Repairing my 4870X2, need some advice

[Melvis]

Ok lately my system has been getting alot of BSOD's and i found out it was my second 4870X2 that was causing the issues. Tested the card by its self and it was starting to artifact, but not all the time.

Anyway so i thought maybe i could save the card by stripping it down, cleaning it right out and putting new thermal paste on everything.

Now with a 4870X2 it has thermal pads every where, on the RAM etc, all of the old pads are ok apart from 4, my question is can i just remove these pads and just use thermal paste? or should i get new pads? or fill in the gaps with thermal paste and leave behind whats left of the 4 half stuffed pads?

What have others done when they have stripped down there 4870X2's to clean them out etc?

 

[Law-II]

Hi

Replace all of the thermal pads at the same time to ensure good contact between the cooler & backplate and components on the PCB, this will give the best resault.

atb (all the best)

Law-II

 

[Bo$$]

Ok lately my system has been getting alot of BSOD's and i found out it was my second 4870X2 that was causing the issues. Tested the card by its self and it was starting to artifact, but not all the time.

Anyway so i thought maybe i could save the card by stripping it down, cleaning it right out and putting new thermal paste on everything.

Now with a 4870X2 it has thermal pads every where, on the RAM etc, all of the old pads are ok apart from 4, my question is can i just remove these pads and just use thermal paste? or should i get new pads? or fill in the gaps with thermal paste and leave behind whats left of the 4 half stuffed pads?

What have others done when they have stripped down there 4870X2's to clean them out etc?

Nah, use fresh tape, you'll have issues as it might not work as you'd expect

 

[Melvis]

Hi

Replace all of the thermal pads at the same time to ensure good contact between the cooler & backplate and components on the PCB, this will give the best resault.

atb (all the best)

Law-II

Yea looks like this will be the best way, done some googling and most say to just replace with new pads, if i could only find some now

Edit: Would this stuff do the trick? > http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=4712

 

[Law-II]

Yea looks like this will be the best way, done some googling and most say to just replace with new pads, if i could only find some now

Edit: Would this stuff do the trick? *No > http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=4712

Hi

For the memory, chips and the PLX PCIe bridge chip 1mm pads ; backplate on the rear of the card use 0.5mm pads

Example
nb: http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/Thermal-Pads-cid-1632.html
or
This- http://www.gammods.com.au/store/ind...id=27&sort=20a&filter_id=89&alpha_filter_id=0

atb

Law-II

 

[stinger608]

A couple of things.

First, check the for sale forum and do a search. There was a member that was selling tons of different thickness thermal pads.......Man, can't remember who it was.

Second DO NOT just use thermal paste! It will not make the proper contact and may well do more harm than good. Use thermal paste on the GPU only.

Also, you might want to think about doing the baking trick before adding all the new pads and paste.

Here is a guide on the baking of a card at Hard forums.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792

There are also several links in that thread with picture tutorials to help guide you through the process.

I have backed an 8800GTX that still runs today in a friends computer. That has been almost 3 years ago now. It was artifacting almost continuously and baking the card worked like a champ.

 

[GotNoRice]

As others have said, there is a space gap that the pads fill, and using thermal paste only won't be enough to close the gap.

When I did both of my 4870x2 cards, I just used thermal paste on top of what was left of the old pads and that was sufficient.

Question: What are your temps when the card begins to artifact?

 

[Melvis]

A couple of things.

First, check the for sale forum and do a search. There was a member that was selling tons of different thickness thermal pads.......Man, can't remember who it was.

Second DO NOT just use thermal paste! It will not make the proper contact and may well do more harm than good. Use thermal paste on the GPU only.

Also, you might want to think about doing the baking trick before adding all the new pads and paste.

Here is a guide on the baking of a card at Hard forums.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792

There are also several links in that thread with picture tutorials to help guide you through the process.

I have backed an 8800GTX that still runs today in a friends computer. That has been almost 3 years ago now. It was artifacting almost continuously and baking the card worked like a champ.

Yea i was thinking of doing the whole baking thing but ill do that after i replace it with all new pads and paste, im not worried about wasting a few $ to see how that goes first. Then if it doesnt work ill bake it.

As others have said, there is a space gap that the pads fill, and using thermal paste only won't be enough to close the gap.

When I did both of my 4870x2 cards, I just used thermal paste on top of what was left of the old pads and that was sufficient.

Question: What are your temps when the card begins to artifact?

ok yea thats what i was thinking, all the pads are good apart from 4 that sorta ripped in half as i pulled the cooler off.

The GPU temps where realy good thats why it took me a good week to figured out what was going on. Never get much over 80c maxed out. BUT i did run GPU-Z to test the vram temps and one was showing high temps 85c a good 20-30c higher then all the rest. Re checked again a few days later and temps where all the same, so bit odd there.

Edit: Sorry GotNoRice i didnt answer your question correctly, the temps when i tested the card when it was artifacting was from a cold start, so 40-50c at most, it was artifacting all over the screen before it even boot into windows, and then wouldnt even boot into windows till i did a hard reset and then the artifacting went away and loaded into windows normally.