Question Artifacts with EVGA SC2 GTX 1080Ti after changing thermal pads and paste ?

Verderex

Commendable
Mar 14, 2019
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1,510
Hello! Today I decided to change the thermal paste and thermal pads of my GPU. I've opened it before and have changed the paste through the years without any problem until now. So I cleaned the GPU, I removed the old original thermal pads and placed new ones that are same thickness. I put the GPU together and then tested it out. The PC booted without any problems. I opened up MSI Afterburner to check how the temps are going and there were in the 40s and slowly started to climb up until it reached 52 as idle temp and my PC froze and the fan speed of the GPU ramped up to 100%. I gave the PC a quick restart and afterwards there was no POS beep for like a minute and when it did, it showed Windows loading it but with very heavy artifacts, if its even that. I took the GPU out, opened it up ...in fact few times. Changing with new pads, less thicker, more thicker and finally the old ones. No success. It still waits around a minute for POS which is long time, because its usually happens in the first 5s of starting the PC and afterwards atifacts and it doesn't even want to boot to Windows properly. Sometimes it reaches screen where it says that Windows did not boot properly and needs restart. Sometimes it tries to load windows, restarts itself 2 times and then "No Display". How in the world I killed my GPU. I hope its not dead but it seems kind of dead to me. I hope that there is some kind of fix for this...
View: https://i.imgur.com/iGZyRxL.jpg

View: https://i.imgur.com/DqvWVB1.jpeg
 
That is way to much paste... that is the first issue thinly apply it, this is not like a cpu.
Trim the thermal pads to fit having slightly less than you need is better than what you have going on there
Do not crank down on the cooler so much
it needs to be snug not tight

Give those tips a run and you might have it.
 

Verderex

Commendable
Mar 14, 2019
14
0
1,510
That is way to much paste... that is the first issue thinly apply it, this is not like a cpu.
Trim the thermal pads to fit having slightly less than you need is better than what you have going on there
Do not crank down on the cooler so much
it needs to be snug not tight

Give those tips a run and you might have it.
Alright I will give it a go. I trimmed the pads. If this time doesn't work I have to see someone to repair it. I hope its just some VRAM chip that can be easily repaired.
 

Verderex

Commendable
Mar 14, 2019
14
0
1,510
That is way to much paste... that is the first issue thinly apply it, this is not like a cpu.
Trim the thermal pads to fit having slightly less than you need is better than what you have going on there
Do not crank down on the cooler so much
it needs to be snug not tight

Give those tips a run and you might have it.
Update: I might've found the problem. It seems that the thermal paste is conductive. If I clean it up good and place it only on the chip would it be fixed?
 

Verderex

Commendable
Mar 14, 2019
14
0
1,510
I really hope that worked for ya
No, it did not. It turns out that it might be the thermal paste I was using. Since I ran out of MX-4 I had some MasterGel Pro laying around by Cooler Master. I checked the package to see if there was anything about conductivity, there was nothing. So I decided to put it and call it a day, but it seems that as you can see it spilled over the chip and caused some shortages. Turns out that this paste is HIGHLY conductive, or at leats this is what their site says. I gave it to someone that will be able to diagonose it better than I can and clean it up and replace all pads, this time smoothly cutted.
 

iPeekYou

Distinguished
Jul 7, 2014
392
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18,790
No, it did not. It turns out that it might be the thermal paste I was using. Since I ran out of MX-4 I had some MasterGel Pro laying around by Cooler Master. I checked the package to see if there was anything about conductivity, there was nothing. So I decided to put it and call it a day, but it seems that as you can see it spilled over the chip and caused some shortages. Turns out that this paste is HIGHLY conductive, or at leats this is what their site says. I gave it to someone that will be able to diagonose it better than I can and clean it up and replace all pads, this time smoothly cutted.

OP, you sure you read that electrically conductive thing on their website, and not thermal conductivity? Mastergel Pro is a common thermal paste, i.e. not liquid metal nor silver-based paste. Thermal pastes are usually non-conductive (or very very very low, in strict technical terms).

While using the exact amount of paste is good, too much shouldn't hurt anything, especially on GPUs since the paste has no risk of spilling into the socket like on CPUs. Possibly the cooler was on too tight, I've seen issues where that's the case. Does your GPU have the spring screws on the back to mount the cooler? Looked up pictures of that GPU but can't tell if spring screws or not.
 
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Verderex

Commendable
Mar 14, 2019
14
0
1,510
OP, you sure you read that electrically conductive thing on their website, and not thermal conductivity? Mastergel Pro is a common thermal paste, i.e. not liquid metal nor silver-based paste. Thermal pastes are usually non-conductive (or very very very low, in strict technical terms).

While using the exact amount of paste is good, too much shouldn't hurt anything, especially on GPUs since the paste has no risk of spilling into the socket like on CPUs. Possibly the cooler was on too tight, I've seen issues where that's the case. Does your GPU have the spring screws on the back to mount the cooler? Looked up pictures of that GPU but can't tell if spring screws or not.
It does have the spring screws. I think that every GPU has them? I'm unsure if I overtightened it because I have done it before without any issue whatsoever. Also let us say that I have done this and you said you've seen it. Is there any possible fix to it?
 

iPeekYou

Distinguished
Jul 7, 2014
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18,790
It does have the spring screws. I think that every GPU has them? I'm unsure if I overtightened it because I have done it before without any issue whatsoever. Also let us say that I have done this and you said you've seen it. Is there any possible fix to it?

Most GPUs do have spring screws, I've seen some that don't but just double checking. It'll be a boneheaded approach to mounting otherwise.

Not personally, OP. But I remember some threads that I read about the cooler being too tight and loosening them up a bit fixes it. Logic would dictate that spring screws would take care of pressure issue, but worth a try if you haven't tried it already. It's a free alternative after all.
 

Verderex

Commendable
Mar 14, 2019
14
0
1,510
Most GPUs do have spring screws, I've seen some that don't but just double checking. It'll be a boneheaded approach to mounting otherwise.

Not personally, OP. But I remember some threads that I read about the cooler being too tight and loosening them up a bit fixes it. Logic would dictate that spring screws would take care of pressure issue, but worth a try if you haven't tried it already. It's a free alternative after all.
Yes, I dismantled the card like 3-4 times after those artifacts appeared. So it is not overtightend problem. The card is given for repair but they are unsure if they can repair it. I will have info tomorrow. (Hopefully)
 

Verderex

Commendable
Mar 14, 2019
14
0
1,510
kinda sucks, especially during these times :/
Yes. I kind of does, but if they can't fix it, I will get myself R9 290. The price is still reasonable at around 100 Euro ($120-130) and performs almost the same as 1060 which costs twice or sometimes 3 times as much as 290.