News Video Allegedly Shows Crypto Miners Jet Washing Nvidia RTX GPUs

[King_V]

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.

Likewise... though, I have sold one or two cards without the box, but that's because they were the OEM add-in cards (GT 730 I think) that came with Dell systems I ordered.

Except that most of those boxes have the UPC cut out... I've always taken advantage of mail-in rebates when available.

 

[Co BIY]

The video was probably put out by Nvidia or the AIB manufacturers to scare everyone about the used cards that will shortly dominate the market.

Someone needs to create a third party inspection program to certify cards as working for used sales.

Maybe Toms's could do a "So you bought a used GPU" article on how to inspect and check a card just purchased while you still have the chance to return it.

 

[USAFRet]

Maybe Toms's could do a "So you bought a used GPU" article

If I were writing that, it would be a very short article.
"You fool."

 

[ravewulf]

Going with a used GPU isn't necessarily bad but I wouldn't want one of those specific ones. Right before the mining boom started, I bought a used GTX 980 for a Vista system and it's working great.

After, I started building older retro systems since those can't be used for mining, like the Geforce 6 & 7 series. A few of the listings on eBay did have burst capacitors so carefully checking the photos was important but the ones I got ended up working perfectly. I did replace the heatsink and fan of one as it was noisier than I'd like, but that was because it was a crappy single slot cooler rather than it going bad.

So, it depends.

 

[USAFRet]

Going with a used GPU isn't necessarily bad but I wouldn't want one of those specific ones. Right before the mining boom started, I bought a used GTX 980 for a Vista system and it's working great.

After, I started building older retro systems since those can't be used for mining, like the Geforce 6 & 7 series. A few of the listings on eBay did have burst capacitors so carefully checking the photos was important but the ones I got ended up working perfectly. I did replace the heatsink and fan of one as it was noisier than I'd like, but that was because it was a crappy single slot cooler rather than it going bad.

So, it depends.

And that requires intelligence and due diligence.

Rather than "CHEAP!" Click!!

 

[RedBear87]

(Conspiracy) theory: Nvidia and/or its AIBs commissioned that video in order to deter people from buying used GPUs.

 

[Jaxstarke9977]

Buying used is just not a risk I personally would be willing to take. For every seller that actually takes care of their stuff there are 10 others who couldn't care less.

 

[firemachine69]

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.

Well actually, if the water was demineralized (aka "distilled") it would be okay temporarily, so long as they were quickly air dried after the fact (and maybe put away under some dessicant).
Going with an educated guess that's not what happened here.

 

[hasten]

99% only. Its easy enough to go to the hardware store and get a jug.

 

[Anthony Abelardo]

Either the article is to:
get traffic
show people raging they've lost millions trying to mine ETH

Air spraying would clean the dust off the cards. Indeed there are people who joined late or somehow lost lots of money by joining with more at the wrong time.

 

[micromax]

I have 40+ years experience in electronics. NEVER, EVER use water of any kind, no matter how cautious you "think" you are! WTAH (What the actual heck)? I can't even! And the people on here trying to still justify it in some manner, "if done cautiously," are just plain wrong. Argue with me all you want, it's a "hard No" for me! OMG! Just because you think certain components may be sealed? What about tiny water that maybe didn't dry, in the GPU processor pin-holes? I don't care if you have 30,000 GPUs, NEVER clean with water! Approved electronic cleaning solutions are the only way to clean; period. Wow, just wow.

 

[micromax]

Either the article is to:
get traffic
show people raging they've lost millions trying to mine ETH

Air spraying would clean the dust off the cards. Indeed there are people who joined late or somehow lost lots of money by joining with more at the wrong time.

Yes, air and/or electronics cleaning solution ( basically alcohol). NEVER water, no matter if distilled or not! That's ridiculous!

 

[micromax]

Well actually, if the water was demineralized (aka "distilled") it would be okay temporarily, so long as they were quickly air dried after the fact (and maybe put away under some dessicant).
Going with an educated guess that's not what happened here.

NO, it is NOT OK! Not even temporarily, not even if distilled! Water ruins electronic components; what do people not understand about that? Have the guts to Google it or go ask Intel or NVIDIA, versus believing some random dudes on the Internet telling you, "Oh, it's ok to use water or sonic bath on electronics components, if it's distilled water." No, it's not.

 

[uplink-svk]

https://metrovac.com/products/datavac-esd-safe-electric-duster

 

[aberkae]

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?

