Dropped graphics card + Thermal pad questions

[Componentgirl90]

I was trying to replace the thermal paste of my GPU (MSI R9 270 OC) and removed the screws and it just came off in my hand and fell onto a wooden desk a about 10cm down, sounded quite loud. Do you think that will kill the RAM or some other component?

Secondly a long white strip came off and fell onto one of what I assume are thermal pads. I am not sure exactly where it came from but I put it back where I think it must have come from. I have circled (in yellow) the strip that fell off. In the photo it is placed in its presumed location which may not necessarily be the correct one. I may not have put it back correctly. It is very slightly torn at one end. a) is it in the right location?/placed correctly b) can it now still be used?

https://imgur.com/a/b2hsx

That white strip fell onto what I think are thermal pads. There is some white gunk from it left on one thermal pad (circled in blue). Is it ok to leave it there and to continue using the thermal pad?

https://imgur.com/a/3HXtN

https://imgur.com/a/oBa4g

 

[iB CoMpL3XiTy]

The white strips are the thermal pads, they sit inbetween the heatsink and the memory modules (VRAM).

Looks like you have it correctly placed, though if it was me I'd be tempted to cut the thermal pads to size and place them directly onto the memory modules, ensuring they're fully covered. The modules aren't in a nice straight line so getting good contact whilst leaving the thermal pads as long strips may be more difficult. Perhaps the heatsink doesn't fully cover the memory modules, hard to tell from the photos.

You could just leave the thermal gunk (residue), or you could clean it off with something like TIM remover.

As for dropping it, well not much you can do, just visually inspect it for any signs of damage, if it all looks ok then re-install cooler and fire it up.

 

[Componentgirl90]

Thanks for your reply.

From what I can tell, in each line of memory modules, the last memory module (which is slightly out of line with the others) is only partially covered by the heatsink. For the part of these odd one out memory modules that is covered by the heatsink, that part is not totally protected with a thermal pad. It is hard to tell exactly even being here.

The card looks ok from visual inspection, I was really wondering if the RAM got shock damage.

I have never seen a processor like this before. Can I use ArctiClean 1 and 2 (Thermal Material Remover and Thermal Surface purifier) on both the heatsink and the GPU? Can I use these products on both parts 1 and 2 of the GPU in the linked image?

https://imgur.com/a/6Rg18

Part 1 is the small metal part and part 2 is the surrounding area with some sort of pins in.

 

[iB CoMpL3XiTy]

Thanks for your reply.

From what I can tell, in each line of memory modules, the last memory module (which is slightly out of line with the others) is only partially covered by the heatsink. For the part of these odd one out memory modules that is covered by the heatsink, that part is not totally protected with a thermal pad. It is hard to tell exactly even being here.

The card looks ok from visual inspection, I was really wondering if the RAM got shock damage.

I have never seen a processor like this before. Can I use ArctiClean 1 and 2 (Thermal Material Remover and Thermal Surface purifier) on both the heatsink and the GPU? Can I use these products on both parts 1 and 2 of the GPU in the linked image?

https://imgur.com/a/6Rg18

Part 1 is the small metal part and part 2 is the surrounding area with some sort of pins in.

Well as this is a low power consumption card I doubt the VRAM gets too hot anyway, so wouldn't worry if the thermal pad(s) and heatsink only partially cover two of the modules.

I think you'd be pretty unlucky for your card to be damaged from a 10cm fall, I've done much worse and gotten away with it, like I said before, no way to tell so just have to plug it in and see what happens.

Yes you can use articlean 1&2 on the heatsink, GPU and it's surrounding area (as you have outlined in your photo), just don't be too rough, use a Q-tip or something.

 

[Componentgirl90]

I applied paste. I also managed to break 1 of the pins in the dark area surrounding the small square within the GPU square.

To my surprise the card still works after all that even though the artifacts from before still appear after a long gaming session. I guess it must be the VRMs that are getting hot or something. It doesn't appear to be severely affected or possibly affected at all by the broken pin and is still very much a functional card at the moment as far as I can tell.

Thanks for taking your time out to give me some pointers on this. Next time I will dab the pin area vertically from above with the pointers. I think I used too much horizontal motion and didn't really have a sense of how sensitive those pins were.

 

[iB CoMpL3XiTy]

I applied paste. I also managed to break 1 of the pins in the dark area surrounding the small square within the GPU square.

To my surprise the card still works after all that even though the artifacts from before still appear after a long gaming session. I guess it must be the VRMs that are getting hot or something. It doesn't appear to be severely affected or possibly affected at all by the broken pin and is still very much a functional card at the moment as far as I can tell.

Thanks for taking your time out to give me some pointers on this. Next time I will dab the pin area vertically from above with the pointers. I think I used too much horizontal motion and didn't really have a sense of how sensitive those pins were.

Bit of a shame about the broken pin, cool that it still works though.

Artifacts are usually caused by overheating or faulty memory on the card, check the mem temp whilst gaming with MSI afterburners OSD, check core temp aswell. If temps are good then the card is probably on the way out unfortunately.

If you have the option of trying the card out in another system then that'll be worth doing just to make absolutely sure the card is at fault.

 

[Componentgirl90]

yep, should have been more careful, anyway this is a practice run for my 390x.

