Big mistake...

Hmm it may be repairable depending on what got damageg. But I would suspect the repair cost wouldn't be much less then just replacing the card with a used or new one.


The Crazy One

Unlikely to be repairable - I'm afraid you are gonna have to put this one down to experience.

Hang that card on your wall as an example of what not to do and go buy a new card. Fortunately GF3's are cheaper these days.

Depending on who made your card, you might be able to RMA it.  I have a reputation for forcing people to take my busted hardware, wether it's been defective out of the box, I have found it on the floor somewhere or even destroyed it myself.

I currently have a GF3 (Visiontek, now ATI) which carries a lifetime warranty.  I plugged the card into my system the other day and was greeted by a pop and a nice looking flame coming from one of the ICs.  Unfortunately this was not the desired efect.

Now, would you say that the card was defective or was it something that I did?  Well, I say that the card was defective since I was doing nothing weird with it, so I'm going to force Visiontek/Ati to take it back.  Sure they want an original receipt and all that crap, but I can cook one up.  Funny thing is that I legitimately bought this card along with some other stuff at a computer show, and my buddy took the receipt since they had some items on there belonging to them.  Now I'm supposed to cough up a receipt from last year?  I don't think so, I moved to another country and anything that was not ABSOLUTELY necessary got left behind.  Guess what category that receipt was in.

I guess what I'm trying to say is give it a shot.  Unless you've done something really obvious like drilled through the pc board, they won't look that much into it.  They'll have a technician test the component and try to narrow down the failure.  

enough rambling already...I could go all day on this

Yes I will give it a shot,and I wasn't drilling through the card. :)) lol Nothing wrong can be seen,everythings looking fine,no burned smell but the warranty is is gone,2 months ago :(  Maybe I'll get myself GF4Ti4800se. Is that beter than Ti4600?
P.S.
What is RMA? And what do you do to that people when they agree to take it back? Something like "Take that back,or else..."

nah RMA is Return Merchant Authorization or Return Material Authorization, depending on who you ask.  It's basically contacting the company directly to get a refund.  If the store you bought it at went belly up, or you buy your hardware from a travelling carnival you can get exchanges from them.  That is if it's under warranty.  If it's out of warranty they really harrass you...but I have done it before though MUahAhAHAHhahahAHA

Dell and IBM are inpenetrable though.  IBM will never give you a warranty directly because they have a paper trail a mile long of everyone who bought it from them.  I had a few 18gig 10k SCSI drives 4 years ago that were cooked by a tech who modified the SCA power cables for some reason.  Seemed to make perfect sence to him at the time. I was working in a computer store at the time with him, and we got the drives from a customer on a trade for some other equipment.  No the stuff wasn't hot either, he bought an assload of server equipment at an auction (yes he had the paperwork to prove it, ID and all that) and had no use for it.  He wasn't a power user, and he just wanted whatever the best "home" PC was at the time.

Anyway, IBM told us to ask the company that bought the drives from them, which was a defunct server manufacturer in Toronto, Canada.  We were screwed....the drives are still around hehehe

Dell, they want a urine sample from you just to give you driver information, never mind hardware.

Even if you want to buy a part from them, they want Serial numbers and will only sell to the original person who registered the equipment.  I had 4 - P2-450s a year and a half ago that needed a power supply, but they were those slim desktops, so a regular ATX wouldn't fit.  They refused to sell me a PS from their site 'cause they were all registered to a trucking company in Idaho.

Bastards.  

I'd love to boycott their product, but they price it damn good...and truth be told I actually like it best of all the name brands.  

But now that they fired the Dell dude for getting busted with some weed I might have to boycott them for real...

Hey,they set me up,I didn't have any weed! oops,I didn't said that.Just kidding...hehe  You sound like you are really pissed with them. Thanks for the story. Anyway one more question which card is faster GF4 Ti4600 or Ti4800se?

I think I'll buy Ti4800. It seems like a better choice. Thanks everyone.