Hey if Nvidia is competing with second hand market what other way to make the current Ampere stock it holds look more desirable. If anything I accept more crazy videos like these. I wouldn't hold anything past them. Nvidia's PR campaign make mining cards look less desirable 😜.

 

[USAFRet]

Conspiracy!
Fake News!
False Flag!

While I wouldn't put it past the corps to do this, it could be as simple as...it is exactly what it looks like.
Idiot cryptominers, wanting to recoup some of their investment, selling mined GPUs as "Refurbished. Good condition!"

 

[alceryes]

Onions have layers.
PCBs have layers.
Both crypto mining shills and Onions stink!

Forcing water (either by sonic agitation or preassurized wash) in and around any PCB is just asking for trouble. Normally, in a controlled environment, with pure, distilled water, you STILL need to be cautious. Conformal coating will only protect you up to a certain point. Any weak spot openings in the coating (where large SMD components or the GPU core itself attaches to the PCB) just welcomes in anything small emough to get in. Normally, the cohesive properties and hydrogen bonding of water make it too big to fit into such small areas - enter the pressure wash and/or sonic wash!

If allowed to completely dry before going anywhere near power -
3 in 10 of these cards will escape with minor to no loss in performance or thermal integrity.
5 in 10 of these cards will work but at limited capacity. Limitations may or may not be realized at first.
2 in 10 of these cards will be DOA or have major issues affecting cooling and/or performance - basically unusable for what they were designed for.

 

[USAFRet]

If allowed to completely dry before going anywhere near power -
3 in 10 of these cards will escape with minor to no loss in performance or thermal integrity.
5 in 10 of these cards will work but at limited capacity. Limitations may or may not be realized at first.
2 in 10 of these cards will be DOA or have major issues affecting cooling and/or performance - basically unusable for what they were designed for.

100% of the ebay accounts that sell these will disappear at the first whiff of "refund".

 

[Chung Leong]

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.

The average salary in Vietnam is $260 a month. Six-day work week means ~200 hours a month. Even if it takes an hour to clean and repackage each card, the cost is hardly prohibitive.

The video is almost certainly a fake.

 

[USAFRet]

The average salary in Vietnam is $260 a month. Six-day work week means ~200 hours a month. Even if it takes an hour to clean and repackage each card, the cost is hardly prohibitive.

The video is almost certainly a fake.

And yet that team (and dozens of others) had enough money to buy all that stuff.

And if the team that owns/owned these GPUs were to hire 'some dudes' to clean and repackage, how meticulous do you think these random low income people would be?
Bring out the pressure washer!

'average salary' is irrelevant.

We've had people here from that area of the world who proudly proclaim to wash such components in gasoline.
"Everyone here does that."
Yes, really.

 

[pale-ghost]

Freon R11 would probably be good to clean them. Pretty expensive in the US but some third world countries still make it.

 

[Sippincider]

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

I've purchased refurbished Apple stuff, from Apple, with good luck.

BUT... used gold-rush hardware, that's being unloaded online in a market bust? Heh no freaking way.

 

[dwn2brasstacks]

This is a propoganda video, not that I care for miners.

I certainly would not want a card that has been mined with 24/7 without a very hefty discount and it passing a bevy of tests, would also take apart the shroud and replace the thermal grease, etc.

I have bought many used cards and so far they have been flawless. I always test them, listen and watch the fans and monitor them for a few days so I can return them if they are bad.

I would say as long as they are selling 1 at a time from a seller with a good reputation (especially with the box) they are likely not a miner.

If you see they have 10+ in stock / sold as is yeah they likely mined.

 

[newtechldtech]

And how do you know that he is using water ? maybe he is using Alcohol .

 

[USAFRet]

This is a propoganda video, not that I care for miners.

I certainly would not want a card that has been mined with 24/7 without a very hefty discount and it passing a bevy of tests, would also take apart the shroud and replace the thermal grease, etc.

I have bought many used cards and so far they have been flawless. I always test them, listen and watch the fans and monitor them for a few days so I can return them if they are bad.

I would say as long as they are selling 1 at a time from a seller with a good reputation (especially with the box) they are likely not a miner.

If you see they have 10+ in stock / sold as is yeah they likely mined.

And the original miner dudes may have simply offloaded these GPUs to some next level aggregator, and then they are contracted out to some random "company" for "refurbishing".

This is not unusual. Billion dollar companies do this all the time.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/morgan-stanley-fined-35-million-for-not-encrypting-hdds-servers