News Video Allegedly Shows Crypto Miners Jet Washing Nvidia RTX GPUs

[Admin]

As well as jet washing GPU filled servers, a video shows a selection of GPU PCBs in an ‘ozone water’ bath.

Video Allegedly Shows Crypto Miners Jet Washing Nvidia RTX GPUs : Read more

 

[peachpuff]

LNIB rtx for sale, took out of box to make sure they work...

 

[pug_s]

I think it is ymmv of how do the previous owners of these gpu owners do to them. I got a used Bitcoined ATI 7850 a few years back but it crapped out sooner before I can put out of pasture. My next bitcoined gpu is an RX 580 and it worked great even today.

 

[Math Geek]

i would never buy a used gpu even before mining was a thing.

to buy one now is beyond simply not advisable. it is downright stupid. there are plenty of other ways to bet your money that actually have a potential upside.

even if it did work for a while, helping the miners who created this terrible gpu market in the first place, is just too much to ask. screw them and i hope they have to eat all those used cards they hopefully will never be able to sell.

but sigh i know folks will be lining up to buy these "lightly used and refurbished" wink wink cards and then come here and ask how to make it run again once it dies on them.

 

[digitalgriffin]

Wow just....wow. That is just asking for trouble. There's a reason I refuse to buy a used card. You don't know what you are getting.

The preferred method is canned air, with pipe cleaner. Then you repaste and 1 drop of light oil for the fans. If you use ultra purified water and do NOT use a pressurized washer, you might be okay. A lot of these cards use a partial conformal coating to help protect them. Provided you re-paste. and keep the fans out of the mix.

 

[King_V]

Seriously? I mean, come on, everyone knows that the right way to do this is to load all the GPUs in the back of a pickup truck, go through the car wash.

And, if you wanna do it right, spring the extra money for the hot wax treatment!


Ok, absurdity aside, I have, long ago, bought a used GPU. Granted, it was a low-profile ATI 7250 AGP . . so that's how long ago we're talking about. And, back then ebay was I suppose considered far less populated with scammers than they are today.

I would still consider it. BUT, I'd most likely do it for an ultra-budget level sort of thing. High-end/expensive? I doubt it - I want the assurance of a full warranty if I'm spending that kind of money.

 

[velocityg4]

While I sometimes use water for cleaning. My steps are to remove any shrounds or heatsinks. Rinse with alcohol and gently clean with a tootbrush. Rinse with water. Apply more alcohol to speed drying. Then set my reflow station at 90C and quickly dry and blast under the various chips. Finally hang dry in front of a fan for four days to be certain. Before reassembly and new paste.

 

[punkncat]

I have seen videos of people cleaning disassembled GPU with water, one YT'er even puts them into a sonic bath thingy. It is quite concerning here that they opted to use not only a pressure washer, but didn't bother to pull them from the socket, power cable, etc. Those connectors and such aren't going to dry while plugged in, among other possible issues...those cards are toast.

I rather wonder if this machine didn't take a surge or otherwise "blow up" and user is simply trolling?

 

[InvalidError]

I could imagine this being a four-steps cleaning process:
1- use the pressure washer to remove caked-on dirt since mechanical cleaning would take a long time and there are lots of spots that can be tough to get to
2- ultrasound cleaning in distilled water to remove the stuff pressure-washing missed and whatever residues (ex.: detergent and tap water residues) it may have left behind
3- rinse in isopropyl alcohol to flush most of the water out
4- sun/oven-dry for a while before boxing them

While using a pressure washer may sound extreme, the water doesn't have that much power when using a fan-pattern sprayer at its widest setting from ~2' away.

While I sometimes use water for cleaning. My steps are to remove any shrounds or heatsinks. Rinse with alcohol and gently clean with a tootbrush. Rinse with water. Apply more alcohol to speed drying. Then set my reflow station at 90C and quickly dry and blast under the various chips. Finally hang dry in front of a fan for four days to be certain. Before reassembly and new paste.

This may work fine for your one prized personal GPU.

Not so well for mining farm operators with thousands of cards. A few years ago, one single mining farm operator had ~500k RX470 or similar cards seized by the Chinese government and got them returned two years ago. At that sort of scale, I'd likely bring out the pressure washers too, at least for the older cards that have already paid themselves off multiple times over.

I have seen videos of people cleaning disassembled GPU with water, one YT'er even puts them into a sonic bath thingy. It is quite concerning here that they opted to use not only a pressure washer, but didn't bother to pull them from the socket, power cable, etc. Those connectors and such aren't going to dry while plugged in, among other possible issues...those cards are toast.

If you had to pressure-wash GPUs, how would you hold the GPUs? A wide fan water jet displaces a pretty good amount of air on top of the water's force, the GPUs will fly away if you don't have a fixture of some sort to keep them in place. When you have thousands of GPUs to wash, it actually makes sense. Potentially ruining the mining motherboards and stands does not matter much since most of those will have little to no resale value.

 

[escksu]

i would never buy a used gpu even before mining was a thing.

to buy one now is beyond simply not advisable. it is downright stupid. there are plenty of other ways to bet your money that actually have a potential upside.

even if it did work for a while, helping the miners who created this terrible gpu market in the first place, is just too much to ask. screw them and i hope they have to eat all those used cards they hopefully will never be able to sell.

but sigh i know folks will be lining up to buy these "lightly used and refurbished" wink wink cards and then come here and ask how to make it run again once it dies on them.

The main reason why people buy used computer parts (not just GPUs) is simply because brand new ones are too costly for them.

Else nobody would want to touch any used sutff. They belong to landfills and incinerators.