The problem definitely correlates with temperature. As gaming sessions go on, the temperature gets that bit higher and the problem starts to appear/gets worse. Stop gaming for 5 minutes, and the problem disappears for a while. Additionally, if the fan is set at a low level then the artifacts appear almost immediately. I have my fan basically set on 100% with a custom bios (not ideal I know).

I think everything seems to be consistent with problems with the memory. I would like to try underclocking it to 1200MHz to test your theory but not sure about which voltages etc to set it at. I'm only slightly familiar with voltages/clocks for the core and also what power limit to set it at.

 

[iB CoMpL3XiTy]

yep, should have been more careful, anyway this is a practice run for my 390x.

The problem definitely correlates with temperature. As gaming sessions go on, the temperature gets that bit higher and the problem starts to appear/gets worse. Stop gaming for 5 minutes, and the problem disappears for a while. Additionally, if the fan is set at a low level then the artifacts appear almost immediately. I have my fan basically set on 100% with a custom bios (not ideal I know).

I think everything seems to be consistent with problems with the memory. I would like to try underclocking it to 1200MHz to test your theory but not sure about which voltages etc to set it at. I'm only slightly familiar with voltages/clocks for the core and also what power limit to set it at.

What temps are you seeing when the card starts to artifact?

Only other thing to look at would be case airflow to reduce temps. No point spending money on aftermarket cooling for that card tbh.

Yeah try underclocking the memory, leave the voltages at stock/auto for now, the VRAM might be on the verge of stability and the increased heat is pushing it over the edge.

 

[Componentgirl90]

The card only seems to display one temperature sensor and that is the GPU temp. There is no sensor for memory temperature. It starts to artifact in battlefield 4 after quite a while and once the temperature is about 60 degrees. Flashing textures and stuff like this (http://i.stack.imgur.com/r9zl3l.jpg) (not actually a screenshot from my GPU). In heaven benchmark it will not artifact unless the fan is set to low. When it does artifact, parts of the trees sort of flash blue. In Rust again about 60 degrees, and the artifacting is minor, its horizontal lines that don't cross the whole screen or blue checkerboxes in small areas or a flashing black box.

I do have the option to try it out in other systems but that is not an immediate option.

HWINFO shows no memory errors.

After reinstalling the card I can see that one whole line of memory chips is not fully covered by the thermal pads. I also found some posts which said that R9 270s seem to suffer from high VRAM temps.

 

[iB CoMpL3XiTy]

The card only seems to display one temperature sensor and that is the GPU temp. There is no sensor for memory temperature. It starts to artifact in battlefield 4 after quite a while and once the temperature is about 60 degrees. Flashing textures and stuff like this (http://i.stack.imgur.com/r9zl3l.jpg) (not actually a screenshot from my GPU). In heaven benchmark it will not artifact unless the fan is set to low. When it does artifact, parts of the trees sort of flash blue. In Rust again about 60 degrees, and the artifacting is minor, its horizontal lines that don't cross the whole screen or blue checkerboxes in small areas or a flashing black box.

I do have the option to try it out in other systems but that is not an immediate option.

HWINFO shows no memory errors.

After reinstalling the card I can see that one whole line of memory chips is not fully covered by the thermal pads. I also found some posts which said that R9 270s seem to suffer from high VRAM temps.

Definitely no mem temp option in MSI AB's settings under the monitoring tab? I guess some 270s must have mem sensors if people are reporting high VRAM temps.

As said try underclocking the memory.

 

[Componentgirl90]

Definitely. Only: GPU temp, usage, Fan speed and tachometer, core clock, memory clock and usage, CPU1-4 temperature, CPU1-4 USage, RAM usage, Pagefile usage.

Also no option to display onscreen only in tray icon and logitech keyboard LCD display.

Anyway, I installed the stock bios and the artifacting seems a lot better now. I did have a slight overclock and an undervolt before. It artifacted a tiny bit but actually got all the way up to 75 degrees celcius as the fan profile was completely different. It ran fine in the 70s and I only saw 1 checkered box over 2 hours of play.

I think i'll be ok from here on in, could still try underclocking memory/increasing fans a bit on the stock bios and that might solve it completely.

 

[iB CoMpL3XiTy]

Definitely. Only: GPU temp, usage, Fan speed and tachometer, core clock, memory clock and usage, CPU1-4 temperature, CPU1-4 USage, RAM usage, Pagefile usage.

Also no option to display onscreen only in tray icon and logitech keyboard LCD display.

Anyway, I installed the stock bios and the artifacting seems a lot better now. I did have a slight overclock and an undervolt before. It artifacted a tiny bit but actually got all the way up to 75 degrees celcius as the fan profile was completely different. It ran fine in the 70s and I only saw 1 checkered box over 2 hours of play.

I think i'll be ok from here on in, could still try underclocking memory/increasing fans a bit on the stock bios and that might solve it completely.

Haha, come on, you can't leave out important info like you've got a different BIOS on the card with an overclock and undervolt...

Yeah temp seems fine and obviously more stable now.

 

[Componentgirl90]

I am so noob! Actually it runs better with fans at 20% than at 60%!

 

[Psycho Sonny]

use stock bios. underclock memory a little. put fans to 40% minimum. should be fine.

 

[Componentgirl90]

Ok. I will try that. Not artifacting hardly at all now anyway hopefully this will clear it up. Cheers iB and Psycho.