Applied TIM to Memory and other things GTX 285

[Winkyman]

So, seeing the baseline heat on my GTX 285 and reading about the horror stories about the factory TIM installation, I decided to change the TIM on the GPU. What I had not expected was the condition of the thermal pads. I did some reading and people indicated a blob of TIM (non conductive/capaciative) would work fine.

I was using IC7, I ran out about 1/2 through the memory modules. I switched to the premium TIM from Thermaltake, again neither conductive or capacative. I ran out of this as well, lol. I then went with generic thermaltake TIM for the remainder of the 'things' on the card that get TIM/Pads.

Got it all together and plugged it in, got smoke and system shutdown. Hoping it was a fluke I fired it up again, and same thing, no smoke but immediate system shutdown.

I am wondering, do you think it's possible if I completely douche all the TIM off the card, and go back to thermal pads, and TIM on the GPU if this card might come back to life?

I see no signs of burning or distortion.

Just taking a stab in the dark, I hate to toss equipment that worked fine and I messed up. And of course the manufacturere was BFG Tech who are out of business, perhaps I could have had it repaired.

I have since purchased a GTX 570 and am quite pleased. but tossing a card due to my own stupidity, will keep me awake at night, lol.

Thank you for any advised you may be able to offer.

Wink

 

[Idontcare]

Welcome to the forums Winkyman :thumbsup:

The card is most likely toast.

The first time it smoked, the smoke was the material that was preventing an electrical short from happening (the nonconductive stuff) being vaporized as the metal lines were shorting together and super-heating the surrounding material.

The reason there is no more smoke now, but the card is dead and causes immediate shutdown, is because there is no need for anymore dielectric barrier material to be vaporized, the wires are already sufficiently shorted out.

At this point any further efforts to power up that video card is just going to be abuse on your mobo and PSU, possibly killing them in the process as well.

 

[Winkyman]

Welcome to the forums Winkyman :thumbsup:

The card is most likely toast.

The first time it smoked, the smoke was the material that was preventing an electrical short from happening (the nonconductive stuff) being vaporized as the metal lines were shorting together and super-heating the surrounding material.

The reason there is no more smoke now, but the card is dead and causes immediate shutdown, is because there is no need for anymore dielectric barrier material to be vaporized, the wires are already sufficiently shorted out.

At this point any further efforts to power up that video card is just going to be abuse on your mobo and PSU, possibly killing them in the process as well.

Well you can't kill a guy for trying, lol.

Thanks for the welcome, and oddly enough thanks for the bad news, lol.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Just an observation but, it sounds like you used 20 or 30 TIMES the amount of TIM you actually needed! More is NOT better.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Can you take a picture of the card? It's certainly dead, but I was just curious what failed since you were so careful about using non conductive TIM.

 

[Winkyman]

I added a 'blob' approximate to the distance the heat spreader was away from the device. I did not blog it on. I think the problem lies with a decide labeled 'IR2' it's just under the 6 pin adapter, that was where I got the smoke from. Im assuming the the generic Thermal-take TIM was indeed resistive/capacitive. It's labeled 'Heat sink compounds - Silver Grease'

Completely my mistake (and a $350 on at that)

I wonder if the damage is repairable.....

 

[toyota]

yes pics of the card to show others what not to do would be great. personally I would never take a good card apart because I know something like this would probably happen to me too.

 

[Winkyman]

I can prolly get a picture, give me a minute or two to set it up.

 

[Elixer]

I added a 'blob' approximate to the distance the heat spreader was away from the device. I did not blog it on. I think the problem lies with a decide labeled 'IR2' it's just under the 6 pin adapter, that was where I got the smoke from. Im assuming the the generic Thermal-take TIM was indeed resistive/capacitive. It's labeled 'Heat sink compounds - Silver Grease'

Completely my mistake (and a $350 on at that)

I wonder if the damage is repairable.....