It goes beyond computers too. Eg. Cars, would you prefer a brand new cars or a used one (assuming money is no issue). Most used cars belong to scrap yard.

 

[Eximo]

What I have done in the past is look for people that kept the original box. Those are the type of people that just sell their old card to get a new one. Hasn't burned me yet.

 

[Math Geek]

The main reason why people buy used computer parts (not just GPUs) is simply because brand new ones are too costly for them.

Else nobody would want to touch any used sutff. They belong to landfills and incinerators.

It goes beyond computers too. Eg. Cars, would you prefer a brand new cars or a used one (assuming money is no issue). Most used cars belong to scrap yard.

the problem is not "too costly for them " it's they want more than they can afford.

spending $500 (or whatever they are charging, more likely more) for one of the used cards to say you have a 3090 or other top end card is stupid as i already said. taking that same $500 and buying the card that money can actually buy new is the way to go. they are readily available now.

so i reject your whole argument and instead inject an alternative and more likely reason folks would risk it with these purchases. suck it up, buy what you an actually afford or save longer, and stop being stupid

 

[PEnns]

Another reason to avoid that junk sold by scummy miners.

Main reason?? Let them eat that junk!!

 

[ezst036]

Maybe this video was created to generate page clicks and controversy. Or it was leaked to generate page clicks and controversy. It's creator might have created the video to validate that they got the job done. ?

I have no idea. I just noticed that everybody in the discussion so far has taken it at face value.

What do we actually know about the video? What do we actually know about the intent?

 

[kal326]

Grab your tin foil hats folks, but let’s just entertain an idea. Perhaps some parties would like to sow some additional seeds of doubt regarding second hand prior mined or “never minded on cards” that certainly are flooding the markets right around new product launches. Some ridiculous stuff like this might be what they would try to get out there, no?

 

[InvalidError]

the problem is not "too costly for them " it's they want more than they can afford.

The cost based on actual manufacturing costs is one thing, fluffed-up costs because every CEOs, shareholder, etc. across the supply chain wants to pad their pockets harder under the cover of covid inflation is another.

Most of the price hikes from the last two years go into executive compensation, bonuses, dividends, share buybacks, etc. It isn't the costs going up, it is greed going completely out of control across the board.

 

[Math Geek]

i agree fully, however it still does not change folks wanting more than they can afford, thus leading to people still buying these used cards despite it being a bad idea all around

 

[zipspyder]

What is the point? To make everything clean and shiny? You could clean them with a dam leaf blower like that and sell working cards without scamming people. Another reason to hate miners...😠

 

[punkncat]

If you had to pressure-wash GPUs, how would you hold the GPUs? A wide fan water jet displaces a pretty good amount of air on top of the water's force, the GPUs will fly away if you don't have a fixture of some sort to keep them in place. When you have thousands of GPUs to wash, it actually makes sense. Potentially ruining the mining motherboards and stands does not matter much since most of those will have little to no resale value.

Well, that's the thing. I wouldn't pressure wash them. Personally, would use a blower and then follow up with more detailed cleaning if needed.
I don't really feel the water itself, unless very mineral rich, is going to hurt the GPU, the mobo, nor RAM for that matter. I have even seen PSU be cleaned this way with proper safeguards. Especially when disassembled, heat sinks and pads off, fans and other connectors unplugged and so on. The important aspect after that is making sure the parts are completely dry and as mentioned, free of mineral residue. I have seen various methods of accomplishing this with blowers and often multi-spray. I would be concerned about the water under pressure, more so than air, as it is going to get into places that simply dunking or running under a tap isn't going to do.

 

[Deleted member 431422]

If it's not distilled water it will always leave marks. Minerals diluted in water don't evaporate. Why do you think there's a scale build-up in kettle.
Phisics aside, it's just plain dumb... If it's for a laugh, it's still dumb.

 

[mickrc3]

Four-five years ago I bought two used RX 580 cards from a guy who was upgrading his small operation. He was selling a dozen or so RX 580s and nearly the same number of GTX 1070s. The RX 580s are the last video cards I can remember that cost me under $100 each. Both have worked just fine since I got them but neither is being used for gaming, just typical desktop loads.

 

[InvalidError]

Well, that's the thing. I wouldn't pressure wash them. Personally, would use a blower and then follow up with more detailed cleaning if needed.

If you have 10k GPUs to go through, I doubt you'll want to go into "detailed cleaning" of any sort. The people you'd need to hire along with all of the necessary supplies would nuke most of your potential capital recovery from selling them off.

Also, when you do ultrasound cleaning, the ultrasounds will get water to go in many places it normally wouldn't too. The important part is drying it off afterwards either way.

 

[warezme]

What I have done in the past is look for people that kept the original box. Those are the type of people that just sell their old card to get a new one. Hasn't burned me yet.

This right here. I have sold older cards in the past when I upgrade and always keep my box. My cards are never overclocked or modded and I just enjoy them as they are. I know when I sell a card it is a good card. I plan on getting a 4090 to replace my 2080ti but I haven't decided whether I will sell the old 2080ti and I still have the original l box. I fear people will want it super cheap because of the GPU crash and I could always use it somewhere else.

 

[Eximo]

Don't do what I did and hold on to them. I still have a 980 and 1080. Probably just give the 1080 to my Nephew when the 980 he is using can't do what he wants. Not like Roblox is that hard to run though.

 

[USAFRet]

But they've been "refurbished"!!
So all is good, right?


Stuff like this is why, when people ask "Is it safe to buy a refurbished component?".....I come back with 'Refurbished by whom?'

This just takes "he blew the dust off" to stupid levels.