[SOLVED] Applied new thermal paste on gpu and now Artifacts.

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Apr 9, 2021
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I felt like restoring new life in an Asus 1050ti 4gb dual fan card by new Cooler Master thermal paste. Now I'm getting all kinds of jacked up artifacts on the screen. Any help would be appreciated. I applied just a pea size and cleaned up spill over. Thanks

Fail
 
Solution
Those BGA ICs (both the main chip and memory) attached to the board with soldering “balls” which are solid. Bending and bowing leads to partial IC separation from the board.

Artifacts are memory errors and could be a result of either memory (gddr) or memory controller (inside the main chip) issue which may very well be a result of the above.

Reflow will usually fix it if the mounting pads are not thorn off the board.

Do not bother with 1050, just replace it.

Phaaze88

Titan
Ambassador
Must be that^one.

Not the best kind of paste to use directly on silicon, because of it's glass-like surface; most of it just gets pushed off the die and it collects around the sides.
Haven't seen anything about it causing shorts yet - still looking. [Lazy Amazon has Mastergel Maker reviews mixed in, and Newegg doesn't have many at all.]

Does anything look burned on the PCB -front and back? The 2 die shots aren't very clear besides the die itself.
 
Apr 9, 2021
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To be honest everything looks fine. I thoroughly looked over the card with my geeky magnifying glasses. Lol. Seriously though, no smell, discoloration, puffy capacitors, loose ones, etc. Etc
 

Phaaze88

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Ok, so no PHYSICAL damage that you can see, but it looks like something was damaged nonetheless.

There weren't any overclocks done on this card?

There were the comments about paste spilling onto the little rectangle pieces around the gpu, but that shouldn't have done anything unless the paste was actually conductive.
^That's my 1080Ti when I first took the cooler off. Paste is all over that thing.


Recent images:
Might just be some dirt, but it looks like rust in this area under the U?
Aside from that, nothing else really stood out.
 
Apr 9, 2021
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Ok, so no PHYSICAL damage that you can see, but it looks like something was damaged nonetheless.

There weren't any overclocks done on this card?

There were the comments about paste spilling onto the little rectangle pieces around the gpu, but that shouldn't have done anything unless the paste was actually conductive.
^That's my 1080Ti when I first took the cooler off. Paste is all over that thing.


Recent images:
Might just be some dirt, but it looks like rust in this area under the U?
Aside from that, nothing else really stood out.

I'm applying a thicker paste right now. I had another card here so I took the heatsink off to check it. It had so much Compound on it just like your pics. Im using some of it to check how the 1050ti's you will react .
 

FoxVoxDK

Distinguished
Did you tighten the screws slowly and evenly? One or two turns per screw, then diagonally the next over? Not tightening down on screw at a time?

This is usually caused by uneven tension, unfortunately.
 
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Apr 9, 2021
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Oh yeah I have a founders 3070. This card I picked up for $100 to resell. I'm a medically retired veteran and I buy and sell shiat just to stay busy.
When I put on the heatsink I line it up by shining light through the holes. I then do 1, then opposite across and so on. I really didn't think that I was overly aggressive. Think there could be life yet!
 

FoxVoxDK

Distinguished
Thank you for your Service.

Aww, yea that kinda sucks, but at least you can still play! Trying to see the positive side of things!

Just be careful with the older cards or even cards with larger heatsinks touching the die, especially those without a metal frame around them to balance the load, the further out the tension can come from and thus the easier it is to accidentally crack the die.
 
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Apr 9, 2021
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Thank you for your Service.

Aww, yea that kinda sucks, but at least you can still play! Trying to see the positive side of things!

Just be careful with the older cards or even cards with larger heatsinks touching the die, especially those without a metal frame around them to balance the load, the further out the tension can come from and thus the easier it is to accidentally crack the die.


Thanks you have been great!

For some reason I have this deep gut feeling this card will work and its an easy fix. Something is telling me to check the power going to that pcie card.

Maybe it's Elvis lol.
 

FoxVoxDK

Distinguished
Go nuts with as many possibilities you can, it's a write-off as we speak, and if it somehow becomes usable again, then good job! xD

You could try ye olden bake and pray.(Set oven to solder re-flow temps at around 385°F and let bake for 7-10 minutes, use tinfoil balls at each corner(shape them, so that only the very corner is held) so that the card isn't touching the tray and the tinballs aren't touching any soldering, only PCB)

Disclaimer: I, OBVIOUSLY, take no responsibility if you choose follow this advice, you're a grown man, you understand that this can make the situation worse, it's a last ditch effort! :D

Seriously, don't do this unless everything else has been tried.
 
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Apr 9, 2021
31
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Go nuts with as many possibilities you can, it's a write-off as we speak, and if it somehow becomes usable again, then good job! xD

You could try ye olden bake and pray.(Set oven to solder re-flow temps at around 385°F and let bake for 7-10 minutes, use tinfoil balls at each corner(shape them, so that only the very corner is held) so that the card isn't touching the tray and the tinballs aren't touching any soldering, only PCB)

Disclaimer: I, OBVIOUSLY, take no responsibility if you choose follow this advice, you're a grown man, you understand that this can make the situation worse, it's a last ditch effort! :D

Seriously, don't do this unless everything else has been tried.
Nice...I was already thinking the exact same thing. Please explain what you mean about the tinfoil balls. 4 to hold it off the bottom?*
 

thesub3001

Honorable
Dec 30, 2017
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I would like to mention. I've changed the paste of quite a few cards ranging from a 650, 750ti up to a 1060 and 1070, I've done some tests and the pea sized way to apply thermal paste always gave me bad results in gpus, unlike cpus where there was no noticeable difference. The best way for gpus talking 3-4 celcius up to even 10 celcius is to manually spread the thermal paste on it(at least for me!). I've been using arctic mx 4 since forever and haven't had problems. I do want to mention that here it really looks like some physical damage has been done and I can doubt it's the way you applied thermal paste.
 

David0ne86

Prominent
Mar 11, 2021
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Yup, that chip is chipped (no pun intended, no like seriously). Either was already, or you did chip it yourself when you clearly overtigthened the screw (again, very noticeable by the way the paste was smushed to the sides rather than on the dye itself. Also, you might have cleaned the dye, but i can still see alot of paste around the borders. Rip.