Can thermal pads melt and provoke a shortcircuit?

[3rrant]

As the title says, what do you think of this? The card has been running at 75°c for about two weeks.

 

 

[DrMacintosh]

Anything and everything will melt if heated to a sufficient temp. Are those after market pads? 

[3rrant]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Anything and everything will melt if heated to a sufficient temp. Are those after market pads? 

No, they are Sapphire original.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, ErrantNyles said:

No, they are Sapphire original.

sapphire really like gooy pads, same on my 280X. they are fine, that should be non conductive

[Enderman]

This is why you don't mine with consumer GPUs.

[HunterSkater429]

If it was going to short it would've already 

[3rrant]

Just now, HunterSkater429 said:

If it was going to short it would've already 

It doesn't work anymore actually, since a few hours. That's why I investigated

 

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

This is why you don't mine with consumer GPUs.

Really smart. Please teach me.

 

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

sapphire really like gooy pads, same on my 280X. they are fine, that should be non conductive

I had a 280X too, and it worked great. But well, this is quite different..

[HunterSkater429]

Just now, ErrantNyles said:

It doesn't work anymore actually, since a few hours. That's why I investigated

 

Really smart. Please teach me.

 

I had a 280X too, and it worked great. But well, this is quite different..

Lol I don't like miners so rip 

[Enderman]

Just now, ErrantNyles said:

Really smart. Please teach me.

The first step is to stop mining because consumer hardware is not meant to run at 100% 24/7, this is why so many GPUs died after a few months or years of bitcoin mining.

Waste of hardware, and barely makes any money to offset the power costs and the hardware cost.

 

Step two is to use the GPU for what it's meant for, which is graphics and games.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Most thermal interfaces are designed to have as low electrical conductivity as possible to avoid this problem. The only issue this presents though is that it has capacitance (but at the distances between components, it shouldn't really matter).

 

In any case, if there was a short, something would've popped.

[done12many2]

Looks like condensation may have been occurring.  That's far too much non electrically conductive oils coming out of the pads.  

[pyrojoe34]

Quote

Can thermal pads melt

Yes, but many are silicone so if they melt then the rest of your computer has melted as well. (cheaper ones might be paraffin but you should avoid those).

 

Quote

and provoke a short circuit?

Nope, they're non-conductive (electrically speaking) so you're fine.

[pyrojoe34]

1 minute ago, done12many2 said:

Looks like condensation may have been occurring.  That's far too much non electrically conductive oils coming out of the pads.  

Condensation would not happen on hot components. Unless the air in the room is somehow hotter than components and at 100% relative humidity. (Basically won't happen.)

[Bananasplit_00]

33 minutes ago, ErrantNyles said:

It doesn't work anymore actually, since a few hours. That's why I investigated

 

Really smart. Please teach me.

 

I had a 280X too, and it worked great. But well, this is quite different..

this looks like the same amount of bleed as the pads on mine, around the same as my Gigabyte G1. i wouldent consider it a problem

[done12many2]

25 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

Condensation would not happen on hot components. Unless the air in the room is somehow hotter than components and at 100% relative humidity. (Basically won't happen.)

 

Won't implies it can't happen, yet it can.   Temps and humidity cycle in some people's operating environment.  

 

Notice the corrosion highlighted?  That's not from the thermal pad's non-conductive oils.  

 

 

[3rrant]

12 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

Condensation would not happen on hot components. Unless the air in the room is somehow hotter than components and at 100% relative humidity. (Basically won't happen.)

There's a lot of humidity here, so it might be a problem. The case was left open for a few days.

 

11 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

 

Won't implies it can't happen, yet it can.   Temps and humidity cycle in some people's operating environment.  

 

Notice the corrosion highlighted?  That's not for the thermal pad's non-conductive oils.  

 

 

This corrosion might be dust more than humidity, I'll check it out.

[pyrojoe34]

7 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

 

Won't implies it can't happen, yet it can.   Temps and humidity cycle in some people's operating environment.  

 

Notice the corrosion highlighted?  That's not for the thermal pad's non-conductive oils.  

 

 

It's extremely unlikely to happen, particularly in his situation. Since he was running it 24/7 the components were always hotter than ambient. Maybe in a situation where the computer is off gets really cold, then hot, very humid air enters the room, sure it may happen. But if the component is on and running 24/7 it won't condense.

 

It's maybe possible that he had something else drip down onto it or had an AIO with a leak, just extremely unlikely that anything condensed directly to the card.

 

Also, oils or adhesives can dissolve minerals that leave "stains" or induce corrosion if it's a poorly chosen one. Water is more common but oils/adhesives can also cause this to happen.

[3rrant]

1 minute ago, pyrojoe34 said:

It's extremely unlikely to happen, particularly in his situation. Since he was running it 24/7 the components were always hotter than ambient. Maybe in a situation where the computer is off gets really cold, then hot, very humid air enters the room, sure it may happen. But if the component is on and running 24/7 it won't condense.

 

It's maybe possible that he had something else drip down onto it or had an AIO with a leak, just extremely unlikely that anything condensed directly to the card.

 

Also, oils or adhesives can dissolve minerals that leave "stains" or induce corrosion if it's a poorly chosen one. Water is more common but oils/adhesives can also cause this to happen.

The AIO seems fine, no apparent leaks at the moment but I will test it later

[done12many2]

8 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

It's extremely unlikely to happen, particularly in his situation. Since he was running it 24/7 the components were always hotter than ambient. Maybe in a situation where the computer is off gets really cold, then hot, very humid air enters the room, sure it may happen. But if the component is on and running 24/7 it won't condense.

 

It's maybe possible that he had something else drip down onto it or had an AIO with a leak, just extremely unlikely that anything condensed directly to the card.

 

Also, oils or adhesives can dissolve minerals that leave "stains" or induce corrosion if it's a poorly chosen one. Water is more common but oils/adhesives can also cause this to happen.

 

As another example.  People that run their PCs adjacent large portable air conditioners.  As the unit cycles in and out of operation the case and component temps of parts of their rigs change dramatically in a short time.  Best thing that you can do to offset this is to separate the two as much as possible.  

 

Air coming out of the air conditioner's returns are often 20 or more degrees lower then the ambient air.  Let that cool components long enough and it brings the temps of certain parts within the rig down substantially especially if the load on the rig is not constant.  Once the air conditioner cycles off in it's normal operation, the air surrounding those cooler parts becomes warm and you get the rest of the story.  

[Lotard01]

was looking for this info myself, old thread but yes, my evga gtx 1080 has the replacement rubber pads and this goo was present. comes off with alcohol good enough.