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Pointless graphics card rant

manveruppd

manveruppd

manveruppd

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Joined
24 Feb 2004
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Leeds/Cyprus
Trying to replace the borked had on my HIS Radeon HD6870 and it seems like the tiny screws holding down the backplate are the most tightly screwed screws in the history of screwing!



I've been trying to unscrew them for an hour and I've actually chipped my screwdriver from the effort! I'm gonna have to borrow a friend's power tools to do this, though as you can see from the photo they require the smallest cross head screwdriver In the universe and it might be tricky to find an electric screwdriver attachment small enough.

No point to this, just wanted to vent. I'm also replacing the psu and a hard drive in this machine and everything about it had been going wrong from the start. Was supposed to be done hours ago and instead I'm spending Saturday night surrounded by dismantled computer bits.
 
They shouldn't be that tight, they are spring loaded to add a bit of pressure, but not much, you will need a small electrical screw driver set to get them out though, not so sure a power tool is the way to go though, last thing you want to do is round the heads off, that will just add to the stress, have you tried a tiny dab of WD40 on a cotton bud so you don't get it everywhere, you can just wipe the excess off after you get them out.
 
What you'll find is the heat has played a part on the metal. I had this with my fat PS3. The small screws for the hard drive to the little cage mount of the drive.
Replaced the drive in 2008, then had to get the drive out in 2012.
I never had them in all that tight but over the years of use and the heat you would have sworn it was rammed in. Or even locktight.

It came to the stage I had to use a small saw to gently create a ridge for the flat blade screwdriver. The screws were smaller than yours and aluminium. Loud click and they unscrewed. Nothing in the threads or anything strange but from what the heat had done to it.
 
Yeah that's what I'm worried about, that a power drill won't work. And all the diy shops will be closed till Tuesday now too...

I'll try the wd40 trick, I think I have a can of it somewhere...
 
Be careful. Watch you don't strip the screw heads.

I had a couple of dodgy screws in a dell laptop I took apart and a couple stripped so it was impossible to get a grip of them with the screw driver. Luckily it wasn't critical to getting the job done.
 
sounds a little counter productive but maybe attempt to tighten them first and try undoing after

alternatively warm the card up and try undoing them when heated
 
I've run into GPUs before where the screws have been threadlocked with glue or similar to prevent disassembly.
 
Thanks for the advice all, I've given up for tonight but I'll tryto your suggestions tomorrow When I'm hopefully have power tools too. If it's seriously glued tight someone at HIS is gonna get the whole graphics card and hsf combo inserted up their pci-e slot!
 
Diagro said:
Do you have the correct screw drivers?

Not hard to get the correct sized ones for that job
Click to expand...

+1

99% of stripped screws i find on motorcycle carbs etc (I'm a mechanic) are down to a poorly fitting + drive screwdriver , it may seem like it fits fine but unless the tip bottoms out in the screw and grips right to the edges of the screw its NOT the right tool for the job, the problem is that there are literally hundreds of different sizes and different pitches to the blades of these sizes , then there is the confusion between phillips drive and posidriv screwdrivers which just adds confusion to the situation.
 
Here is a tip. With the screws being small I guess you are using the small metal screwdriver type. Or at least a small screwdriver hence your fingers cant grip. All you need to do is not totally unscrew them but just release them.

This is what I do. you need to be careful. Get a decent pair of plyers that will grip the screwdriver solidly. Place the GPU in a surface that wont harm it. Now grip the screwdriver with the plyers in one hand. Place the screwdriver onto the screw now with the other hand use a finger to apply pressure to the top of the screwdriver carefully at the same time turn the screwdriver using the plyers.

If you do it carefully enough the screw will loosen then you can unscrew it without the plyers. May take a couple of attempts but I have successfully used this method to unscrew tight screws on GPU's. You might need someone else to hold the card stready.

Good luck!
 
Both Phillips and Pozidrive screwdrivers will be a poor fit, what you need to find is a JIS (Japanese industrial standard) Posidrive screwdriver, these do not "cam out" like the others.
 
Luckily it was NOT glued in! I borrowed a friend's toolkit and he has a screwdriver with a nice chunky handle and replaceable heads, so I was able to get an exact fit and a large enough handle to be able to leverage it. It was still too tight to budge unassisted but I dabbed it with some WD40 and warmed it with a blowdryer for a few minutes and then they came out like butter! :)

The heatsink on top of the voltage regulators, however, IS glued on! I don't understand why, it was held down by screws (which, unlike the backplate screws, came off pretty easily), so it didn't need glue as well. But yeah, I can't get that heatsink off. Luckily it's not large so it won't interfere with the aftermarket cooler I got (which actually came with little heatsinks for the voltage regulators in the box, I just won't use trhem I guess), so it won't be a problem.

I do actually have another problem though: the Accelero also came with ramsinks in the box, and a 2-part thermal glue I had to mix to stick them on. Well, after thorough mixing for 5 minutes as per the instructions, careful application on the ram chips and applied pressure on the ramsinks for a minimum of 10" to ensure they stay on, the glue still hasn't congealed! It said cure time 5 hours, I've left them for almost 12 hours now and the ramsinks still aren't stuck on.