The damage is most likely repairable (need pics!), but the question is, can you repair it without costing more than another card.
Once you start to desolder stuff, and finding replacement chips (if available) it can get really expensive quickly, and if you don't have the correct tools, you are most likely out of luck.
Perhaps you can frame it, with a 'never again' logo on it?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I added a 'blob' approximate to the distance the heat spreader was away from the device. I did not blog it on. I think the problem lies with a decide labeled 'IR2' it's just under the 6 pin adapter, that was where I got the smoke from. Im assuming the the generic Thermal-take TIM was indeed resistive/capacitive. It's labeled 'Heat sink compounds - Silver Grease'

Completely my mistake (and a $350 on at that)

I wonder if the damage is repairable.....

Most TIMs are not made for filling that kind of gap. They are meant to be used as a thin film.

 

[Winkyman]

Ah, I may not post attachments, hopefully as my post count goes up that restriction goes away.

I've got a good photo too.

I'll keep posting and hoping for the best.

 

[Winkyman]

Okay workaround I posted it to my Dropbox public box that can be found here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28143096/GTX 285 Post Mortem.jpg

See if that works.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Ah, I may not post attachments, hopefully as my post count goes up that restriction goes away.

I've got a good photo too.

I'll keep posting and hoping for the best.

You can't post attachments. Upload to Photo Bucket and link here.

 

[Winkyman]

Most TIMs are not made for filling that kind of gap. They are meant to be used as a thin film.

Well the thought was the since IC7 is so thick it would work and serve this purpose. Apparently not, lol.


I guess at the end of the day I wound up with an EVGA SC 570, so I've got a better card with a lifetime warranty from a reputable company, so all is not lost. I just have a hard time giving up such a great card because I tarded out.

 

[Winkyman]

Here is a photobucket link, I have no idea if it worked, first timer there.

 

[hdfxst]

The tim had to be conductive and shorted the legs on the memory

 

[e-drood]

there is only (1) solvent you can safely use to remove all the tim (same solvent used to remove solder flux during manufacturing --- absolute alcohol (NOT rubbing alcohol, NOT "alcohol" sold w/o spirits/revenue tax) - this is high concentration "taxed" ethenol alcohol sold for commercial industrial use - taxed because it is potable by humans (do not - v. high % alcohol - do not drink)

this is compatible with virtually all electronics components & pcb sub-strates

use small paint brush & sprayer bottle - extremely flamable - take care

air dry - do not use hot air blower which may ignite alcohol vapor!

50% chance, after cleaning, after correct thermal pads + non-conductive tim + hsf assembly graphics card will function again

if you had $50 vid card - toss / at your price level worthwhile as no rma possible w/ tim all over... you can buy small qty in licensed spirits shop for about $16 usd

too many regions too many time zones... too many times

 

[RussianSensation]

There is a possibility that dust or metal particles and/or shavings carried by airflow inside could contaminate the compound and increase its electrical conductivity. Conductive thermal compound should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. Electric conductive TIM could cause problems if it bridged two close-proximity electrical paths.

The main reason to change TIM is to facilitate better thermal transfer between the GPU and the heatsink only. You shouldn't touch the memory unless you use non-conductive pads. There are plenty of videos online which show the procedure.

 

[SonicIce]

well for one thing the ram isn't even contacting the heatsink at all now. thats why you have those little blobs left behind and it's not smooshed flat covering the whole chip like it should. this is because they dont design the heatsink to very tight tolerances and then they just use those thick stick-of-gum thermal pads to make up for it. only take the heatsink off if you have the thermal pads to put back or you are switching to a new heatsink with individual ram sinks.

i had a similar problem. notice the bottom right ram chip is the only one acceptably contacting the heatsink. this made my computer very unstable but i dont think it prevented it from even booting like yours. so it might be a different issue.

 

[Winkyman]

Okay so the $10,000,000 question, do I buy thermal pads and give this another go, or is the card complexity toast?

I am leaning towards toast. sadly.

 

[Meghan54]

there is only (1) solvent you can safely use to remove all the tim (same solvent used to remove solder flux during manufacturing --- absolute alcohol (NOT rubbing alcohol, NOT "alcohol" sold w/o spirits/revenue tax) - this is high concentration "taxed" ethenol alcohol sold for commercial industrial use - taxed because it is potable by humans (do not - v. high % alcohol - do not drink)

this is compatible with virtually all electronics components & pcb sub-strates

use small paint brush & sprayer bottle - extremely flamable - take care

air dry - do not use hot air blower which may ignite alcohol vapor!

