Fried Resistor and VRM on GTX 1080

[Goretto]

Hi everyone,

This is a first to me, and not sure what to do.

I have a Colorful iGame GTX 1080 (yeah I know, I get what I can afford, now I pay the price). Late last year, I changed the stock cooler with a kraken G12 bracket and Thermaltake AIO. I did not put any heatsink on the components, because they are hard to get where I live and I read that they are not strictly necessary.

The card has been running fine and cool for several months now with no problem whatsoever.

Last night I was playing PUBG when the screen went black and I smelled burned plastic.

I took out the card, and this is what I can see:

original: https://s9.postimg.cc/8bzgjneof/Screenshot_16.png

original: https://s9.postimg.cc/68p1bgc5b/Screenshot_17.png

original: https://s9.postimg.cc/bwvc2co7j/Screenshot_18.png

In your experience, is this card salvageable? Can it be repaired?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Goretto]

edited for correct images.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I think it is over.
That sense resistor RS3 seems to have gotten so hot that it melted the solder and started to move under gravity.
That sense resistor is used to measure the current from what seems to be the 12V input line of the PCIe power connector.
That cracked part (magic R47 labeled) is a storage inductor, And that storage inductor is part of the circuit to turn the 12V into the memory voltage.
I am afraid your memory chips got a 12V voltage spike and it is over.

And your gpu also is fried. Because Q62 is part of the multiphase voltage regulator that turns 12V into the core voltage for the gpu.
I am sorry.

 

[Goretto]

Thank you for the explanation.

Any idea what could have caused this? I'm typing this from that very same computer, albeit running on integrated graphics for the time being, so seems like nothing else is damaged as far as I can tell.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I guess overheating.
With the original stock cooler, where the memory chips, also cooled by the stock cooler ? Did they have thermal pads on them ?

 

[Goretto]

I guess overheating.
With the original stock cooler, where the memory chips, also cooled by the stock cooler ? Did they have thermal pads on them ?

Yes they did have thermal pads.

But if it was overheating, why would the resistor fail first? It never had a thermal pad and had the kraken G12 fan blowing over it.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Yes they did have thermal pads.

But if it was overheating, why would the resistor fail first? It never had a thermal pad and had the kraken G12 fan blowing over it.

The memorychips need to be cooled.
Simply put, if a chip gets hot enough internally, it can locally melt and become a short circuit.
Drawing lots of current in the process causing the resistor in the powersupply to overheat enough to heat up the solder and turn the solder into a liquid.
And gravity always pulls but now because the liquified solder , gravity becomes dominant and moves the resistor form its position.
The resistor failing is an after effect.
I guess that the memory chips failed first.
Did you overclock the card and memory ?

 

[Goretto]

The memorychips need to be cooled.
Simply put, if a chip gets hot enough internally, it can locally melt and become a short circuit.
Drawing lots of current in the process causing the resistor in the powersupply to overheat enough to heat up the solder and turn the solder into a liquid.
And gravity always pulls but now because the liquified solder , gravity becomes dominant and moves the resistor form its position.
The resistor failing is an after effect.
I guess that the memory chips failed first.

That makes sense. I assumed I had enough airflow to cool it all but seems like it wasn't enough.

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

 

[William Gaatjes]

That makes sense. I assumed I had enough airflow to cool it all but seems like it wasn't enough.

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

A simple guideline :
If any component was cooled by the stock cooler, you must also cool that component with your after market coolling solution in the same way, meaning proper cooling.
The stock cooler is an expensive component on the Bill of Material called BOM (The list of components of the complete card with prices) , the smaller and simpler the better. But if the card designer goes to great length to ensure proper cooling, you can be sure that it is needed.

The memory chips get hot on their own but they are also placed next to a gpu that produces over 100W of heat. The memory chips also heat up because of the surrounding hot components.
Proper cooling is important.