Video card picture comes and goes, looses sync randomly \ VOGONS

Video card picture comes and goes, looses sync randomly

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First post, by lowlytech

Posted on 2020-04-15, 01:00

lowlytech Offline

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Location: Oklahoma, USA

I have a voodoo card that I would like to try and save but the picture will come and go within 20 seconds of POSTing. I have checked the VGA port and re flowed the solder connecting it, but the problem reoccurs. I was curious if this could be a bad transistor close to the output stage or what the most likely issue would be for this behavior. It basically looses sync, but will come back randomly. When it does come back it is totally where it was, so the card is not locking up, it is just like a bad connection. When Putting plastic vice clamps on various chips doesn't seem to change the behavior whatsoever. Have cleaned it with DeOxit and IPA 99 without change and now suspect some component to be the fault.

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Reply 1 of 4, by imi

Posted on 2020-04-15, 01:02

imi Offline

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PLEASE PUT A HEATSINK ON IT!

before it breaks completely...

Voodoo3 absolutely needs to be cooled.
the heat stresses might very well break the solder connection between the chip and the PCB or just cook the chip.
you might get away with having a strong fan blow directly on the chip, but I wouldn't risk it.

Reply 2 of 4, by lowlytech

Posted on 2020-04-15, 02:00

lowlytech Offline

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Thanks for the info on this fireball. I didn't run it without the heatsink more than about 15 seconds to confirm clamping the main GPU didn't resolve the issue. I have no reason to think I wasn't the 1st person to remove it as it was stuck on there pretty darn good.

Reply 3 of 4, by imi

Posted on 2020-04-15, 09:13

imi Offline

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why did you remove it in the first place? it's also easy to break solder connections on removing the heatsink if it was glued on.

so it didn't work with the heatsink on either?

Reply 4 of 4, by lowlytech

Posted on 2020-04-15, 23:26

lowlytech Offline

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Correct, it was not working before taking the heatsink off. I heated it up a tad and worked the heatsink off gradually, so hopefully any further damage was not inflicted.

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