980 ti thermal paste

[JULI4545]

Just want to know if its dead or if its fixable, look at the photo, some kind of cheap engineer done this and im really pissed off, please tell me that i can clean all this mess!!!

 

[micropage7]

Arctic Silver Arcticlean Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier ACN-60ML

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100010

ARCTIC MX Cleaner

https://www.arctic.ac/worldwide_en/arctic-mx-cleaner.html

but i dunno which one is better in your case

btw the card works fine? i think that the previous user put one tea spoon of thermalpaste to get better heat transfer

 

[Arrakis9]

u have any brake cleaner or acetone... mineral spirits? any sort of solvent?

 

[the54thvoid]

Just want to know if its dead or if its fixable, look at the photo, some kind of cheap engineer done this and im really pissed off, please tell me that i can clean all this mess!!!

Why is it dead or not? Have you taken the cooler off or did it not come with one? Also, paste is easy to clean off. If you're careful, you can use a cotton bud dipped (but not soaked) in acetone.

 

[R-T-B]

Yeah, I mean I cover the edges like that with electrical insulator-like MX-4 when I use liquid metal on GPUs (liquid metal seems phobic to thermal paste and it prevents shorts), but that's not what was going on here. I mean the paste is even in the center and it looks like they used two different varieties?

Someone just used a metric ton of thermal paste, basically, and then added more for good measure.

Common thermal paste cleaning compound and alcohol wipes will be your friend.

 

[MrGenius]

WTF is that crap? Dark and light grey with flecks of green and gold glitter in it? I've never seen anything that even looked remotely like that. And what's with the sticker with the red arrow?

 

[R-T-B]

WTF is that crap? Dark and light grey with flecks of green and gold glitter in it? I've never seen anything that even looked remotely like that. And what's with the sticker with the red arrow?

I didn't notice the green flakes. WTF, seriously? What is this, emerald based thermal paste?

More likely, the silicon is just scratched or something I'm betting, and thus ruined.

 

[JULI4545]

I didn't notice the green flakes. WTF, seriously? What is this, emerald based thermal paste?

More likely, the silicon is just scratched or something I'm betting, and thus ruined.

Really, just like you i really want to know wtf is that, this came from Gigabyte RMA like this, and i'm hoping to clean it off to see if they accept my warranty claim :s

 

[R-T-B]

Really, just like you i really want to know wtf is that, this came from Gigabyte RMA like this, and i'm hoping to clean it off to see if they accept my warranty claim :s

Suddenly the puzzle is complete.

Gigabyte has had a few instances of faking damage here on the forums (or at least, looking very very suspicious). That certainly looks like faked damage to the die if you didn't do it yourself (doubting you did, I mean why would you?). They do this sometimes to get out of warranty service and it is criminal behavior IMO, the question I have is how deep it goes (are the employees just trying to get out of work, or is management involved?)

It doesn't happen to everyone, but when it does happen, it sucks big time.

Certainly not good news. I would photograph and document EVERYTHING from here. Your best bet is to get a lot of evidence and get management to help you.

 

[JULI4545]

Suddenly the puzzle is complete.

Gigabyte has had a few instances of faking damage here on the forums (or at least, looking very very suspicious). That certainly looks like faked damage to the die if you didn't do it yourself (doubting you did, I mean why would you?). They do this sometimes to get out of warranty service and it is criminal behavior IMO, the question I have is how deep it goes (are the employees just trying to get out of work, or is management involved?)

It doesn't happen to everyone, but when it does happen, it sucks big time.

Certainly not good news. I would photograph and document EVERYTHING from here. Your best bet is to get a lot of evidence and get management to help you.

thank you m8

 

[newtekie1]

I gathered from your other thread that you had replaced the thermal paste. Those "flakes" look to me like it is just reflections on the web thermal paste, because whatever you used is wet.

