ATI HD 3870 card with after-market cooler - no video

[CheesusRise]

Hello everyone,

I recently got an ATI Radeo 3870 video card for my Mac Pro, but like many was not happy with the noise it makes. Reading forums, I decided to replace the cooler with an aftermarket one. I got Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev 2 cooler.

When I installed it, the computer starts booting up, I see the Apple logo and the "spinning wheel". But when (I suspect), the OS starts to load the graphics and wallpaper, the screen goes black and the monitor enters powersafe mode.

I installed the original GPU cooler and the card works, but it is too loud.

Any ideas why the card with after-market passive cooler would not be able to display video?

Thank you,
AK.

 

[TrapOx]

Any ideas why the card with after-market passive cooler would not be able to display video?

The Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev 2 is a poor choice; its a passive cooler so it doesn't cool worth a cr@p unless you add a fan. The case fan alone isn't enough to cool that hot gpu and memory chips so the card is shutting down to protect itself from damage.

 

[TimmyDee]

Sounds like it's overheating and shutting off to save itself. Did you use thermal paste when installing the new heatsink?

 

[MacVidCards]

This would be my guess too.

Be certain that the cooling solution contacts the die portion of GPU. (Shiny part)

It needs to sit totally flat on there and be clamped securely to it.

 

[CheesusRise]

as far as I could tell, the cooler was totally covering the CPU. The heat sink came with a thin layer of some sticky solution applied to it. As far as I can tell it was not a similar thermal paste that the original cooler had on 3870. Do I need to add just a little bit more paste?

 

[ellmanl]

Did you figure this out? I have the exact same problem.

 

[CheesusRise]

No, I could not make it work with the Accelero S2. So I got Accelero Twin Turbo cooler and it works.