The ramsinks aren't falling off, but I reckon that's more due to suction than to adhesive effect (because i must've forced all the air out when I pushed down on it). They do move about when nudged though! So clearly no glueing has happened!

I'm not gonna let this stop me right now because the main HSF is screwed on so if I need to take the ramsinks off I can always do that easily. I'm also hoping that maybe the heat when the card runs will make the glue congeal... But I'll order some of that Zalman adhesive tape or something (ocuk don't seem to stock it anymore, but I'm sure I can get hold of it somewhere) in preparation for if and when the ramsinks fall off during a gaming session and I need to glue them back on more securely! :p


EDIT to post a photo of the ramsinks:



As you can see I also got some of that glue on the card and couldn't clean it all off. I don't think it's gonna be a problem though as it doesn't have metal bits in it like Arctic Silver 5 so I don't think it's conductive.
 
varkanoid said:
Here is a tip. With the screws being small I guess you are using the small metal screwdriver type. Or at least a small screwdriver hence your fingers cant grip. All you need to do is not totally unscrew them but just release them.

This is what I do. you need to be careful. Get a decent pair of plyers that will grip the screwdriver solidly. Place the GPU in a surface that wont harm it. Now grip the screwdriver with the plyers in one hand. Place the screwdriver onto the screw now with the other hand use a finger to apply pressure to the top of the screwdriver carefully at the same time turn the screwdriver using the plyers.

If you do it carefully enough the screw will loosen then you can unscrew it without the plyers. May take a couple of attempts but I have successfully used this method to unscrew tight screws on GPU's. You might need someone else to hold the card stready.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

This is how I do it with the small screwdrivers if the screws prove hard to shift. Can get much more leverage by using plyers to grip the screwdriver/
 
manveruppd said:
Luckily it was NOT glued in! I borrowed a friend's toolkit and he has a screwdriver with a nice chunky handle and replaceable heads, so I was able to get an exact fit and a large enough handle to be able to leverage it. It was still too tight to budge unassisted but I dabbed it with some WD40 and warmed it with a blowdryer for a few minutes and then they came out like butter! :)

The heatsink on top of the voltage regulators, however, IS glued on! I don't understand why, it was held down by screws (which, unlike the backplate screws, came off pretty easily), so it didn't need glue as well. But yeah, I can't get that heatsink off. Luckily it's not large so it won't interfere with the aftermarket cooler I got (which actually came with little heatsinks for the voltage regulators in the box, I just won't use trhem I guess), so it won't be a problem.

I do actually have another problem though: the Accelero also came with ramsinks in the box, and a 2-part thermal glue I had to mix to stick them on. Well, after thorough mixing for 5 minutes as per the instructions, careful application on the ram chips and applied pressure on the ramsinks for a minimum of 10" to ensure they stay on, the glue still hasn't congealed! It said cure time 5 hours, I've left them for almost 12 hours now and the ramsinks still aren't stuck on.

The ramsinks aren't falling off, but I reckon that's more due to suction than to adhesive effect (because i must've forced all the air out when I pushed down on it). They do move about when nudged though! So clearly no glueing has happened!

I'm not gonna let this stop me right now because the main HSF is screwed on so if I need to take the ramsinks off I can always do that easily. I'm also hoping that maybe the heat when the card runs will make the glue congeal... But I'll order some of that Zalman adhesive tape or something (ocuk don't seem to stock it anymore, but I'm sure I can get hold of it somewhere) in preparation for if and when the ramsinks fall off during a gaming session and I need to glue them back on more securely! :p


EDIT to post a photo of the ramsinks:



As you can see I also got some of that glue on the card and couldn't clean it all off. I don't think it's gonna be a problem though as it doesn't have metal bits in it like Arctic Silver 5 so I don't think it's conductive.
Click to expand...

The glue doesn't cure to a solid, so there will still be slight movement on the ramsinks if you touch them. Been a few years since I did my Accelero, but even though I they weren't solid after 10 hours+, I put the cooler on and none of the heatsinks came off. Although it does say "glue" it is more of a thermal paste with adhesive properties from what I gather.

Unless they have changed the recipe since I did my 7970 Xtreme.
 
Five.Stars said:
The glue doesn't cure to a solid, so there will still be slight movement on the ramsinks if you touch them. Been a few years since I did my Accelero, but even though I they weren't solid after 10 hours+, I put the cooler on and none of the heatsinks came off. Although it does say "glue" it is more of a thermal paste with adhesive properties from what I gather.

Unless they have changed the recipe since I did my 7970 Xtreme.
Click to expand...

Oh good! I suspected it might need heat but I wasn't sure... It's still a massive pain though, cause now I have to screw on the heatsink while being EXTRA CAREFUL not to nudge the ramsinks! What happened to good old fashione stickers?
 
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