8500 started aftifacting after fanless heatsink mod

[HeroOfPellinor]

I replaced the stock cooler with a Zalman fanless heatsink and got artifacting even in 2D. Little blue lines would stay on the screen and more would be added to them if you scrolled, etc. Bothered me too, because the install had seemed to go so well. I replaced the fanless heatsink with a stock GPU cooler from CompUSA and the sam artifacting was present.

So this thing has been sitting in my office for a couple years now and I'm ready to take some drastic measures because it's still a decent card that could be doing some good in my bro-in-law's computer or something. Since the fanless heatsink required tons of thermal paste, some may have got on the board, though I can see none.

What can I try to potentially fix this thing? Get another HSF? Put it in the dishwasher in case any goop got on it. Drop it from six feet high?

 

[duragezic]

I'd open up the case and concentrate some regular house fans on it. That should keep it very cool and by then you could tell if its a lost cause trying to fix it or not. I used to have to run a ~8" fan alongside my highly overclocked Voodoo Banshee

 

[imported_Kensai]

Get some active cooling on it.

 

[Concillian]

if it was the regular white thermal goop, then it shouldn't be an issue if it gets on the board. AS5 is conductive, so can be an issue.

If you have the original HSF, I would:
1) verify it's okay with the original HSF
2) verify that the fanless solution continues to suck balls after a re-install, verifying you put it on correctly
3) jury rig a very quite fan on the fanless solution to make it useable

If you don't have the original HSF, take off and re-install the fanless, and do something like duragezic mentioned to verify that active cooling will solve the problem. If it will, jury rig a fan on there somehow. Hooking it up on the 5v line should keep it quiet, and should provide enough cooling for the card.

If you can't get rid of the 2D artifacts then you may have to junk it. #1 in either case is to see if it can be salvaged within a reasonable cost (which is essentially $0, because I think they can be had from eBay for like $30)