Repairing GPUs on older, low-end cards?
Repairing GPUs on older, low-end cards?
I recently acquired an AMD RX 550 on eBay. It arrived in a box with all necessary accessories. The card appears very clean. The system powers on and both video outputs look intact. 3D rendering also functions properly!
https://www.powercolor.com/product-detail159.htm
https://www.amazon.com/PowerColor-Dragon...B09NTNSCJM
Symptoms:
The fan fails to spin. A gentle push with a finger didn’t get it going, indicating it’s not stuck.
At idle, the card reports 32 W. Another RX 550 I own idles around 10 W when two monitors are connected.
After disconnecting the fan cable, idle power fell to 25 W.
Unplugging the second monitor reduced idle power to 16 W (my other RX 550 only draws 4 W with its fan on).
I removed the shroud to detach the fan. One of the chokes seemed slightly misaligned, but it looks straight and the leads are cleanly connected elsewhere. It seems the issue was just a slight misplacement.
No other damage is visible—no scorch marks or abnormalities.
Why choose repair instead of swapping it for a different card or a newer model?
I needed a low-power, single-slot, half-height card for a server setup. My current RX 550 has two slots and is full-height.
I also own an RX 6400, but it runs hotter and louder, which isn’t ideal. However, Linux support for Polaris is strong, making it a solid option.
If I could fix it for roughly the same cost as buying a new one, it seems less risky. Purchasing another card might just result in another failure.
I’m considering using this GPU in a small mini-ITX RISC-V system someday. Having something compact and low-power would be perfect for that.
Advice? Anyone know about reliable GPU repair services in the USA where prices could be under $100? So far I’m around $70 on this card and not planning to spend much more on repairs than replacing it. I suspect the problem is with the VRM component or something similar. If it turns out to be more complex, I’m okay with writing it off.
The price is $50 to check, then what should I pay to fix it?
I notice the same item on Amazon for $70.
Check with PowerColor for their recommendations. They might be able to assist you effectively.
Seller didn't provide any assurances or a return policy.
I understood the potential issues and was just attempting to figure out my next steps.
BTW, there's another reason I wanted a second RX 550. My first card has some corruption on the display output, during heavy 3D workloads with both monitors connected. I was curious whether this could be due to some sort of driver bug, or maybe my original RX 550 is bad/failing.
My first RX 550 has 3 outputs: DisplayPort, HDMI, and DVI. Weirdly, the corruption is much worse with both HDMI + DVI connected than with DisplayPort + DVI connected, even though I run either one in the exact same resolution and refresh rate. If not for that, I'd suspect the memory controller is flaking out or something. However, that behavior makes me suspect it's some kind of problem in the display output portion of the GPU. I guess maybe some clock instability?
The nature of the corruption is that there will be streaky lines or blocks that flicker across the whole screen and sometimes both screens, even when the 3D is just contained in a window. The corruption is brief, meaning it's occurring at some point in the display-output path, and not corrupting the framebuffer, itself. It does seem to get worse, as the card heats up. The only temperature reading I get from the card ("edge temperature") is only like 65 C and the card claims it's only running at 35 W (PPT).
That's what I was worried about, yet a few fast online searches indicated that some repair shops might only ask for $50 to examine it.
The price is $50 to check, then what should I pay to fix it?
I notice the same item on Amazon for $70.
So besides the fan not spinning the card, it works fine. If it functions in 3D, there’s almost no chance of problems with the VRM, and the VRM is completely separate from the fan control section of the card. It’s typical to find slightly crooked chokes during manufacturing, which doesn’t mean anything is wrong. I own an Evga board where every single choke was crooked from the factory.
It’s quite likely the fan needs replacement. I experienced this on a 1050ti recently. The bearings were fine and it spun freely when checked manually, but the motor stopped completely and wouldn’t even move when powered. You could test with a multimeter to confirm if power is reaching the fan through the connector. Software power reports can sometimes be unreliable, so I wouldn’t assume anything is broken with the card since it’s drawing more than 550 watts. All the power readings you mentioned seem normal.