Gigabyte GTX 480 damaged during cooler removal

Merlin5 · 11 Sep 2011 at 19:00

You can bridge traces much like phil said. I watched this the other day, very helpful. Just need soldering iron, solder, wire and cutters. From 5:17

spleenharvester · 11 Sep 2011 at 20:02

I did something similar on a ZG5, pulled a solder pad off removing the old BIOS chip. Ended up just bridging the chip's leg with the other chip it connected to with wire.

MooMoo444 · 11 Sep 2011 at 22:08

Dont people just scribble a line over it with pencil these days, since that conducts

kevbiss1 · 11 Sep 2011 at 22:50

Yes just use a pencil,ive seen it done on volt modding graphics cards

james.miller · 11 Sep 2011 at 22:54

No dont just use a pencil :rolleyes:

. you have no way of knowing what those traces are for and what sort of voltage/current they are carrying. Do it properly joining either the tracks with wire or the points the tracks connect to. use a pencil ONLY if you know exactly what those tracks are for.

Stanners · 11 Sep 2011 at 23:21

james.miller said:
No dont just use a pencil . you have no way of knowing what those traces are for and what sort of voltage/current they are carrying. Do it properly joining either the tracks with wire or the points the tracks connect to. use a pencil ONLY if you know exactly what those tracks are for.

Quoted for the truth, If you try to pass a current through something that is to small you can have a lot of resistance which will create heat which in turn leads to you know what.

ScottMC7000 · 12 Sep 2011 at 03:15

I did the conductive paint thing when I was 14 in high school in my Technological Studies class, I also at that age tried to connect a standard TV to my Atari Mega ST computer at that age cause I was getting fed up with my monochrome one. I used a couple of rods and wires lol. Though that it would be pretty safe, but I ended up killing it, I'm 34 now so that was a long time ago lol. I was given the Atari for free and needed an excuse to buy an Amiga 500 lol so I did, the difference was that I took care of it because I bought it lol ( I upgraded to an Amiga 1200 which still works to this day)

The Asgard · 12 Sep 2011 at 07:56

Phil2008 said:
Wont something like that work? just trace the tracks to each solder point and link them up with wires?

If it's a clean break like that you won't need any wire. You just need to scratch the lacquer off either side of the cut and apply some solder.

no_1_dave · 12 Sep 2011 at 12:07

Can you use an electrical paint pen thing?
The kind you get from Halfords and just draw the tracks back on?

Also, when I removed my cooler I had a stuck screw which got so warn there was no grip for the screw driver.
I drilled through mine to get it out

UnderToker · 12 Sep 2011 at 13:13

no_1_dave said:
Can you use an electrical paint pen thing?
The kind you get from Halfords and just draw the tracks back on?

Also, when I removed my cooler I had a stuck screw which got so warn there was no grip for the screw driver.
I drilled through mine to get it out

That sounds like a plan

The Asgard · 12 Sep 2011 at 13:21

no_1_dave said:
Can you use an electrical paint pen thing?
The kind you get from Halfords and just draw the tracks back on?

Also, when I removed my cooler I had a stuck screw which got so warn there was no grip for the screw driver.
I drilled through mine to get it out

You still need to get the lacquer off either side but should work.

james.miller · 12 Sep 2011 at 17:06

The Asgard said:
You still need to get the lacquer off either side but should work.

very carefully with a scalpel or, far easier (and safer...), a fibreglass pen.

Phil2008 · 12 Sep 2011 at 17:30

Were still waiting for some decent qual photos.

Locky · 12 Sep 2011 at 18:02

echo what other people have said We need clean hi res and quality pictures to make a batter judgement on your situation.

vader4 · 12 Sep 2011 at 18:08

Thanks a lot guys for all the comments, i am unable to get a decent camera for the job, got a mates android phone and the pics were no better than mine. Anyway i sent in what i had to Gigabyte and they reckon its not repairable as more than 2 lines are damaged. The lines are tiny and really close together thats why i cant get a good pic. Looks like a 570 or 580 will be gettin ordered soon. Cheers lads

Locky · 12 Sep 2011 at 18:13

just sell the card on ebay then.

eggcup · 12 Sep 2011 at 18:16

vader4 said:
Been eyin up the Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Phantom. 2 of these in sli should keep me goin for a while and no need to mod the cooler lol

i said that.......... then stuck a copper block on my phantom instead lol

vader4 · 12 Sep 2011 at 18:22

eggcup said:
i said that.......... then stuck a copper block on my phantom instead lol

Really? Did u not like the phantoms cooler?

eggcup · 12 Sep 2011 at 19:23

vader4 said:
Really? Did u not like the phantoms cooler?

I loved the cooler on the phantom, but i water cooled my cpu, then I realised i dont really do things by halves so i ended up watercooling my gfx card too

Dervious · 12 Sep 2011 at 20:42

Having bridged many a gap on a TV?VCR PCB in my time, I'd say that the theory of repairing a break in a PCB is fine.

However, times have moved on, and tracks on modern videocard PCBs are often very small (unless they are power supply rails). I suspect that bridging broken tracks that carry signals between the GPU and RAM chips is going to be extremely tricky, if not impossible. Silver paint or pencil bridging is also going to be almost out of the question.

I believe that some PCBs are multi-layer. And damage to tracks beneath the top layer are almost certainly not going to be repairable, at least not be the end user.