I wrecked a card again...

[Vadi]

Hi!

Today I changed the cooler of my X800XL and now it shows memory artefacts I guess.
The same happened to my 9800 Pro although it worked for a while after the upgrade.

What should I look out for when doing this? I don't have a wrist thingy against static electricity but I always discharge myself at the case. I've never had a problem building PCs.

I guess it's bad to rub the mem chips with alcohol an a q-tip? How should I remove old thermal paste then?

Do you think it's ok to lower the fan of a Zalman VF900 to the minimum setting on a X800XL? I doubt that's the issue though.


Regards,
Vadi

 

[Frank]

How many paste are you using? Just the very minimal amount, or a glob? Thermal paste is a worse conductor than metal, so you should use as little as possible.

Try downclocking the card a lot, if that works you have bad heat conductivity. If that doesn't work, you have a hotspot or spilled some paste.

That's why I don't like arctic silver myself: it's harder to spread in a very thin layer.

Rubbing them with alcohol is good. And a wrist thingy isn't needed, as long as you don't wear a woolen sweater and touch the chassis before and/or during the operation.

 

[Davros]

quick hint: Stop changeing the bloody coolers

 

[Vadi]

edit: never mind

I used a little on the GPU (a thin layer and a 1mm ball in the centre). The mem chips are cooled by sinks with adhesive compound pre applied. I'll try downclocking.

The paste is Arctic Ceramique.

Hehe Davros, I specifically bought a HIS card with an arctic silencer pre installed. But the thing has bugged me because it's so loud. The new cooler is fine.


edit2:
Opening the case and maxing the fans works now.

As soon as the GPU temp reaches 50 degrees, artefacts appear.

 

[Rainbow Man]

Put old default cooler back on. See if things go back to normal.

If it does you put on the new cooler again more carefully this time. if it still doesn't work the zalman isn't strong enough to handle your GPU I suppose.

If all fails..RMA the card without mentioning you've been messing with it and see if it goes through.
Peace.

 

[Vadi]

It's fine now. I had to put a lot less paste onto the GPU than on a CPU with heatspreader.
Now it works on lowest fan speed.

 

[Sxotty]

You should not be putting a lot of paste on the CPU either. I don't even see it really when I put it one and then scrape it of with an old credit card so it is thin...

 

[Vadi]

Well I reapplied the paste around six times.

Spreading the paste is fine on a core without a heat spreader.

Otherwise air could get trapped because the spreader ain't that flat and you should use a small blob in the middle and let the paste spread by pressure.

In reality spreading didn't make difference (I must have made a big mistake when I got artefacts on my first attempt). CPU temps dropped when not spreading it though.


P.S.:
Now I remember the 9800Pro I thought was damaged. The cause was probably too much paste also. I tried to remove the BGA sinks instead and ripped the RAM off.