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A Warning To Those Who Play Beta (GPU)
Unive
Member Posts: 133
I was so excited to be one of the one out of 500 that got the invitation for Beta. So I installed it logged on and began playing. Started off with random artifacts all over my screen and 1 min system freezes so I figured oh well it must be a hot card. Next day Massive color dis-coloration and artifacts everywhere on my screen and infinite time system crashes. It got to the point where I was forced to reformat both my gaming Hard Drive and my System files hard drive because my computer would not even boot up. Was fine for a bit then the artifacts and random system freezes came back so I took my computer apart and sure enough 3 capacitors on the top of my 7600 GT were blown up, LITERALLY. Ive had this card for over a year and I have NEVER had 1 problem with this card over heating or artifacts for that matter, even when I played AOC for a month on medium settings. No over clock on my video card has ever been attempted. Even in the EULA and TOS whatever you would like to call it they even specifiy by playing beta they are not responsible for damage done to your system by their game forcing you to agree to that to even log in. So now my computer again will not boot and im out the $120 bucks I spent on it ( AT THE TIME ). Please no flame this is a fair warning to the WoW Community to avoid the beta if you do not want to have damage done to your rig. Heres an album I created on Photobucket to prove that I was in Beta and the DHC / w/e is lifted for any forum moderators it is completely legal to post these pictures.
http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s235/xonoma/WoW%20Beta/
{ Mod Edit }
Comments
No flame here just an honest question. Is it even possible for software to fry hardware? Aren't there safeguards in place that will shut your system down if it gets to hot?
Maybe this was just some kind of incredible coincidence. Your system doesn't sound like it is that new. Not that wow needs a newer system to run just saying the parts were old.
Either way, sorry to here about your problems.
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If you are insulted by being called a fanboi it's a good bet that you are one
Why didn't my video card fry on AOC with medium settings then? Thats the descrepancy that cannot be logically explained. Anyone can tell AOC graphics are much more demanding than WOTLK and thats not an insult its just the technical truth of it. And if it was completely impossible for software to damage Hardware why would they even include it in the EULA / TOS ? If it was to cover their own butts theyd have to put 5 trillions warnings in the EULA / TOS if that was the case. They put it in there for a reason. This is not a flame on blizzard because I understand the risk I took by hitting "I accept" Its just a fair warning to anyone else that would like to avoid this and wait a couple months to play the polished version.
Im in beta and all is fine on my 8800gts.. I did have some artificats on screen so I turned off my over clocking on the gfx card and all was fine. I was also run with shadows set 5 (devs says we should not use this) so im sure that did not help.
Wotlk does seem to much your gfx card more then previous versions.
sounds like your card was over heating. All games specify if your pc blows up when playing this game we cannot be held responsible.
In the end you dont know it it was Wow, WoW could of just tipped your already struggling/broken card over the edge. We will never know. For all we know AoC blew of the capacitors and wow blew the other.
They put it in the EULA so people wont pester them with accusations.
{ Mod Edit }
Perhaps the game didn't fry your graphics card. Stuff breaks, shit happens etc.
Your just beating around the bush. Why cant you see this one way instead of. "WHAT IF, WHAT IF, WHAT IF" It was the game nuff said. I love WoW but some of you fan bois need to lay off. Yes "shit" does happen. and as I previously stated I understand the risk I took when I hit the accept button and I never pestered them in anyway. So take your trolling ass right out of here. This is a nice, fair warning to the people of this community that these things can happen and I do not appreciate being flamed for taking time out of my day trying to assist other people in avoiding potentialy destruction of their rigs.
Honestly id run a few diagnostics on your card and take it out and check your capacitors on it because it was fine for me just like your stateing for a while and then it all went boom 1 day.
I'm not exactly an expert on the subject, but wouldn't it be more likely to be a power surge if capacitors are fried? Seems like the kind of overheating required to melt a capacitor enough to cause a short would be significantly noticeable.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
Did you mean to post this in the WAR section instead?
He's talking about WOTLK beta.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
Hehe. Doh!
Games put stress on system components. Some will heavily stress your graphics card. If you dont know enough to monitor temperatures and fan speeds and try to keep an eye on the situation, you will never be properly informed.
