Cleaning GPU for RMA

[Trik'Stari]

Ok so I have been given an RMA for my EVGA graphics card, a gtx 660 and I need to clean it. Specifically of cigarette residue. I was thinking of removing the cooler, cleaning the caseing on it and cleaning the fans and the tiny radiator, but is there any way to get cigarette residue off of the pcb without damaging it? Even if it's just the back of the pcb. I was thinking a very small light paintbrush and a bit of 99% alcohol to sort of wipe it down, then drying it really good.

[Rorgash]

i wonder how it broke.... most people here tend to not look kindly at this kind of thing btw, so be ready for that

[Raudi_]

Denatured Alcohol works pretty good and dries up nice a clean with out leaving a smell or a resudue.

[Bloodyvalley]

That's just blatantly disgusting and irresponsible. You don't even deserve that RMA, sir. The reason why it broke is most likely because of you smoking in your house.

[Enderman]

1) stop smoking

2) compressed air

3) rubbing alcohol

 

also you should replace the thermal paste if youre removing the cooler

[Trik'Stari]

i wonder how it broke.... most people here tend to not look kindly at this kind of thing btw, so be ready for that

That's just blatantly disgusting and irresponsible. You don't even deserve that RMA, sir. The reason why it broke is most likely because of you smoking in your house.

It's less than 9 months old, and I blow it out twice a month, so the heatsinks are fairly clean as it is. Don't respond if your just going to hate. And it's not broken entirely, it causes blue screens whenever I try to run games like battlefield bad company 2, or dayz. Gives me a hardware fault message. Other games like SWTOR run just fine on ultra.

 

Denatured Alcohol works pretty good and dries up nice a clean with out leaving a smell or a resudue.

Thank you for not being an ass. From what I can see that's my only option. someone on another website suggested a soft toothbrush.

 

1) stop smoking

2) compressed air

3) rubbing alcohol

 

also you should replace the thermal paste if youre removing the cooler

Would If I could. Quitting smoking is hard, especially when it's your only stress reliever.

[Raudi_]

It's less than 9 months old, and I blow it out twice a month, so the heatsinks are fairly clean as it is. Don't respond if your just going to hate. And it's not broken entirely, it causes blue screens whenever I try to run games like battlefield bad company 2, or dayz. Gives me a hardware fault message. Other games like SWTOR run just fine on ultra.

 

Thank you for not being an ass. From what I can see that's my only option. someone on another website suggested a soft toothbrush.

 

Would If I could. Quitting smoking is hard, especially when it's your only stress reliever.

Not a problem you can pick up the stuff at your local hardware store.

[Enderman]

Would If I could. Quitting smoking is hard, especially when it's your only stress reliever.

You can. You always can. You just need to believe in yourself.

[Trik'Stari]

You can. You always can. You just need to believe in yourself.

LOL. I live in a house with 3 other smokers, all of whom drive me insane on a daily basis. The only hope I have of quitting is moving out and then trying to quit. If I had the money I would switch to one of those nice personal vaporizers. Honestly I don't think the smoking is what hurt the card, I NEVER cleaned my old gt520 and it looked terrible, and it's still working lol.

[Enderman]

LOL. I live in a house with 3 other smokers, all of whom drive me insane on a daily basis. The only hope I have of quitting is moving out and then trying to quit. If I had the money I would switch to one of those nice personal vaporizers. Honestly I don't think the smoking is what hurt the card, I NEVER cleaned my old gt520 and it looked terrible, and it's still working lol.

It's not about what's hurting the card, it's about what is hurting you.

[Trik'Stari]

It's not about what's hurting the card, it's about what is hurting you.

Pfff. life sucks, why would I prolong it? lol

[Enderman]

Pfff. life sucks, why would I prolong it? lol

Well you can always get hit by a car when you're done, right? Faster and less painful.

[Trik'Stari]

Well you can always get hit by a car when you're done, right? Faster and less painful.

Lol very true. as I said, I would quit if I didn't live in a 100% stressful environment. Without it I would be alot worse off than I am now. Not to mention I'm (hopefully) only 18 months away from getting out of this loony bin I call a family.

[LukaP]

Lol very true. as I said, I would quit if I didn't live in a 100% stressful environment. Without it I would be alot worse off than I am now. Not to mention I'm (hopefully) only 18 months away from getting out of this loony bin I call a family.

sorry for the haters here man... 

 

just go to a pharmacy and get some 99% ethanol, and in a hardware store, a plastic/rubber paintbrush, and just clean the shit off and look forward to probably getting a 700 series card in return, since i dont imagine many 660s still being made with maxwell around the corner

[Trik'Stari]

sorry for the haters here man... 

