I have been getting 'black snow' and random polygons when playing 3d games recently so I decided to initiate a warranty request with ATI. To start the process they needed a serial number off the card. When I went to remove the card from the computer I discovered that the ATI cooling fan had melted off the heat sink and was dangling by a wire.
The chip under the fan also looks slightly toasted, which leads me to believe it cooked itself and then melted the fan rather than vice versa. Has anybody had this happen? I didn't overclock the card or do anything silly with it.
A big motive for me paying a $40 premium to get an ATI brand 9700pro, instead of a 3rd party 9700pro, was ATI's warranty exchange program. Basically, you give them your CC info and they send you out a replacement. You then swap cards and return the original in the box the replacement arrived at. The beauty of this is there is no down time. Unfortunately, they have since discontinued this program. :roll:
I sent the card out on tuesday to their office in NY. From there it will be shipped to their tech dept in Canada. It takes them 1-3 days to process the card and another 3 days to get it back to the customer. On a positive note, the people at ATI have been very nice and said they would probably just replace it with a 9800pro.
'Little' problem with my ATI 9700 pro
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