What's up with this VGA?

[vgaprob]

I've bought a video card (Radeon 7970) and I opened the anti-static bag to take it out. When I took it out (holding only by the edges), it had some strange "stuff" on the circuit-board side of it. (I touched only the edges!) I took some pictures.

Here are the pictures.

 

[cl-scott]

I'll be among the first to say I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, but it looks like simple, boring, ordinary dust to me.

 

[imagoon]

The boards are washed with cleaners that leave what kinda looks like water stains some times. Is that what you are looking at?

 

[vgaprob]

I'll be among the first to say I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, but it looks like simple, boring, ordinary dust to me.

It's not dust. Even tried touching it on the very corner with a napkin. It had no effect on it.

The boards are washed with cleaners that leave what kinda looks like water stains some times. Is that what you are looking at?

It indeed does like it has been cleaned. I can even see left-over cotton parts.

Does that mean that the card's refurbished?

 

[imagoon]

Did you buy it new from a reputable dealer? If so: likely not refurbished. These cards can come from the factory looking "washed." They often clean them in something like "2B denatured" ethyl alcohol etc. From there you might see dust from packaging materials. Remember that the boards are often shipped in build shipping containers before packaging so they may pick up stuff from that.

 

[dmoney1980]

you have a ashy video card, some Lubriderm will fix that. in all seriousness, imagoon is right. Have you installed it to make sure it works?

 

[vgaprob]

Did you buy it new from a reputable dealer? If so: likely not refurbished. These cards can come from the factory looking "washed." They often clean them in something like "2B denatured" ethyl alcohol etc. From there you might see dust from packaging materials. Remember that the boards are often shipped in build shipping containers before packaging so they may pick up stuff from that.

Not a reputable dealer, I've already got other refurbished stuff from them earlier, that in the end made them to give me back my money.

Anyway, that is not dust. I have cleaned a lot of things with cotton and ethyl alcohol in my life, so I know what left-over cotton parts look like. It's visible in one of the pics, by the way, but I can upload more pics of exactly that cotton.

It's a few "slices" of cotton, stuck to the board after cleaning.

EDIT: At the moment, I do not have a way of testing it.

 

[ViRGE]

Does that mean that the card's refurbished?

No. I've had retail cards come like that. Not every card is like that, but it's a normal variation.

 

[sze5003]

What card is it? I had an HIS 7970 before and it looked like that. Had to return it due to horrible coil whine.

 

[Dankk]

Every single one of my video card's PCBs has had these exact same markings on them (which I believe are harmless). I've always wondered what they were. Never thought to actually ask.

Just cleaner-stains from the manufacturer?

 

[vgaprob]

It's a Gigabyte 7970 Ghz Edition.

But do they really clean them with cotton? The cotton parts is the most suspicious thing to me right now, especially when the reseller has a history of pushing refurbished parts as new...

 

[sze5003]

Could be that it was worked on or thermal paste was added to the CPU. And then it was cleaned. My vapor x didn't have any of those markings.