 

just go to a pharmacy and get some 99% ethanol, and in a hardware store, a plastic/rubber paintbrush, and just clean the shit off and look forward to probably getting a 700 series card in return, since i dont imagine many 660s still being made with maxwell around the corner

Well, I think I MAY have found the problem. On the backside of the gpu, where a backplate would go, on the "front end" (the part closest to the front of my air 540 case) there was this film covering what I thought was just a piece of plastic housing. Turns out this film was actually covering some vent holes. I'm still testing it, so far no bsod on bfbc2 yet. Just asinine teammates lol. I will probably still RMA it, although I'm terrified of what will happen if they say "well you smoked around it blah blah blah". I never removed that piece of film because I figured it was just covering a piece of plastic, and looking at it you couldn't tell there were vent holes there, so I was thinking "I'll leave this here so that piece of plastic doesn't get nicotine residue on it in case I need to RMA it ever". They probably should have had a sticker that said "remove film before use"

[LukaP]

Well, I think I MAY have found the problem. On the backside of the gpu, where a backplate would go, on the "front end" (the part closest to the front of my air 540 case) there was this film covering what I thought was just a piece of plastic housing. Turns out this film was actually covering some vent holes. I'm still testing it, so far no bsod on bfbc2 yet. Just asinine teammates lol. I will probably still RMA it, although I'm terrified of what will happen if they say "well you smoked around it blah blah blah". I never removed that piece of film because I figured it was just covering a piece of plastic, and looking at it you couldn't tell there were vent holes there, so I was thinking "I'll leave this here so that piece of plastic doesn't get nicotine residue on it in case I need to RMA it ever". They probably should have had a sticker that said "remove film before use"

 

its evga, they dont care much for rmas, just make sure it has all the components and isnt physically broken in pieces, adn they will take it

[Trik'Stari]

its evga, they dont care much for rmas, just make sure it has all the components and isnt physically broken in pieces, adn they will take it

They actually sent me instructions stating to send only the card with no components with it, not in the original box, or even in the anti static bag it came with. It literally says just to put it in a plain box, with 2 inches of packing peanuts surrounding it. I'm a bit skeptical of that packaging thought process. Sounds like they want it to get damaged in shipping so they don't have to take the RMA.

 

Edit: Would the little piece of film, blocking maybe 2 or 3 square inches of heatsink affect my card in this manner? The section it covered was about 1 inch wide, and the depth of the card. (depth being the distance from the mobo to the outer edge of the card)

[LukaP]

They actually sent me instructions stating to send only the card with no components with it, not in the original box, or even in the anti static bag it came with. It literally says just to put it in a plain box, with 2 inches of packing peanuts surrounding it. I'm a bit skeptical of that packaging thought process. Sounds like they want it to get damaged in shipping so they don't have to take the RMA.

 

Edit: Would the little piece of film, blocking maybe 2 or 3 square inches of heatsink affect my card in this manner? The section it covered was about 1 inch wide, and the depth of the card. (depth being the distance from the mobo to the outer edge of the card)

they always do that, but ive never ever heard anyone complain that EVGA didnt take their card back. did hear alot of good feedback about them however.

 

can you post a pic of the card, with the part affected somehow highlighted, since i have 0 idea how that even looks

[Trik'Stari]

they always do that, but ive never ever heard anyone complain that EVGA didnt take their card back. did hear alot of good feedback about them however.

 

can you post a pic of the card, with the part affected somehow highlighted, since i have 0 idea how that even looks

best I can do is link the card on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130967

Click on the pictures, click on the picture of the PCB, the part that was covered is the plastic grill on the lefthand side of the picture, with 4 screws in it. I'd take a picture but it would end up being super huge and I'm terrible at picture stuff.

[LukaP]

oooh no thats not the reason youre card is dieing

[Trik'Stari]

oooh no thats not the reason youre card is dieing

Well I just ran a single pass of memtest86 with no errors. I really can't think of anything else to check. I was thinking that that might have killed my gpu since it's right where the pci-e power cord plugs into the card, and that I might have caused some heat damage by not removing that film for 7 months.

[LukaP]

Well I just ran a single pass of memtest86 with no errors. I really can't think of anything else to check. I was thinking that that might have killed my gpu since it's right where the pci-e power cord plugs into the card, and that I might have caused some heat damage by not removing that film for 7 months.

i dont think so... but then again ive never owned one... jsut send it to them and they will send you a new card...