Cleaning video card after removing old fan

[blackrain]

Well that's basically what I did. But I want to sand it down now because of all the scrape marks from the knife....to make uniform contact with the heatsink.

Do you just leave your scrape marks alone?

 

[Reapsy01]

Originally posted by: blackrain
this really ticks me off about these companies. They stick a crappy fan on that they know is bound to die, and use some thermal crap that hardens like a rock so that you can't get it off with acetone or alcohol, if you need to replace the fan. Anyway, I am guessing that because of all of the scrape marks, there's probably not a lot of uniformity in the thermal transfer. I am going to have to use sandpaper anyways to clean this up tomorrow. Then i'll reapply the thermal compound and hopefulliy all ends well. I am going to use 800 grit first and then move on to 1500. Anyone have any suggestions as to which grit to use.

My friends had a geforce 3 since late 2000 and the fans still working fine. It unfortunate your fan broke though but perhaps you were just unlucky.

 

[blackrain]

I don't think it was a matter of luck. If anything, I think it's a matter of your friend being lucky that his fan lasted as long as it did. This is a very common problem.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Blackrain... If it is scraped up, I'd hit it VERY lightly with sandpaper to knowck down any ridges, then let the new thermal past fill in the rest of the gaps.

 

[blackrain]

How lightly? what grit sand paper do you suggest?

 

[zagood]

Here's a good guide.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/howtolapvideocard.php

The reason they're starting with 400 grit is because their GPU wasn't flat across the top. If yours is flat (check with straightedge) then start with 800.

-z

 

[goobernoodles]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Agreed, sandpaper will be fine. Granted, on newer videocards, they may have the exposed die setup, like the Athlon XP's had. THEN, using a knife and sandpaper on it could be a bad thing. But these older model GPUs aren't as vulnerable.
I've used a razor blade many times to remove old thermal compound from such chips, as well as sandpaper (maybe some wet sanding with alcohol). Do it carefully, and it's really not a problem.

Do not use sandpaper or rubbing alcohol!

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm

If you do not know what you are talking about, which is clearly obvious, I'd suggest using google before telling people to not use the most common method of cleaning cores.

 

[blackrain]

For this guide:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/howtolapvideocard.php

will regular office Scotch tape work? Or do you have to use electrical tape?

 

[blackrain]

So I lapped the heatsink and gpu. I got all of the scrapes out except for one that just seems too deep. So what is the likely effect, if any, of that one scrape that I couldn't seem to get outwith sandpapering?

Also, a lot of sites mention 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper. Lowes and Home depot only sell 400 and 600 grit. 600 grit wouldn't do anything and 400 grit did the trick. But i'de like to know where you can find greater than 600 grit sand paper???

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Agreed, sandpaper will be fine. Granted, on newer videocards, they may have the exposed die setup, like the Athlon XP's had. THEN, using a knife and sandpaper on it could be a bad thing. But these older model GPUs aren't as vulnerable.
I've used a razor blade many times to remove old thermal compound from such chips, as well as sandpaper (maybe some wet sanding with alcohol). Do it carefully, and it's really not a problem.

Do not use sandpaper or rubbing alcohol!

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm

How is that going to do the job better than rubbing alcohol exactly. How do you know it's not rubbing alcohol based anyway with a large markup?

Because rubbing alcohol contains OILS. Those oils can cause problems once things start to heat up. If you want to use a solvent then denautred alcohol or Acetone will do the job.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: blackrain

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: blackrain
I got a replacement fan for my geforce card and am cleaning up after removing the old fan.

Kiss your factory warrenty goodbye! :lips:

What factory warranty? It's a visiontek geforce 3 🙂

In that case hack away! A GeForce4 now costs around $20 or around the same price as the fan he just bought.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Agreed, sandpaper will be fine. Granted, on newer videocards, they may have the exposed die setup, like the Athlon XP's had. THEN, using a knife and sandpaper on it could be a bad thing. But these older model GPUs aren't as vulnerable.
I've used a razor blade many times to remove old thermal compound from such chips, as well as sandpaper (maybe some wet sanding with alcohol). Do it carefully, and it's really not a problem.

Do not use sandpaper or rubbing alcohol!

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm

How is that going to do the job better than rubbing alcohol exactly. How do you know it's not rubbing alcohol based anyway with a large markup?

It recieved great reviews in Maximum PC and several websites.