{ Mod Edit }
My ancient Geforce 4 Ti4200 died playing WoW, think it was like 4 years old. I heard the capacitors exploding, sounded like a fire cracker, my pc still ran for about 4 hours after they popped, i shut it down and it wouldnt start back up
in my opinion, i dont think WotLK Beta killed your pc. i've overclocked video cards to the point of crashing my pc, i could see that killing it slowly. probably bad luck.
All electrolytic caps will eventually begin to leak (term given to a cap that doesn't hold it's charge). They have a limited life span. When they have an imperfection (such as yours), the heat can force any air bubbles inside to expand causing the cap to pop open.
You don't need to push it for this to happen which is why you didn't see the problem with AoC. If you were to notice an issue when upping the settings, more than likely it would have been bad video memory.
Just like a car, computer hardware WILL fail.
Just like a car, computer hardware can fail within the first few days out of the factory.
Just like a car, computer hardware can limp along and have spuratic issues without completely failing simular to a car having a "rough idle" because of a fault air flow sensor and such.
... and just like a car, your hardware WILL fail immediately after the last payment and/or your warranty has expired.
On a side note: Video cards, just like your computer, do require regular maintenance to remove dust and other obstructions. If you don't - you risk your video card's components to exceed their thermal limits and that when things like this happen. All video card manufacturer's have atleast one page in their manual or installation guide displaying the necessary care of your card.
Once i burned half my computer when i was using Notepad.
"omg, plxzor, st0p uzing n0t3paD!! it burnz ur computez!!!"
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Senhores da Guerra
I don't think it was notepad that did it, it was the trashcan fire you had going right by the intake fan.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
TsukieU: flobots rule
Like every company nowadays -- you'll see that kind of EULA everywhere. It's main purpose is~ like what you just said: protect themselves against lawsuits.
This is not unfair, it's just the norm nowadays when doing any kinds of business in any country. Go to a hardware store, to the ladder section -- have a look at it, see how many things they put up in the disclaimer.
You said that they should've included 5 trillion warnings in the EULA~ believe me: they can and will do that if there are existing results of lawsuits that could potentially endanger their position.
You are not being forced to agree on the EULA, it's really up to you to agree/disagree to play the game w/ their terms and conditions.
Thank you for the warning though, I'll make sure to regularly check my system health when wotlk is launched.
I'm just curious~ when did you re-subscribed to WoW. From your posting a month ago, you said that you haven't played WoW for quite a while. Or is it possible to receive Beta invite without being subscribed to WoW ?
The 7600 series was notorious for dying between 2 months and 1 year of use.
I suggest upgrading to the very affordable 8600 series (And perhaps getting an additional fan for the card if you don't already).
When was the last time you updated your video card drivers?
No one has flamed you here. They have merely suggested alternative possible conclusions. No one is trolling and no one is flaming you. I understand you are upset, but throwing around accusations on the forums is no way to act. If you are really just trying to warn people, this should be done on Blizzards official beta website.
It sounds like your card was already fried since in your first post you stated that you started out with artifacts and such. Maybe aoc did fry it. I did some research on your card and blown capacitors happen and the card still can work for a time.
Anyway you look at it you need to chill. No one on this thread had flamed you until you got your panties in a knot over simple questions and observations.
Like someone else said, go post this on the official forums if you want to warn people, on this sight you can expect some discussion about what you posted and it might not always be something you want to hear.
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If you are insulted by being called a fanboi it's a good bet that you are one
All computers components will eventually fail and many of them while the computer is turned on and someone is using a program. Just because your computer took a dump while playing the beta is of no relationship. Sorry about your video card though.
I would think that even the people who hate WoW would laugh at Warcrafts graphics engine doing anything remotely powerful enough to overload a video card.
Have you ever considered that perhaps your download may have been corrupted? It happens, and it can/will cause issues like this. Sure, it may install perfectly. Doesn't mean it isn't corrupted.
Tried the same install on a second computer, did it work well?
Re-download it, and reinstall from scratch.
Not sure if someone mention this in the thread yet (YEAH I'M TOO FREAKING LAZY TO READ THE WHOLE THREAD), but Blizzard has teamed up with ATI. So Nvidia users prepare for some major problems.
BTW I'm a Nvidia user, but don't care since I quit this PoS kiddy game.
Pats let Manning win.