it works, or how to reset such a sensor if there even is a way.

So I go ahead and plug it into my AM4 Ryzen PC, and my MSI B450 motherboard simply reacts with long 2 short beeps (Failure in video system An error was encountered in the video BIOS ROM, or a horizontal retrace failure has been encountered) and the VGA error led lighting up.

Obviously, something about the card is fuxored, but what? I would like to reflash the BIOS on the card, but that is a no go because the LGA775 won't POST with the 4870X2 installed even if I add a PCI card and set it as the primary.

Posting it on VOGONS because I got a lot of people chiming in about having used this card and knowing about its quirks in the "I bought this retro hardware" thread, so hoping someone might have some pointers for me 😀