Hi all, been trying to get into electronics repair recently, it’s always something I’ve wished I was good at.
I’ve been trying to get into GPU repairs recently and have picked up the above card from eBay. The seller was selling because it wouldn’t load driver in windows after he shorted the fan header with a metal retention clip from a SATA cable, so I thought I’d be able to narrow down the issue reasonably well.
Initially I reflashed the bios as it wasn’t installing drivers. The current bios version is the latest one for the card (the original version on the card wouldn’t fully display all bios info on GPU-Z). This got the card up and running again, but I’m now trying to get to the bottom of another issue.
When the PC loads, the fans run at idle, but as soon as Windows starts up, they spin at 100%. I’ve tried the usual re-install drivers using DDU and a fresh install, I’ve also tried reinstalling windows. I have a spare set of fans from another GPU, which also spin at 100% on loading windows (can’t confirm they don’t also have a similar issue as I’m told they also spin at 100% on the GPU they came off of).
I suspect it is a hardware-level fault and I’m stuck in trying to locate the fan controller. My electronics knowledge is minimal but I have to assume the issue here occurred when the fan header was shorted with the SATA retention clip, possibly sending 12V somewhere it shouldn’t have, like perhaps the tachometer sense line.
I’m not sure if the tachometer signal is interpreted at a set of components that act as the fan controller or by the GPU die itself.
Any ideas where to start trying to locate a possible fan controller?
I’m currently using the GPU connected to the cpu fan header and maintain around 73 degrees C on gaming, but the whole point is to try and fix the original issue.
I’ve uploaded pics of the back of the board where I think there may be an issue. If you need more pics, I have plenty so feel free to ask.
By the way, the red cable you’re seeing tucked behind the fan shroud was my attempt at running a new tachometer wire to the fan header to rule out an issue with the cable itself. It’s not currently connected to anything as the original wiring doesn’t seem to be at fault.
EDIT: uploaded pic didn’t have my markings on, see attached pics.
