Stand off screws for GPU

Ideally you want to match materials. I’m really not saying it would be an issue here, but I just wanted to caution you.

Nylon 6 melts at about 200C, so I doubt it’ll get hot enough to worry about. The main issue is clamping force, ie, can you can enough force before the threads fail or the head rounds.

Stainless would be my preference for both the stand-off and screw. If you have to use brass stand-offs, then get a brass screw too.
 
I couldn't find stainless ones anywhere thats why I opted for brass. I will buy some brass screws to be more safe then.

If u check my motherboard z87 d3hp it does have a pci slot near bottom. It may be a pci 2.0 and not 3.0 though. Would I lose a lot of speed using that?

Plus it is really near the psu.


I managed to get some stainless screws from work but hex stand offs I couldn't. Cant even find them online.

Ive ordered 4mm brass screws to match hex stand offs just now anyway.
 
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Ive ordered 4mm brass screws to match hex stand offs just now anyway.

Double check the pitch to make sure they’ll thread.

Zinc and zinc is fine too!

2.0 you probably won’t even notice the difference, and it’s a good way to diagnose if it’s the pcie or not.
 
Sorry I meant 3mm.

Right again apologies for all this and grateful for the help.

I have a set of brass standoffs and brass screws coming tomorrow which I will use.

The buyer never had any zinc ones in stock.

I got stainless screws from my work. So all I can do is either use the brass combo or if I use stainless I will either need to use 6 x washers instead of a standoff until I can find someone who stocks them for a reasonable price.


I will also test in the other pci slot and wobble to see if its the card.. heatsink or slot that is causing issues.

If it is the slot can that be re soldered easy enough??
 
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It depends, pcie likely not unless you’re good with a soldering iron and it’s a dry or broken joint.

Brass and stainless are dissimilar metals but you won’t get zinc corrosion, so that’s the best combo you have at the moment. I personally don’t like using washers for spacing, but it’s uo to you.

Let me know how it goes.
 
Fitted the MX4 and brasd materials but even during bios I get this:


Any ideas what I can do to sort this? This only happened today. Tried different pci slot but same outcome.

Ive tried refitting it all but same outcome.

And what I noticed was on bios it actually shows horizontal lines too, but on desktop they disappear.
 
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So at least we’ve identified the card as the issue.

Did you try using the Springs?

Have you tried backing off one corner a little bit, resting and repeating?

Are you confident all 4 corners are tightened the same?
 
No I haven't used the springs, and also the the card was working yesterday without them.

I have the heat sink sitting on top of the four stand offs so they should all be tightened the same. I gave most of the board a good wipe and I used TimClean on the chip.

I have tried loosening the screws a little and also tried swapping out my 6 pin extensions but all give me the same problem.

On the BIOS start up I have the two white vertical and two white horizontal lines. If I go into windows it is just like the photo I uploaded. And if I go into BIOS I can't make anything out and I am pretty sure it makes it crash.
 
I don’t know the assembly mechanism so it’s hard to tell. Often the springs are there to avoid over tightening, so it may be worth installing them to see if you can get decent, even pressure.

You need to loosen off to see if you can resolve the artifacting, the card shouldn’t have any issues and should just throttle if you haven’t got good contact.
 
The springs are connected to the existing (broken) screws.

I know this sounds strange, but if I put the card in without the heatsink or fan , would that tell me if the white lines are still there if it was a contact issue with heat sink or if its the chip that is screwed?
 
Yes it would.

Wasn’t something I wanted to recommend.

If it were me I would do this, but I don’t know if the card will have any issues. It shouldn’t, it should just throttle.

Up to you. If you do it, do it quick to be sure.
 
Yes it would.

Wasn’t something I wanted to recommend.

If it were me I would do this, but I don’t know if the card will have any issues. It shouldn’t, it should just throttle.

Up to you. If you do it, do it quick to be sure.
Ok tried with just barebones PCB and still same white lines appearing. So I can assume its a component on the GPU causing the issue.

Is there anything I can check or do to narrow down the issue or is the card basically ready for the bin?
 
Not much to be done mate, I couldn’t comment without close inspection, and even then I doubt I could offer any insight.

You could try the oven method as a last ditch effort.
 
What consists of that?
- Take card apart so its only the PCB again, remove thermal paste.
- Sit the card on top of tinfoil balls on a baking tray?
- Is there certain points of PCB the balls should be on?

Then do I just cover top or fully wrap in tinfoil?
What oven temp and how long for?
 
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You'll kill it - best you can do is sell the card on as faulty to someone who has experience with attempting this repair, and put the money towards a replacement one.
 
You'll kill it - best you can do is sell the card on as faulty to someone who has experience with attempting this repair, and put the money towards a replacement one.
How much do you wreckon you could sell a no video VTD3D HD7870 Black Edition Tahiti for?
 
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