Hello,
I have a mirror-drive G4, with a Radeon 8500 graphics card.
At some point last year, the fan noise got beyond unbearably loud.
In a strange way. So i oppened up my machine, and noticed the Radeon's fan wasn't spinning properly.
Because i use my computer for music production exclusively, i reckoned i cold probably do without a fan on my graphics card, and reduce the noise level by unscrewing it.
I did that, and my computer carried on fine.
Then i got myself an iBook for travel, and my MDD stayed unused for several months.
A few days ago, i decided to get back to using it (as it is that little bit more powerful than my Ibook, in theory anyway) but after the startup tone, nothing came up onscreen.
I figure my Radeon has died.
But i'd like to check things out.
But it's not easy without a screen.
My questions :
-did i really need the fan (i play no games) ?
-could my card have "suddenly" died like that ? (surely there'd be some sort of warning signal ?)
-can i fix my Radeon ? (i took it out, it doesn't show any outside traces of overheating or anything)
-how could i investigate into my MDD's health-state ? (using it in FW target mode with my iBook ?)
-is there a cheapo card i can purchase that'll function instead ? (i'd rather not invest in this G4)
-could it be something else causing loss of display ?
I'm not very competent with computers, hence the silly questions. Thanks ahead for your help.
I have a mirror-drive G4, with a Radeon 8500 graphics card.
At some point last year, the fan noise got beyond unbearably loud.
In a strange way. So i oppened up my machine, and noticed the Radeon's fan wasn't spinning properly.
Because i use my computer for music production exclusively, i reckoned i cold probably do without a fan on my graphics card, and reduce the noise level by unscrewing it.
I did that, and my computer carried on fine.
Then i got myself an iBook for travel, and my MDD stayed unused for several months.
A few days ago, i decided to get back to using it (as it is that little bit more powerful than my Ibook, in theory anyway) but after the startup tone, nothing came up onscreen.
I figure my Radeon has died.
But i'd like to check things out.
But it's not easy without a screen.
My questions :
-did i really need the fan (i play no games) ?
-could my card have "suddenly" died like that ? (surely there'd be some sort of warning signal ?)
-can i fix my Radeon ? (i took it out, it doesn't show any outside traces of overheating or anything)
-how could i investigate into my MDD's health-state ? (using it in FW target mode with my iBook ?)
-is there a cheapo card i can purchase that'll function instead ? (i'd rather not invest in this G4)
-could it be something else causing loss of display ?
I'm not very competent with computers, hence the silly questions. Thanks ahead for your help.