It also looks like you didn't clean the old paste off properly, the old paste is the light gray and the new paste is the dark. You should have cleaned off all the old paste completely. As much as I hate Gigabyte, I think they might actually have a legit reason to void your warranty on this card. The re-paste of the GPU seems to not have been correctly. The two different pastes could be reacting causing several unknown problems, the chemicals in the different pastes could even combine to make something corrosive, which could be eating the copper from the heatsink and causing the green tint.

 

[eidairaman1]

u have any brake cleaner or acetone... mineral spirits? any sort of solvent?

Contact cleaner

 

[JULI4545]

I gathered from your other thread that you had replaced the thermal paste. Those "flakes" look to me like it is just reflections on the web thermal paste, because whatever you used is wet.

It also looks like you didn't clean the old paste off properly, the old paste is the light gray and the new paste is the dark. You should have cleaned off all the old paste completely. As much as I hate Gigabyte, I think they might actually have a legit reason to void your warranty on this card. The re-paste of the GPU seems to not have been correctly. The two different pastes could be reacting causing several unknown problems, the chemicals in the different pastes could even combine to make something corrosive, which could be eating the copper from the heatsink and causing the green tint.

The thing that mostly pisses me off is that i have not changed it, i took my gpu to a technician and he did the worst, i am really bad right now

Ok, surely i'm not the luckiest man lol, i think i'm just going to sell this thing for spares purposes :s

 

[jboydgolfer]

just as advice, you can edit your titles, or add to the OP, if you have other questions about the same GPU, or additional questions, instead of deleting ,or creating more threads . just offering the advice.

 

[JULI4545]

just as advice, you can edit your titles, or add to the OP, if you have other questions about the same GPU, or additional questions, instead of deleting ,or creating more threads . just offering the advice.

Thank you bro, i'm new in this so was a bit confused when i discovered that i cannot delete my other threads lol...

 

[jboydgolfer]

Thank you bro, i'm new in this so was a bit confused when i discovered that i cannot delete my other threads lol...

Yeah, deletion requires administration, since other people can reply to your posts and participate, it could be "problematic", if people were deleting threads of theyre own accord.


As far as your issue , try wiping and cleaning that paste off with some isopropyl alcohol ,and some Q-tips or some cotton swabs. And then put a very small drop (smaller than the size of a pea) of some proper paste to replace it. Just make sure you have the paste before you begin the process ( you can clean it without finishing the job but it's always best to be able to close the video card back up). Order some arctic silver5, or some mx-4, or noctua tim.

 

[R-T-B]

So you did not replace the thermal paste at all? Could a previous owner or something have done so?

I was going to say I've heard bad things about IC Diamond paste stuff scraping dies, but short of that, I see no reason for what I am looking at. It looks like intentional employee damage.

If it is just lightly scraped and has thermal conductivity that's poor due to having used IC Diamond, you may be able to recover it yourself by a simple cleaning and using a better paste. That's the only reason I ask... no accusations here.

 

[JULI4545]

So you did not replace the thermal paste at all? Could a previous owner or something have done so?

I was going to say I've heard bad things about IC Diamond paste stuff scraping dies, but short of that, I see no reason for what I am looking at. It looks like intentional employee damage.

If it is just lightly scraped and has thermal conductivity that's poor due to having used IC Diamond, you may be able to recover it yourself by a simple cleaning and using a better paste. That's the only reason I ask... no accusations here.

Thanks, i'm gonna try and see what i can do

 

[newtekie1]

So you did not replace the thermal paste at all? Could a previous owner or something have done so?

It sounds like he took it somewhere and they replaced it, and did a very poor job of it.

I don't think the picture in the OP is the bare die, it still has the thermal paste on it and whatever they used is very wet. It looks like Gigabyte just pulled the heatsink off the card, saw two different types of thermal paste, which tells them the thermal paste has been replaced, and is using that as an excuse to void the warranty. The sparkles that we are seeing in the picture is just the flash from the camera reflecting off the peaks in the thermal paste.

