Graphic card corrosive damage please help!

[Sammyboy125]

Hey so my NZXT water cooler for my nvidia GTX 780 leaked and caused a couple of the resistors to corrode away, doesn’t seem to be any other damages, I have cleaned the area with isopropyl alcohol. Any know if this is fixable to possibly solder on some new resistors?

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[Rifter]

You are 100% sure those had components on them to begin with? Because its not uncommon to have empty spots on a board. and IMO its very unlikely/impossible for solder to corrode away from anything you are likely to find in a watercooling loop..

 

[EXCellR8]

That looks like a cooler retention hole... which is copper... which corrodes.

Like stated, there's no way a little fluid would cause the solder to release or corrode away. All the resistors are there. Did you try using the card yet?

 

[nurturedhate]

What 780 do you have?

 

[Sammyboy125]

Thanks for the replies. I’m not sure if the components were there before but they were covered in green rust so that’s why I thought they were eaten away, you can see in the picture R667 and C675 slots are the blank ones. I have tried to use it again and my screen won’t recognise it plugged in at all. It’s a gigabyte windforce model


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[Rifter]

was it running when it got wet? If so its likely shorted out and has damaged components now.

 

[Sammyboy125]

Yeah it was running and screen started flashes black on and off and that’s when I realised what had happened


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[sirmo]

The component starting with C is a capacitor, and the component starting with R is a resistor. You can try a 0.1uF (100nF) capacitor and a 1K or a 10K resistor (common values) 4.7K could be a happy medium perhaps if not sure. Those look like 0402 sized SMD components.

Ideally you should look for the lost components and measure the resistor with a multi-meter. Capacitor value is less critical.

 

[MrTeal]

I would definitely disagree with sirmo's advice here to randomly try a component. There are a lot of places on a GPU where the incorrect resistor value could cause serious damage to the board, and where an open (ie no resistor) might be preferable to a random value. No resistor could also damage the board, but you've already run it like that so if it would be damaged by that, it's already been done. According to the pictures on Anandtech's site, those two locations were populated at one point.

If you can't find the components, you could find someone with a GTX780 and a multimeter and have them measure the value across the resistor. Depending on the circuit, this might not give you the exact number when you measure the resistor in-circuit, but at the very least it would give you an maximum value of the resistance of the resistor. If you have a multimeter you could measure the resistance across the two resistor pads with it missing, and then use a calculator to get a better estimate.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/tools/parallel-resistance-calculator/
Add the value you measure as R1, and then play with different values for R2 until the equivalent resistance gets close to what the other guy measured.

The capacitor is going to be tough. Honestly, I'd just leave it alone and hope it's just a decoupling cap or something and isn't very important.

 

[sirmo]

Hence why I chose a high resistance value. Also the resistor is nowhere near a VRM so I doubt it's part of a power rail so I doubt it would cause damage. In either case I suggested the same thing, to try to find the original resistor and measure it.

The OP has already stated that he's turned on the GPU without this resistor and that's no less dangerous than what I've suggested.

But whatever, people have to be pedantic on the internet. Makes em feel smart.

 

[mindless1]

Is that the before or after cleaning picture? You have a ton of solder flux residue on that pic that should be scrubbed away. It is water soluble flux so your rubbing alcohol needs to have some water in it. I'd use a toothbrush.

I doubt those two spots had components, rather that the flux created electrical shorting on the IC subcircuit above it. I would clean it all thoroughly but having had cards short out from water damage, it is probably fried. Those manufacturing bassturds don't wash off all the water soluble flux so water ruins them when it sits and creates acidic, conductive pools of dissolved metal/salts.

 

[Sammyboy125]

Mindless1 that’s after cleaning. So I think yeah I’ll just give it one more clean and try but if no luck I’ll just go get a new card, probably a 1060 or something


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[mindless1]

Although it would void your warranty, you can get what's called "conformal coating" spray which does a reasonable job of waterproofing. You just don't want it on the GPU die where it'll interfere with the heatsink interface. You might not get good adhesion of the conformal coating unless all that flux residue is removed first which might have, in itself, prevented or at least greatly reduced the conduction/shorting-when-wet issue without it. Irony.

Then again I'd be hesitant to go back to water cooling unless heavily overclocking.

 

[Sammyboy125]

Yeah I’m just going to stick to air cooling for the graphics card, thanks for the help guys

 

[MrTeal]

Hence why I chose a high resistance value. Also the resistor is nowhere near a VRM so I doubt it's part of a power rail so I doubt it would cause damage. In either case I suggested the same thing, to try to find the original resistor and measure it.

The OP has already stated that he's turned on the GPU without this resistor and that's no less dangerous than what I've suggested.

But whatever, people have to be pedantic on the internet. Makes em feel smart.

Someone's awfully defensive. I didn't call you an idiot or anything, I just said I disagree with you. I'm not being pedantic, I'd suggesting the OP not randomly try and solder on a new resistor of random value without any information whatsoever. The chance of that actually fixing something are pretty low, and it does have the chance of making it worse. Saying it's nowhere near a VRM isn't necessarily true, as the trace from that resistor leads right back to U502 which is right under an inductor on the top side and where you'll often see a minor rail VRM.

IMO, it's much better to try and figure out what at least an approximate value is before attempting a repair.

 

[sirmo]

Someone's awfully defensive. I didn't call you an idiot or anything, I just said I disagree with you. I'm not being pedantic, I'd suggesting the OP not randomly try and solder on a new resistor of random value without any information whatsoever. The chance of that actually fixing something are pretty low, and it does have the chance of making it worse. Saying it's nowhere near a VRM isn't necessarily true, as the trace from that resistor leads right back to U502 which is right under an inductor on the top side and where you'll often see a minor rail VRM.

IMO, it's much better to try and figure out what at least an approximate value is before attempting a repair.

I suggested he measure the resistor, did I not? You disagree with me and then suggest the same exact thing. That resistor is definitely not part of a VRM I can guarantee you that.

My intention was to help the OP, and not be flamed by someone who thinks they know better.

 

[MrTeal]

I suggested he measure the resistor, did I not? You disagree with me and then suggest the same exact thing. That resistor is definitely not part of a VRM I can guarantee you that.

My intention was to help the OP, and not be flamed by someone who thinks they know better.

I rather obviously didn't disagree with measuring the resistor; in the extremely unlikely case he's able to find it that would be the best option. As I very clearly explained in my first sentence, I disagreed with the advice to random try soldering in a resistor and see what happens. Again, I'm not suggesting you're some kind of terrible person who's trying to mislead him maliciously, I just don't think that's a good repair strategy. I didn't flame you, I disagreed with you.

 

[mindless1]

The resistor, which I doubt was there in the first place, would've been metal film and that film (on top) would have eroded away before the soldered ends did, along with any value marking on that film.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Mildly Off-Topic, but I have a friend who is just now discovering that there is a leak in her Kraken X62 that has ruined her build after it's only been running a couple of months. Then there's this post. I just built 2 new rigs with Kraken X62. I'm a bit worried now.

BUT, for the OP, I wanted to note that both NZXT and Corsair have documented history in assisting with customers with replacement hardware necessitated by defective AiO Coolers. My suggestion, if you have not done so already, would be to stop what you are doing and contact NZXT for assistance. They may be willing to take in the card and offer some sort of compensation or replacement. The more you fiddle with it, the that is likely to happen.