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Ever destroyed a GPU by dusting it?

FoxEye

FoxEye

FoxEye

Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
Posts
29,263
Location
Cornwall
Just put my old 7850 (backup card, been boxed for a year) in my main rig after using it to test a rig built from spare parts. In the spare parts machine it was fine, showing no artefacts at the BIOS screen. Did not go to Windows as no OS installed.

Anyhow, put it in my main rig, but before I do I decide to dust it. Firstly with the compressed air can then with the hoover to suck up the now loosened dust.

Anyhow, it now artefacts like crazy, and continues to do so when put back in the spare parts rig.

I guess blowing all that dust around has killed it?

The only other thing it could be is either the PSU in my main rig is killing GPUs, or the motherboard is. The 280X I've been using for the last year started artefacting a couple months back too.

On the other hand, they're both MSI cards, and neither appear to have VRM heatsinks. Is the mem on MSI mid-range cards prone to dying?

Before these two cards I've never had any GPU artefact, and I've never killed one :/

Intel integrated graphics for me now, yay!
 
Could well be. I didn't earth myself and the (plastic) hoover nozzle did touch the back of the card, as I was bumping loose bits of dust off of it :p

Will be a first for me if I've killed it with static. Never done that before :p

Apart from giving it a decent burial with full honours, I don't suppose there's much else I can do for it :p
 
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Drollic said:
Those air cans can leave a residue. Better off with a blower for camera equipment.
Click to expand...

How good are they at shifting stubborn dust? The air can (when new) at least produced a decent blast of air (after about 50% used it was pretty anemic tho).
 
theforce said:
I think using a hoover created static electricity that can damage electronic components. I would stick to a blower or air cans.
Click to expand...

You're right. A hoover was the wrong tool for the job. Given the amount of dust my PC sucks up, a jackhammer would have been more appropriate :p I don't know where it all comes from, but it must be drawing 99% of the world's dust into itself as part of some infernal scheme.
 
I ballsed up when I bought my last CPU cooler... (Tranquillo) it stops the side of the case being put on, due to being too big :p So any thoughts of positive pressure, etc, are wishful thinking :p

I keep meaning to buy a new case... I just don't like the fact that they all now have the PSU at the bottom :/
 
Caracus2k said:
This... its electrical component cleaning 101 don't use vacuum cleaners on computer components!
Click to expand...

/shrug. I've been vacuuming inside my PC for years and never broke anything, until this...

Probably the problem was that I was being extremely lazy, and actually rubbing the nozzle on the card to dislodge bits of stubborn dust, instead of holding it a few cm away like I normally would.
 
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