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Thermal Pad Failure
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Author | Message |
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RueiKe Send message Joined: 14 Feb 16 Posts: 492 Credit: 378,512,430 RAC: 785 |
My main quad Vega64 machine has been unstable for a while and one card finally failed. I removed it and found that the thermal pads seeped liquid that covered a significant part of the card including the contacts to the PCIe slots. I used the thermal pads provided by EK when I purchased the waterblocks about 1.5 years ago. I should probably change Thermal Pads for all 4 cards and maybe even other EK Waterblock installations. Any recommendation on higher quality thermal pads? Also, The 3 remaining cards are still flaky with one error in dmesg "Invalid PCI ROM header signature" so maybe other cards and the MB are affected. I will seek a good approach to clean the PCBs. |
bloodrain Send message Joined: 8 Dec 08 Posts: 231 Credit: 28,112,547 RAC: 1 |
thermal grizzly. but atm their site has been hack i think. |
Brent Norman Send message Joined: 1 Dec 99 Posts: 2786 Credit: 685,657,289 RAC: 835 |
I believe Fujipoly Extreme is one of the high end thermal pads. And worth more than gold, lol. |
Keith Myers Send message Joined: 29 Apr 01 Posts: 13164 Credit: 1,160,866,277 RAC: 1,873 |
The FujiPoly pads I bought from Amazon were about $16. Enough to cover the gpu die. Would need a larger size or another package to do the VRMs and memory dies. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MQ0ITXW/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MQ0COHE/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I've seen the seepage of the silicone oils from the OEM thermal pads on just about every gpu card I've owned. I don't believe they are of the same quality as the FujiPoly pads. The ones on the repaired Intel motherboard have been in place for about a year and no sign of seepage on them. But I don't think that is long enough. I see seepage on gpu cards after about 3 years. Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association) |
RueiKe Send message Joined: 14 Feb 16 Posts: 492 Credit: 378,512,430 RAC: 785 |
Thanks for the thermal pad recommendations. I will have to see what I can get here in Taiwan. The FujiPoly looks most interesting, but Grizzly may be easier to acquire. I did get feedback on IG that the liquid is likely Silicone oil, which is non-conductive and should not cause a problem, but this card was pulled out of the system because it would cause the system to crash within seconds if it were enabled. I am still having problems on the system with the remaining 3 cards. dmesg shows the following error at boot: amdgpu 0000:47:00.0: Invalid PCI ROM header signature: expecting 0xaa55, got 0xffff And compute intermittently hangs on all of the cards (not at the same time). So I am concerned that the fluid went down into the PCIe slot. I plan to swap out the MB as soon as I get new thermal pads on all of the cards. I tried to clean the residue off with isopropyl alcohol, but the stain on the board did not reduce. Anyone ever see the MB cleaning video by der8aur where he uses the dishwasher?? |
Brent Norman Send message Joined: 1 Dec 99 Posts: 2786 Credit: 685,657,289 RAC: 835 |
Ether areole (engine starting fluid) works pretty darn good for cleaning a lot of things and evaporates almost instantly. A WD40 nozzle fits most cans so you have the hose for more accurate spray. BUT use OUTSIDE. It is very explosive! |
Wiggo Send message Joined: 24 Jan 00 Posts: 34754 Credit: 261,360,520 RAC: 489 |
I use ethyl alcohol myself. Cheers. |
Cruncher-American Send message Joined: 25 Mar 02 Posts: 1513 Credit: 370,893,186 RAC: 340 |
I use ethyl alcohol myself. Ahhh! But do you use it IN yourself? |
Wiggo Send message Joined: 24 Jan 00 Posts: 34754 Credit: 261,360,520 RAC: 489 |
Yes I do. :-DI use ethyl alcohol myself.Ahhh! But do you use it IN yourself? Cheers. |
Kevin Olley Send message Joined: 3 Aug 99 Posts: 906 Credit: 261,085,289 RAC: 572 |
Anyone ever see the MB cleaning video by der8aur where he uses the dishwasher?? No, but I have used warm water with washing up liquid and a toothbrush on a number of occasions with no problems, the main thing is to make sure it is rinsed off with plenty of clean water afterwards and is dried properly after before it is powered up. Another liquid that is useful for cleaning is lighter type petrol, useful for some grease residues and the type of glues used on sticky labels etc. Kevin |
Keith Myers Send message Joined: 29 Apr 01 Posts: 13164 Credit: 1,160,866,277 RAC: 1,873 |
Silicone oil is not conductive. It is insulating. If on contacts, will not allow proper mating of the contact surfaces unless there is enough mechanical pressure to break through the film. It also has a tendency to spread. It is common in electronics manufacturing and repair to put circuit boards through a low pressure wash or just handwash with the equivalent of Simple Green cleaner and degreaser. Then you drip dry the PCB for ten minutes and then put it into an industrial oven set at 145°F. and bake the PCB for 6 hours. I used to do that all the time when I was in the repair shop. Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association) |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
When I worked in SGS (now STMicroelectronics) in Agrate I saw technicians testing PCBs using a hair dryer (called phon in Italy referring to the Favonius hot wind, or Phoen). They heated every component until the system crashed and then they substituted it. Tullio |
RueiKe Send message Joined: 14 Feb 16 Posts: 492 Credit: 378,512,430 RAC: 785 |
Appreciate Wiggo's ethyl alcohol suggestion. It made it easier to stick the card into the dishwasher! I washed with plain water at 50C for about 70min, then baked per Keith's suggestion. I could not find FujiPoly locally, so I had to order from Amazon US. It will be a week before I can test it out. Not sure if all of this will revive the card, since it would crash the system in minutes when installed, but it is an interesting experiment! |
RueiKe Send message Joined: 14 Feb 16 Posts: 492 Credit: 378,512,430 RAC: 785 |
The new graphite based thermal pads are interesting. Just watched the video. Looks good, but it is electrically conductive, so it may not be appropriate for VRMs. Also, not sure if there are any metal components in it. I looked at other versions on Amazon and they looked metalic. I would be concerned with metal in the contact with back side of the die if I wasn't sure that it did not contain copper or gold due to their high diffusivity in Si. |
RueiKe Send message Joined: 14 Feb 16 Posts: 492 Credit: 378,512,430 RAC: 785 |
Update: After letting it sit for a week, the contaminant continued to seep out of the card, so I ran it through the dishwasher again and another bake. I reassembled with FujiPoly and put it back into the system. No problems booting and now running SETI for the last few hours with no issues. One caution is that some of the inductors started to show a little rust. I suggest coating them with a small amount of oil after the clean to prevent this. |
Brent Norman Send message Joined: 1 Dec 99 Posts: 2786 Credit: 685,657,289 RAC: 835 |
Also those sheets are 0.2mm compared to 1.0mm typically used for GPUs/VRMs. With no compression fit you would run into air gaps. |
Keith Myers Send message Joined: 29 Apr 01 Posts: 13164 Credit: 1,160,866,277 RAC: 1,873 |
The new graphite based thermal pads are interesting. I got the impression the material was graphene based. So yes electrically conductive. Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association) |
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