980Ti fried (hardware gore inside)

Jeps · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:09

So my PC just cut out with an audible hiss/sizzle and a strong burning smell. It didn't take much detective work to find the culprit.....

GPU Core

Underside of heatsink

Close up

RIP 980Ti. At bearly a year old you were to young to go out like this.

Any idea what might have caused this? i replaced the thermal paste about a month ago and the card has been running at 1500mhz since with the max voltage afterburner will allow running through it. It looks like there is no Tim on the corner of the GPU but I'm guessing that this was burned away when a jet of flame shot out of the core! It was definitely fully covered when I applied it. Could a dodgy Tim application cause this considering the card has been running stable with a pretty substantial overclock for a month? Temps have also been fine during this time.

Power surge maybe? My PSU is an OCZ ZX series 850w which I assume has surge protection built in? The card was running from two separate 8 pin cables.

The rest of my PC seems undamaged which is a bit of a relief! I could dig out my old 780ti to drop in for the time being but I'm a little reluctant as I'd rather not fry another card. Do you guys think it's safe to do so? My PC is booting into Windows fine without a GPU installed.

And finally, what's MSI's warranty like? I had to break a warranty sticker to remove the cooler so I guess I'm screwed there?

Doogles · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:13

If you haven't changed the cooler and only removed the sticker but all screws are the same I'd send it in they should complain but if they do say that you haven't changed anything + it was that it was like this when you got it, I know it feels terrible when this happens but at least you should have warranty unlike me

I'd put in the GTX 780ti if that has warranty, if it fries you know the PSU is bad and you might get something better in return

MeatLoaf · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:13

I say your up the creek without a paddle sadly

If MSI allow you to remove the cooler you may be ok but I don't know tbh

danoliver1 · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:16

Smells like an insurance job to me.

Gerard · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:19

Wonder what component it was that popped, seems an odd place for something to go bang right on the bare edge of the core, usually it would be a capacitor or something on the pcb.

Jeps · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:28

danoliver1 said:
Smells like an insurance job to me.

I read that you are supposed to do a burn test when overclocking right!?

Gerard said:
Wonder what component it was that popped, seems an odd place for something to go bang right on the bare edge of the core, usually it would be a capacitor or something on the pcb.

I think the core itself failed and the burn mark is where the flame shot out of the gpu wall in a jet. It certainly sounded that way. I was initially expecting it was a cap so it took me a little while to spot where the damage was as i wasn't looking at the core!

I just dropped a 780Ti in (i have 2 so whats the harm if another bites the dust right?) and it everything seems to be fine for now. I was playing the witcher 3 when it happened and had just gotten to a good part in the main quest as well :mad:

Finners · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:34

Doesn't look like the corner of the die was making much contact to me

Doogles · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:34

Jeps said:
I read that you are supposed to do a burn test when overclocking right!?

I think the core itself failed and the burn mark is where the flame shot out of the gpu wall in a jet. It certainly sounded that way. I was initially expecting it was a cap so it took me a little while to spot where the damage was as i wasn't looking at the core!

I just dropped a 780Ti in (i have 2 so whats the harm if another bites the dust right?) and it everything seems to be fine for now. I was playing the witcher 3 when it happened and had just gotten to a good part in the main quest as well

Damn son at least the 780ti isn't a slouch.

Jeps · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:44

Finners said:
Doesn't look like the corner of the die was making much contact to me

Yeah its possible and it does kind of look that way. I swapped the tim for thermal grizzly kryonaut about a month ago and spread it over the entire core as per the instructions so its not like i put a blob on and it maybe didn't spread out all the way.

Scougar · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:48

This was under warranty still? Why did you remove the cooler?

Jeps · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:51

Scougar said:
This was under warranty still? Why did you remove the cooler?

I removed the cooler about a month ago to replace the thermal paste. I wouldn't have taken it off today if i hadn't already broke the sticker. I'm not that daft

JanxSpirit · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:51

Finners said:
Doesn't look like the corner of the die was making much contact to me

Agreed. It looks to me as though the OP has killed it himself by farting around with it unfortunately.

Tommy_Here · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:54

I like how you just have 2 780 Tis lying around when in actual fact they're still cracking cards even today! they'll let you crank them settings up at 1080p

Scougar · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:55

Jeps said:
I removed the cooler about a month ago to replace the thermal paste. I wouldn't have taken it off today if i hadn't already broke the sticker. I'm not that daft

Sorry, I didn't read the thread properly before responding

Rroff · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:56

Wonder if something somehow made a connection over the SMD components there maybe a metal shaving from the previous application of paste or something.

Disco_P · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:57

MSI allow cooler removal.

https://www.facebook.com/msiuk/posts/652634514773229

This was still valid when I asked in late May.

It just looks like one of those things, cooler removal had nothing to do with it. RMA time - be warned MSI are sloooowwww.

Finally I would play it safe and get a different PSU. OCZ have a fairly rubbish rep when it comes to power supplies.

Jeps · 26 Jul 2016 at 00:02

Disco_P said:
MSI allow cooler removal.

https://www.facebook.com/msiuk/posts/652634514773229

This was still valid when I asked in late May.

It just looks like one of those things, cooler removal had nothing to do with it. RMA time - be warned MSI are sloooowwww.

Thanks for the info, i think i will try the RMA process in that case.

Razor Time · 26 Jul 2016 at 00:04

Damn thats a shame, what thermal Paste did you use? Was it non conductive? If not this could be the cause, ie caused a short?

Jeps · 26 Jul 2016 at 00:08

Razor Time said:
Damn thats a shame, what thermal Paste did you use? Was it non conductive? If not this could be the cause, ie caused a short?

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut which is non conductive as far as i'm aware.

Disco_P · 26 Jul 2016 at 01:11

Jeps said:
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut which is non conductive as far as i'm aware.

It is: