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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Re-setting Rocket (Last resort before RMA)

Why does upgrading the firmware cause the card to die? I only upgrade the firmware every third release as it is scary to take a card that is working perfectly well and perhaps kill it for a upgrade you may or may not see a difference in performance.
 
Brian Pascale said:
Why does upgrading the firmware cause the card to die? I only upgrade the firmware every third release as it is scary to take a card that is working perfectly well and perhaps kill it for a upgrade you may or may not see a difference in performance.
Click to expand...

I am not saying its a fw issue, but it seems like a lot of people have had this problem just after a fw upgrade. I really think it was just a bad batch.

im still hoping to see the cost of Rockets drop. They should be priced as an accessory that every user owns. As important as say, a touchscreen for kicking the shit out of perceived "red workflow" problems.


David
 
I thought mine had died completely today.

First I thought it was my sonnet enclosure.

Took it out - put it in the tower - same RRDecode callback fails.

powered it down for half an hour.

Rented a replacement.

Replacement worked right off the bat.

Booted up card in Sonnet enclosure after cooling down.

Working normally.

Has anyone Watercooled one of these yet?

I'm a little afraid to put more thermal paste on it.

in fact, I'm afraid to even look at the thing.

I had a green one that died before.

Amyway - thinking this thing needs more thermal paste or watercooling.
 
More thermal paste can be counterproductive.

Thermal paste actually needs to be a very thin coating to fill microscopic air gaps in the surface finishes of the chip and heatsink, because thermal paste is a much better heat conductor than air.

However, thermal paste is not as good a conductor as the metal heatsink, so more than a thin film will actually decrease the effectiveness of the heatsink!
 
There was an urban myth or whatever around at about the time of XT computers. I understand a "shoot the messenger big-industry conspiracy" screenplay was written around it at the time but never produced.

The story apparently was that concern developed over the inherent reliability of solid state devices versus the old electronic tube tech and that profitability would be compromised. The story was that two versions of IC were to be made, one for military and medical usages and the other for high volume consumer products. The consumer version had a countdown circuit built into it with a "fuzzy logic" that randomised the timing of a fail mode which was introduced into the circuits. At end of life, the product expired, thus requiring the consumer to go out and buy a new one more often.

The bad guy in the scenario apparently substitutes "terminating" chips for the military grade chips in order to make greater profits. The whistleblower is forced to run for her life, meets her hero, they bring the bad guy down, then go on witness protection, the media announcement is made and they stroll off into the Oregon sunset to begin their new lives.

One would be tempted towards Orwellian predictions coming true but my own personal bet is on thermal cycles, given the alleged irrepairable cracking of conductive tracks on the boards. There has long been competing contentions around switching off when not in use to preserve longevity versus leaving the appliance on for its entire lifecycle. If there is a thermal cycling issue, the PCBs might be on the cusp of failing and an unusually deep cycle might just occur during a firmware update sufficient to provoke failure. Messing with the DIP switches might induce the final mechanical coup-de-grace which alters the crack from resistive nuisance to open circuit.

My personal preference would be for video accellerator boards to have a metal perimeter to support the PCB as was once common practice, sliding fasteners on the rim to permit linear expansion but prevent bending, tethering of cables and a complete four point mounting system with pillar studs and shims to avoid entirely any stresses being set up when the boards are mounted. Hanging accellerator boards off the motherboard PCI strip and the end of the case does not cut it for me any more than the ridiculous speed mounting arrangement of CPUs into motherboards does. It is failure built right in. However it would also cost more so us end-users likely determine our own fates in the long term by rejecting costly items in favour of cheaper alternatives.

At $3,000 a throw, I think RED might need to examine mechanical reinforcement of their Red Rocket product if it is to regain respect as an industrial grade item.

Please do not afford my comments any respect as I am neither a computer engineer nor in any ways trained in electronics beyond passing an amateur radio operators licence exam way back when.
 
I have mine for 4 years and I'm having problems from the start. It seems like every time I put it in a new computer, it works very good for a while, and after a few weeks/months, it just puts out only black image. When I get a new machine and put it in, it works again... Really frustrating, I think RED should do something for the people who believed in their products from the start and invested in them, but also got the first models with some faults...
 
I have 2 dead ones. Instead of spending 3k - I'm going to try to send it to the guys in Germany at DVS who make the things - or at least say what they say.

As discussed previously - they should have a 3 year warranty plan or just take a hit on their cards and charge 1k to replace them.

This time I just bought a hackintosh instead and a Quadro k4000 gfx card and I'm transcoding pretty good enough for what I need.
 
Wow okay now this is interesting.

So I thought I fried my 2nd red rocket. Used in a magma 3t chasis with macbook pro. sent to red. they told me it was fried from excessive force on the card and it would cost 3k. I got the card back instead . I bought a pc hp z800 workstation and put the card in safe mode. It found it. I upgraded the firmware and now it's working fine.

So I guess the red tech did not really check the card - just instead sent out a email saying a stock "it was dead - it will cost 3k" email.

But now while red cine x recognizes the red rocket - it is not able to process the footage with it - so maybe they did see the hardware with their machines as faulty
 
Ed David said:
Wow okay now this is interesting.

So I thought I fried my 2nd red rocket. Used in a magma 3t chasis with macbook pro. sent to red. they told me it was fried from excessive force on the card and it would cost 3k. I got the card back instead . I bought a pc hp z800 workstation and put the card in safe mode. It found it. I upgraded the firmware and now it's working fine.

So I guess the red tech did not really check the card - just instead sent out a email saying a stock "it was dead - it will cost 3k" email.

But now while red cine x recognizes the red rocket - it is not able to process the footage with it - so maybe they did see the hardware with their machines as faulty
Click to expand...
One would hope that RED can test the cards independent of their computer (PCI) housing before reaching that conclusion.
 
Intermittent faults like this can be due to cracks or dry joints in soldering, which sometimes make contact enough to work for a while. If all else fails you could try getting the card re-flowed or try the oven trick! Google the fix for Apple MacBook Pro motherboards - there are companies advertising this service for Apple motherboards on eBay.

But this is an absolute last resort for a dead card where you have nothing to lose by trying it.
 
The oven trick - that's a great idea - I'm going to do that ! I will let you know how it goes.
 
fixing the rocket

fixing the rocket

OK... let me just explain my situation..

but before.. DONT do the oven trick.. its a stupid trick and you might do more damage...

now.. my rocket recently died..

the rockets CAN be fixed and cheap...regardless of what someone else may tell you when trying to sell you another one for 3k....

I had mine completely fixed for 200 bucks.. including all new capacitors and parts put on...

also.. DVS won't do it.. they claim no responsibility for RED ROCKET cards.. they won't even admit to being behind them..
 
Zak I sent you an email - thank goodness I waited for you - can you tell me who would do this. I figured it wasn't that 3k broken - Red doesn't do repairs at their office so they just say that.
 
spoke too soon.. just got the rocket back.. and while all the parts were replaced.. and it is recognized.. it is only playing back the sound...(real time at 1/2)

the video is black... so i have no idea whats going on..

*EDIT* matt ryan reminded me to flash the firmware.. this might fix it.. ill keep people updated
 
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