 |
February 28, 2014, 05:06:42 AM |
|
I have one mining PC with 2 HIS Ice-Q 7950s in it. They are identical cards with sequential serial numbers. They have always mined very well. I usually keep them in the 620-640 Khash range and don't try to push them too hard.
Today I came home from work, and their computer was off. Not just idle, but all the way off. The power didn't go out, because my alarm clock will be blinking if the power goes out for even an instant.
It took a few tries and on-offs of the power supplies master switch to get the computer going again, but when it did, I heard a SNAP/ POP sound and saw a puff of smoke come off one capacitor on one GPU.
It still mines but it is getting way hotter than it used to, these 2 7950's were twins and ran near identical speeds and temps until today. Now one was up 13 degrees Celsius under a normal load.
The capacitor that blew was on the back of the board in the VRM / voltage regulation part of the board, number C823. Could be C623, they make the numbers so damn small, but I'm fairly sure it's C823, out in the middle of the board on the backside from where the rows of capacitors are and the black metal heat sink there on the opposite side of the board.
So what blew and why? Just a bad part? I've been hashing coins hard on these GPUs since about September of 2013, with a month off while I moved.
I could replace the capacitor if I knew the value of the part that died, or RMA / return it. I used to do electronics tech work and replacing an SMT cap is no big deal to me. I just wonder if there are other bad parts now.
|