Saddly, once Gigabyte has refused the RMA, they are never going to accept an RMA on the same card again. The law says they can't void warranties because you take the heatsink off or break the "Warranty Void" sticker, however they are still allowed to void warranties if they say the users did something to damage the card such as improperly replacing the thermal paste.

If this was my card, I would pull the heatsink off myself, clean all the paste of and repaste with MX-4. Then see what happens.

 

[eidairaman1]

It sounds like he took it somewhere and they replaced it, and did a very poor job of it.

I don't think the picture in the OP is the bare die, it still has the thermal paste on it and whatever they used is very wet. It looks like Gigabyte just pulled the heatsink off the card, saw two different types of thermal paste, which tells them the thermal paste has been replaced, and is using that as an excuse to void the warranty. The sparkles that we are seeing in the picture is just the flash from the camera reflecting off the peaks in the thermal paste.

Saddly, once Gigabyte has refused the RMA, they are never going to accept an RMA on the same card again. The law says they can't void warranties because you take the heatsink off or break the "Warranty Void" sticker, however they are still allowed to void warranties if they say the users did something to damage the card such as improperly replacing the thermal paste.

If this was my card, I would pull the heatsink off myself, clean all the paste of and repaste with MX-4. Then see what happens.

They will accept it but you will pay additional money for replacement. Thats what that means.

 

[jboydgolfer]

The law says they can't void warranties because you take the heatsink off or break the "Warranty Void" sticker,

That's a federal United States law though he's in Columbia, or does Colombia have a similar law?

I realize it's moot, since there's a problem with the card all they need to do is find out you open the card and that's it. You can't prove you didn't cause the damage they can't prove you did but they don't have to. This added to the fact that gigabytes a shit company ,and their RMA services are awful, makes for a fix it yourself, or toss it situation

 

[newtekie1]

They will accept it but you will pay additional money for replacement. Thats what that means.

Not Gigabyte, they will just refuse it and send the card back.

That's a federal United States law though he's in Columbia, or does Colombia have a similar law?

I have no idea what the law is in Columbia, but he was talking about the law in his other thread, that is why I referenced it.

 

[eidairaman1]

Not Gigabyte, they will just refuse it and send the card back.



I have no idea what the law is in Columbia, but he was talking about the law in his other thread, that is why I referenced it.

Well in this case, GA I will never buy.

I would call them and ask some prying questions.
http://rma.gigabyte.us

https://www.gigabyte.com/co/Support/Warranty

 

[jboydgolfer]

have no idea what the law is in Columbia, but he was talking about the law in his other thread, that is why I referenced it.

I see.


If it was me in this situation, I would sure as hell do everything I could to try and make the card work. I'd start by cleaning at replacing that paste, verify the proper bios is installed. Do a once over to visually inspect the PCB for any physical damage, and whatever else I could do to try and get that thing working. If none of the above worked, I would list it for sale for parts, or as is I'm sure you could maybe pull 100 bucks out of it . Shrouds in particular are a hot item, especially a few years after release ,when stock is low ,and the owners have a couple years on their cards ,and start having fans die. I had a 780 TI fan die when or after, I was doing the memorial PC build, I had to replace ,after everything was said and done, with cables and fan parts ,I spent around 50 bucks for a single fan

 

[JULI4545]

I see.


If it was me in this situation, I would sure as hell do everything I could to try and make the card work. I'd start by cleaning at replacing that paste, verify the proper bios is installed. Do a once over to visually inspect the PCB for any physical damage, and whatever else I could do to try and get that thing working. If none of the above worked, I would list it for sale for parts, or as is I'm sure you could maybe pull 100 bucks out of it . Shrouds in particular are a hot item, especially a few years after release ,when stock is low ,and the owners have a couple years on their cards ,and start having fans die. I had a 780 TI fan die when or after, I was doing the memorial PC build, I had to replace ,after everything was said and done, with cables and fan parts ,I spent around 50 bucks for a single fan

Does it look any better?