is this bad?

[BriGy86]

i was taking out my video card today, because i was going to see if my friends video card worked (didn't know if it was his slot or the card) turns out his works fine

anyway, as i took out my video card i noticed some odd discoloration on it, it looks almost like a mild burn, and actually the pictures excentuate what it looks like in real life

i would just like other peoples opinions

ATI radeon 9600XT 256MB
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/brigy86/IMG_0330.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/brigy86/IMG_0331.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/brigy86/IMG_0332.jpg

P.S. i haven't seen any kind of smoke or smelled any kind of burning around my computer, and the video card is working perfectly fine.

 

[Nda]

wow did you fry the video card? even the dvi-port is blackened from burn...wth...
as for what cause it, that's a weird pic, can you get the pic of the top view?

why the s/n is crossed out? just wondering...

 

[liquid51]

how long have you had the card? And I'm assuming you don't overclock.

I've seen a thin coat of sealant (or something, I don't really know what to call it) used on the surface of some pcb's. During soldering on an xbox mobo, I've seen it discolor from the heat of the soldering iron.

I'm guessing if you've been using it for a while, or if your case airflow has become hindered (dust, cabling, etc.), it's possible that the components on the other side of the pcb have repeatedly heated the "sealant" enough to cause it to discolor. Look at the top of the card and see if those spots correlate with any components up there.

Try using isopropyl alcohol (at least 90%) to clean the discolored spots. If you can get it off, you know what it is. Other than that, I wouldn't worry with it if your card seems to be working with no problems.

oh, I'm assuming he doesn't want to broadcast his serial numbers to the world

 

[josh6079]

Why'd you put tar on it?:laugh:

 

[SunnyD]

It's fine. If you look at all the locations where the "goop" is, you'll notice all of them have "thru-hole" components mounted. Translation, rather than surface-mount parts that are soldered onto the surface layer they're on, thru-hole parts have leads or wires that have to go through the board, and then be soldered in from the bottom.

It's one of 2 things:

For whatever reason they did it, they probably put solder resist (it's like high temp rubber that can go through a wave-solder machine and not melt off) where all those parts are, so that the holes don't get clogged with solder, so after they were done working on that layer they could peel it off, put the through-hole parts in and solder them down. This would be a left-over reside from that stuff. It was fun to play with too... (Peel-coat!)

*or more likely*

In order to get solder to stick to copper or tin, you need to use "flux". It's a resin-based thing that helps the solder make contact with the pads for the thru-hole parts so the solder sticks better (it has to actually suck up into the holes a bit too, this stuff helps with that). They probably used some sort of masked method to apply the flux only to those areas with thru-hole parts. Since the stuff is a little sticky, over time, dust will accumulate and get stuck more in those areas. That, and as the stuff ages, it tends to look like water spots.

If your card is fine and running in spec, don't worry about it.

 

[BriGy86]

thanks for all the responses, to answer a few questions-
-i figured blocking out my S/N would be a good idea...
-the card is just over a year old
-i have 7 case fans, the CPU fan, 2 in the PSU, and the little one on the video card, the inside has hardly any dust, because i have 4 dust filters
-the DVI port isn't black, i was in a dark room and used a flash so it made some weird shadows
-the card functions fine so i think its the flux issue you guys are talking about
-i don't overclock
again, thanks for the repsonses

did you want other pics of the card at all?

 

[Stumps]

it's perfectly normal....every motherboard,vid card, i/o card I have ever seen will develop those sort of marks on them after a year or so...I don't know what cause it but I see it all the time...even on my own hardware

 

[framerateuk]

It looks like the marks left by flux to me, although i personally havent seen anything like this on any of my hardware.

I cant imagine that a 9600XT would overheat enough to burn itself! Try putting some temperature probes on it to see if its getting toon hot.