Video Card that powers from motherboard issue

Hi there folks,

I'm having a wee problem with a Gainward (Green Edition) 9800GT -1GB DDR3 and an after-market cooler.

Yes that's rigjht, a 9800GT that requires no power from the PSU. Just slot it and play. It has worked very well until I decided to add an after-market cooler yesterday as summer here is coming up and it looks like it's going to be a real doozie.

This is the cooler and as you can see it is being tested on a 9800GTX which has the same cooler mountng holes etc. as the GT.

Zoe (my wife) has a 9800GT card too but a different model that powers from the PSU. Has the same cooler attached and it has been working fine.

I note that when removing the old cooler fan it has a 2 pin male plug that connects into the video card.
The fan comes with a PSU power connector (as can be seen in the link photo) with two other connectors attached; both 3 pin female. One 7volt and the other 12volt. I assume one being for a fan controller. There is nothing to connect the fan to the videocard 2pin female plug itself though.

Ok, everything is installed properly and has power to the fan from a free PSU power connector. Fan works fine but no screen image, not even Post.
I'm guessing that as the fan is not connected to the card itself, the card won't work (it doesn't recognize it has a great big fan on it spinning away!).
A safety measure I guess. Just like a motherbord won't boot up unless that little CPU fan connector is plugged into the motherboard. A safety measure.

All connectors inside of the PC have been double checked. but no go. Would I be correct in thinking that the card won't work unless it has the fan plugged into it's 2 pin fan connector, just like the motherboard's CPU fan connector safety measure?

If so, is there a way around this?
Or, can I short the video card's 2 pin connector to fool the card into thinking it has a fan connected?

Cheers,
Lee

I am not sure shorting the pins would work. A fan motor does not provide zero resistance as a short would - although from an open, the motor would appear pretty close to a short. Just not sure "pretty close" works here. I don't think it would cause any harm to try, however. I might use a couple KΩ resistor instead of a pure short, however.

Do these 3 pin connectors have 3 wires too? Motors only need 2 - typically the black and red (though there is no standard color coding) and the other (often yellow) is used for fan speed monitoring.

Are you 100% sure no ESD damage? Did you unplug the PSU from the wall before dinking with the card?

FTR, I never replace GPU fans unless the original failed. I have found it is normally better (for GPUs and CPUs) to concentrate on removing the heat from the case interior than to replace the OEM HSF assemblies. That is, adding more or bigger case fans to improve front to back flow through the case. A better GPU or CPU fan just blows more hot air on the die other wise.

If me, I might try your card in the wife's machine. I would not try her card in your machine. Your life might be in danger if you destroyed it too!

Thanks for the reply Dig. Yes, correct procedure was followed removing and replacing the card. Everything was disconnected from the PC and it was done on a PC work bench. I'm not going to try the "short the pins" option as after checking Zoe's card, it has the 2 pin connector too. It's obviously there just for the card fan only as Zoe's cooler isn't connected to it either but the card works fine. I agree about case cooling. My case is a good old "Antec Solo" loaded with very quiet after-market fans. All my temps. are low enough to be laughable, even when (only occasionally nowadays) gaming. The only reason I bought this "Arctic" cooler is for their superb fans, not for the lower temps. I have one on my CPU. The fan noise from the card has slowly but inevitably really starting to annoy me. Like on a lot of cards, they are very small, cheap and mostly noisy and it has now developed a regular clicking noise, so time to replace with an Arctic. When everyone else is up and out of bed (4am here), I'm going to re-check the obvious, like maybe some tiny thing in the card's motherboard slot and clean the contacts with contact cleaner etc. The Corsair PSU powers up fine so it's not that. The troubleshooting lights on the back of the case (4 reds and a green) says" video card problem" in the motherboard's manual. Cheers, Lee

Well that wasn't hard to work out. Card is Kaput After I returned the card to it's original fan and cooler, it still didn't work. Zoe tried it in her PC and nope, no image. The card was handled very carefully at all times and I can see no damage or anything burnt or bulging capacitors etc. but there you go. Time for a new card. Cheers, Lee