EDIT: GPU Fan Speed not adjusting! ****Cleaned GPU and now runs way worse

[davidsaidhi]

Hey all,

Last night I got a slight upgrade to my CPU, but that isn't the issue I am having.

I decided to dust off my case and fans (and GPU fan while I was at it). Because I had leftover thermal paste, I thought I might put a fresh coat on the GPU too, so I started removing the screws on the front of the GPU but then I decided it was too much of a bother so I just put tightened those screws back.

When I got done putting the pc back together, I ran 3D Mark for a benchmark.
I was expecting a slight increase in my 3dMark score, but instead it PLUMMETED. You can see the results here

I'm so confused because the gpu is clearly still running, but at a much much worse state.

I can't figure out for the life of me what the problem is. Please help!

EDIT: figured it out, fan is not adjusting speed. Is there a fix?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Are you monitoring your temps? If you loosened the GPU from the thermal paste it can mess it up so you may just have to reapply paste.

 

[davidsaidhi]

ffd

 

[davidsaidhi]

Are you monitoring your temps? If you loosened the GPU from the thermal paste it can mess it up so you may just have to reapply paste.

I only removed like the top 3 screws and 2 on the side and never removed the cover or the backplate, so I don't THINK that's the issue? The GPU temps seemed like they were the usual 80 I get ( It's a mitx build with a blower card)

Screws I messed with

 

[davidsaidhi]

Alright, so I found the problem. The fan controls aren't functioning properly. Fan speed will sit at 35% even under heavy load, so the gpu starts thermal throttling.
The GPU won't speedup the fan on it's own, and the EVGA OC software isn't doing it either.

I manually put the fan speed at 100%, and the benchmarks were better. (not as good as the first time I built the pc, but I think that's from it getting old and hot) The 980 is performing at ~970 levels now.

Is there a way to fix this or am I just stuck manually adjusting the fan speed until I get a new GPU?