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Dead GPU resurrection possiblility... or just my imagination?

KemoKa

about 6 months ago, I ordered a used R9 270 on ebay for relatively cheap, and ended up opening a case because the card wouldn't run, and I assumed it was DOA. It would start up sometimes but then the image would disappear and the fans would ramp up to full. I knew power was getting to the card but I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. So I came here, asking people for help and I was told to RMA it as it was probably DOA. Nevertheless, I've held on to the card for the past while, and as preparation for a completely separate project, I took the cooler off the card. (for anyone who thinks it might help, it's an MSi Twin Frozr). I found that the thermal compound had been over-applied. Some has come into contact with a few of the resistors/capacitors/whatever those components are on the die's PCB.

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Thermal paste, as we all know, is usually pretty conductive. That got me thinking...

According to the idiot I bought it from, he'd had an array of these things mining coins, but once it no longer became profitable, he sold them all off. GPUs are usually pretty difficult to kill, and they couldn't have been mining for much more than a couple of months. is it entirely without the realm of possibility that the thermal compound is shorting out a bit of the GPU and making it unstable or kicking it into some kind of failsafe thing that stops it from frying itself to death, and if I take it off and re-apply it, the card might work again? Manufacturers, afaik don't normally make this stupid of a mistake when applying paste, 'specially not MSI, so it could have been the person I bought it from.

Does anyone know if this could actually happen?

Can anyone vouch for this sort of situation I'm in?

Is this just wishful thinking from the whiter fields of fancy on my part or... do I have a reasonable shot at resurrecting a dead card?



 

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Almost any gpu you buy and take cooler will have thermal paste overapplied, just check waterblock installation guides and you will see.

 

And also I am pretty sure only conductive thermal paste is Liquid Ultra or Liquid Pro and I doubt gpu manufacturers would use anything conductive anyway.

Curing shitposts by shitposts

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Thermal paste is usually like that, but it isn't electrically conductive. If the card is DOA, contact the seller, if you still can.

Specs: CPU: AMD FX 6300 Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A DS3P RAM: HyperX Fury 16GB 1866MHz GPU: MSI R9 270 OC edition Case: Sharkoon VS3-S SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB HDD: 1TB Caviar Blue PSU: Corsair CX500W

*If I say something that seems offensive, please don't take it seriously, it was most likely meant as a joke/sarcastically*

 

 

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The paste won't kill a card. There's still cards from 2005 that will run with the stock paste.

 

You can try to reflow the solder if you want, no guarantee it'll work though.

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