50% chance, after cleaning, after correct thermal pads + non-conductive tim + hsf assembly graphics card will function again

if you had $50 vid card - toss / at your price level worthwhile as no rma possible w/ tim all over... you can buy small qty in licensed spirits shop for about $16 usd

too many regions too many time zones... too many times

Sorry, but that's just not the only thing that'll safely remove TIM from components.

There are a host of products, some commercial, some consumer, that are quite effective and safe for use on electronics and circuitry.

99.9924% pure isopropyl alcohol is one such substance. This stuff is not ethanol alcohol (distilled from grain/etc.) but is a petroleum based alcohol, as is all isopropyl alcohol. That's one difference between isopropyl alcohol and ethanol/methanol alcohols. IPA (the abbreviation for isopropyl alcohol) is obtained from hydrocarbons......just like gasoline. IPA is widely used in industry as a circuitry cleaner since it's fairly benign to circuit boards and circuitry, among its wide range of uses.


One nice thing about "pure" IPA is it's very quick to evaporate, making blow drying with a handheld dryer, as you suggest, unnecessary. Another benefit is its property as a water "dryer", quite useful in computers that have water cooling setups.

Another product that is frequently used for the purpose being discussed (removing TIM) is acetone, but much more carefully. Acetone can attack some materials and is much more flammable.

In addition, there are a host of commercial circuitry cleaners/degreasers, usually aerosol based, that are completely safe to use on video cards, motherboards, etc.

Krylon, as one example company, has a LOT of these products which you simply spray on and let evaporate.

You can browse their products here:
http://www.kpg-industrial.com/produ...cleanersdegreasers/electrical_circuit_cooler/


Ramco also produces a large line of circuitry cleaners/degreasers......you can browse them here:
http://www.ramcospec.com/products.php?cat=cleaners


So, your notion of only being able to use pure ethanol alcohol is misguided and uninformed at best.

 

[e-drood]

ok, 1st no one uses acetone to clean pcb assemblies because it removes the silk screened board & component ink markings & causes the rubber sealing disks on can type electrolytic caps to swell & leak electrolyte...

2nd isopropyl alcohol has high relative water content (consider why it is relatively safe to use near open flame) - bearing in mind that "water" is an electrical conductor, you really do not want to clean a complex graphics card pcb assembly with ANY compound having significant water content - the residual water vapour will remain trapped under ALL pcb smt components AND the bga of the gpu daughter board + memory packages...

all other products you have referenced are epa/osha compliant usa and are unlikely to fully rinse away any tim's having metallic &/or carbide electrically conductive fines - most tim's rely on one or more oil compounds for binding (and are NOT water absorbant or misceable) --- you will end up with film of residue which will further spread any conductive tim(s) fines... and may damage electrolytic cap seals

anyway absolute ethenol alcohol is packaged/shipped in sealed containers as water content is very small and will not damage complex electronic assemblies when exposure time is limited to 10-15 minutes and adequate drying occurs before re-installing your vid card...

of course feel free to use wd-40 or elevator contactor cleaner or other specialized aerosol cleaning sprays - but remember that the original goal was to remove/float away & render electrically non-conductive all the excessive tim contaminanted graphics card real estate...

 

[Bill Brasky]

Okay so the $10,000,000 question, do I buy thermal pads and give this another go, or is the card complexity toast?

I am leaning towards toast. sadly.

Oh it's definitely toast. In the future, consult AT forums *before* frying your card.

 

[dguy6789]

I'm definitely in the save your time and money trying to fix the card, consider it a lesson learned, and get a new card camp.

 

[Idontcare]

Okay so the $10,000,000 question, do I buy thermal pads and give this another go, or is the card complexity toast?

I am leaning towards toast. sadly.

Give it another go? Only if you don't value your PSU and everything else electrically connected to it (your mobo, ram, cpu, hard-drives).

You can't keep dead-shorting your PSU and think the voltage ripples are completely isolated from all the other components in your rig.

And for the record, water is not naturally conductive - the ionic impurities that can be dissolved in water are conductive - and rubbing alcohol (the 90% IPA stuff you get at the drugstore or grocery store) is plenty good enough. You don't need ethanol. Too much BS in this thread.