• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Gigabyte GTX 480 damaged during cooler removal

vader4

vader4

vader4

Associate
Joined
24 Apr 2011
Posts
8
Hi guys. well I have went and damaged my pride and joy possibly beyond repair tryin to remove the referance cooler. Wanted to fit the zalman cooler so i started unscrewin the screws on the referance cooler but 1 screw would not move. I was extremly tired at this point and was just wantin this cooler off. So i ended up wedgin it of using a screw driver, i know HUGE mistake. The cooler finnaly came of at the cost of me scratchin the card and I have cut a cuple of traces.

I then took a pair of pliers to the screw that was stuck on the referance cooler and it still would not move, the head ended up breakin away.

Well i was so angry with myself for lettin this happen I could have cried as i dont have the cash to replace it till next month. And sure enough with both coolers, zalman and referance, card wont display nothing. The PC beeps 4 times (1 long 3 short) then boots into windows

I have voided my warranty and Im wondering if this can be repaired.

33272900.jpg


73906078.jpg


14919247.jpg



Sorry for bad image quality, will get better pics soon. Thaks guys for your time.
 
Last edited:
Three things, total waste of time posting photos of that quality.
Tired or not if you thought it was acceptable to try removing an item from a circuit board by "wedging" it off with a screwdriver, i suggest do yourself a favour and stay well away from the inside of computers.
Then knowing you had broken some traces you decided to stick it in and try it anyway ??
If it was not totally borked before it probably is now.
 
Shac said:
Three things, total waste of time posting photos of that quality.
Tired or not if you thought it was acceptable to try removing an item from a circuit board by "wedging" it off with a screwdriver, i suggest do yourself a favour and stay well away from the inside of computers.
Then knowing you had broken some traces you decided to stick it in and try it anyway ??
If it was not totally borked before it probably is now.
Click to expand...

Thats not very appropriate, I've broke a motherboard (still needs diagnosing D:.)

Your best buying a new one.
 
im afraid my friend you have been a Idiot lol. pictures are useless so i cannot see if it is repairable, how ever i very much doubt it, also plugging it in after you damaged it is a sure way to destroy it. time to dig deep and buy yourself a new one. lesson learnt there im afraid if your not 100% sure what you are doing or have the patience to do it let some one else who does.
 
Shac i have been building pc's for years u think i am gonna listen to u tellin me to stay away from insides of computers.
Also dont se what harm it would have done to try it anyway.

A moment of madness on my part, if the screw would have come off like its supposed to i would not have this problem.

Emailed a electronics repair service hope this can be saved
 
Last edited:
cut traces can be repaired, yes. very unlikely that they cant and if that's all that's stopping the card from working then you should be ok. Really was not a good idea trying to boot it up with cut traces though as you now have no idea what damage you might have done to the card :/

Shac i have been building pc's for years u think i am gonna listen to u tellin me to stay away from insides of computers
Click to expand...

yet you tried to boot the card knowing you've cut the traces. not a smart move sir!
 
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
 
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
Click to expand...

Have you got an SLI compatible motherboard with adequate spacing between the slots? Those cards are 2½ slots wide.

You'll also need at the minimum a good 750W PSU with 2x8 pin and 2x6 pin PCI-E power connectors.

I wouldn't want you to make any more mistakes.
 
Wont bits of thin wire over the cut traces join it up again? I have no idea how you would stick the wires to the board tho.

If you'd said you had got the card wet and then tried it while it was still wet, well I would say, bin it and forget about it But you haven't shorted anything out, the power just cant get passed the scratches on the board. So if you can sort them out, it might still be fine. Id give it ago.;)
 
I have the P67 Sabertooth this should work i think. Also have a 780watt OCZ PSU will be upgrading that to a corsair by end of year. In the meantime i have 3 weeks to wait before i can get my replacment card/s. Does anyone have any suggestions on a budget card that would play black ops and new dues ex, cheers
 
The tracks that have been damaged are really close together dont know if this will be possible i am makin some new pics of better quality will post soon. thanks for your time guys.
 
Phil2008 said:
circuit1.JPG


Wont something like that work? just trace the tracks to each solder point and link them up with wires?
Click to expand...

That should work just fine, I can't vouch for GPU circuit boards but I've done that kind of repair on plenty of control pannel boards (for drilling equipment) and its worked fine. Obviously provided running the card with damaged tracks hasn't damaged something else.

Just make sure when you reflow the solder it doesn't spill onto another track or point.
 
Shac said:
Three things, total waste of time posting photos of that quality.
Tired or not if you thought it was acceptable to try removing an item from a circuit board by "wedging" it off with a screwdriver, i suggest do yourself a favour and stay well away from the inside of computers.
Then knowing you had broken some traces you decided to stick it in and try it anyway ??
If it was not totally borked before it probably is now.
Click to expand...

Randall8686 said:
im afraid my friend you have been a Idiot lol. pictures are useless so i cannot see if it is repairable, how ever i very much doubt it, also plugging it in after you damaged it is a sure way to destroy it. time to dig deep and buy yourself a new one. lesson learnt there im afraid if your not 100% sure what you are doing or have the patience to do it let some one else who does.
Click to expand...

We've all done stupid things guys, instead of telling him how much of a *** he's been, give him some useful info, as am sure he feels bad enough without you lot going on at him aswel.;)
 
To the op, when taking close up pictures use the macro facility on your camera, all cameras should have this (even phone cameras!) and it's usually denoted by a picture of a flower.

The pictures you've uploaded so far are about as much use as a chocolate teapot :p
 
Go to any decent Electronic store and buy some conductive paint, And use a small brush or a pin and draw the tracks back on, Repaired stuff this way inc burnt PCBs before.
 
Judging by the proximity to the GDDR modules I wouldn't be surprised if those cut tracks are something to do with memory. It'll be fiddly to solder the tracks but shouldnt be impossible provided you have a decent soldering iron, a good magnifying glass and a steady hand. Depending on the severity if the cuts it may be difficult to work out which track goes where but there are loads of high resolution images of these boards to give clues.

Get better pictures and maybe it will be clear enough to see what you need to do and we can advise.

I doubt if an open circuit would fry the card, unless it just so happened to be a protection circuit you sliced. I think it's unlikely in that location though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom