GPU Smoke

[Itnozetr3]

yeah so i just bought an ex mining RX 480 8gb, it wont stay up longer than about 5 minutes, and just today, the gpu makes a smoke which makes me terrified to put it back again, tried to open it up, the cpu didnt end up burning, but the heatsink does, is it because my power supply or it was an extreme use of mining from the past owner?

 

My Specs :

i3 4150

128 GB V-Gen Platinum SSD

500 GB Seagate Barracuda HDD

4x2 DDR3 Samsung Ram

500W Weird ahh Korean PSU brand

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, itnomink said:

yeah so i just bought an ex mining RX 480 8gb, it wont stay up longer than about 5 minutes, and just today, the gpu makes a smoke which makes me terrified to put it back again, tried to open it up, the cpu didnt end up burning, but the heatsink does, is it because my power supply or it was an extreme use of mining from the past owner?

 

My Specs :

i3 4150

128 GB V-Gen Platinum SSD

500 GB Seagate Barracuda HDD

4x2 DDR3 Samsung Ram

500W Weird ahh Korean PSU brand

Smoke as in fire or is this hyperbole?  Electrical fires can be really really dangerous.  Unplugging the device is wise if possible, then survey the damage after.   The big problem with mining stuff is it can be incredibly dusty.  The other thing that can be a problem is worn out fans.  The board itself isn’t involved in either.  If a fan seized up though  It’s possible that the dust caught on fire.  Stuff usually thermal throttles before it gets hot enough to spontaneously combust.  There would have to be some weird kind of dust (like oil soaked or something) The other possibility is a cap let go. It is a 480 after all.  The thing is older than some of the participants here. If that is true the card is dead.  Mining with a 480 is weird.  480s are older than cryptocoin for one thing.  I suppose it’s powerful enough to do it though..barely.  Would take a real fool though.  Those things are power hungry.  More likely it was some ancient decrepit thing dug out of someone’s basement.   Does it have a mining bios on it? 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Bombastinator

[Itnozetr3]

3 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Smoke as in fire or is this hyperbole?

i cant really tell if its on fire or not but, there was a smoke coming out of the gpu.

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, itnomink said:

i cant really tell if its on fire or not but, there was a smoke coming out of the gpu.

Unplug the machine to start

[Bombastinator]

8 minutes ago, itnomink said:

i cant really tell if its on fire or not but, there was a smoke coming out of the gpu.

I also updated the previous post.

[Bombastinator]

You’re going to have to take the card out and survey the damage.  It’s possible it was just a cloud of dust.  

Edited February 26, 2023 by Bombastinator

[Itnozetr3]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

You’re going to have to take the card out and survey the damage.  It’s possible it was just a cloud of dust.  

the thing is, i already did cleaned the heatsink with my brush, repasted it also.

[Itnozetr3]

16 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Smoke as in fire or is this hyperbole?  Electrical fires can be really really dangerous.  Unplugging the device is wise if possible, then survey the damage after.   The big problem with mining stuff is it can be incredibly dusty.  The other thing that can be a problem is worn out fans.  The board itself isn’t involved in either.  If a fan seized up though  It’s possible that the dust caught on fire.  Stuff usually thermal throttles before it gets hot enough to spontaneously combust.  There would have to be some weird kind of dust (like oil soaked or something) The other possibility is a cap let go. It is a 480 after all.  The thing is older than some of the participants here. If that is true the card is dead.  Mining with a 480 is weird.  480s are older than cryptocoin for one thing.  I suppose it’s powerful enough to do it though..barely.  Would take a real fool though.  Those things are power hungry.  More likely it was some ancient decrepit thing dug out of someone’s basement.   Does it have a mining bios on it? 

uhh, probbably, i dont really know if theres a bios or not, its my first time touching a gpu

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, itnomink said:

the thing is, i already did cleaned the heatsink with my brush, repasted it also.

The gpu or the cpu?

[Itnozetr3]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

The gpu or the cpu?

the gpu

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, itnomink said:

the gpu

So you separated the cooler from the board.  Did you also remove the shroud and look at the fans?  It is also possible that the board was damaged when you did the separation.  

[Itnozetr3]

14 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

So you separated the cooler from the board.  Did you also remove the shroud and look at the fans?  It is also possible that the board was damaged when you did the separation.  

i mean the fans are pretty normal to me, working just fine, 27% speed on GPU-Z

[Bombastinator]

10 hours ago, itnomink said:

i mean the fans are pretty normal to me, working just fine, 27% speed on GPU-Z

They look good though?  Clean. Spinning ok? No melted bits?

[Itnozetr3]

8 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

They look good though?  Clean. Spinning ok? No melted bits?

yup, nothing seems wrong with it

[PriitM]

21 hours ago, itnomink said:

yeah so i just bought an ex mining RX 480 8gb, it wont stay up longer than about 5 minutes, and just today, the gpu makes a smoke which makes me terrified to put it back again, tried to open it up, the cpu didnt end up burning, but the heatsink does, is it because my power supply or it was an extreme use of mining from the past owner?

 

My Specs :

i3 4150

128 GB V-Gen Platinum SSD

500 GB Seagate Barracuda HDD

4x2 DDR3 Samsung Ram

500W Weird ahh Korean PSU brand

Heres some examples of catastrophic failure "smoke". But I gather your GPU still passes signal so its somewhat functional. Take off the cooler, re-apply paste/pads and tighten screws to almost bottom out (when you can feel they start getting tight). Could be you did not tighten the screws enough.

 

If you smell something burning, it could be some dust that got to a hot component.

[Itnozetr3]

4 hours ago, PriitM said:

Heres some examples of catastrophic failure "smoke". But I gather your GPU still passes signal so its somewhat functional. Take off the cooler, re-apply paste/pads and tighten screws to almost bottom out (when you can feel they start getting tight). Could be you did not tighten the screws enough.

 

If you smell something burning, it could be some dust that got to a hot component.

alright so, i watched the video and suprisingly, in that video, it supposed to have a little explosion sound or pop, but mine doesn't. it just makes a white smoke, now i think it might be a dust got to a hot component, like you just said, i will try the graphics card again later.

[PriitM]

2 minutes ago, itnomink said:

alright so, i watched the video and suprisingly, in that video, it supposed to have a little explosion sound or pop, but mine doesn't. it just makes a white smoke, now i think it might be a dust got to a hot component, like you just said, i will try the graphics card again later.

Its not always a "pop". There can also be a slow burn that causes smoke. But usually shorted components burn out rather fast even without an audible queue.

 

Im just curious what the hell could be smoking for so long, even after several heat cycles. You would have to have a dust bunny somewhere smoldering next to a 90C+ component... plus you took the card apart, you must have seen big globs of dust and cleaned them.

[Itnozetr3]

1 hour ago, PriitM said:

Its not always a "pop". There can also be a slow burn that causes smoke. But usually shorted components burn out rather fast even without an audible queue.

 

Im just curious what the hell could be smoking for so long, even after several heat cycles. You would have to have a dust bunny somewhere smoldering next to a 90C+ component... plus you took the card apart, you must have seen big globs of dust and cleaned them.

idk man, the time i cleaned the heatsink, there's no dust cloud thingy. also update, i did try to run the rx480 again and when i pressed the power buttun, its just dead, my pc wont turn on. put off the gpu, reseated the 24pin, and it turn back on. should i make a video on this?

[PriitM]

Yeah, definatly make a video. First time ive heard of a GPU smoking but working...

[Itnozetr3]

20 minutes ago, PriitM said:

Yeah, definatly make a video. First time ive heard of a GPU smoking but working...

uhh it wont turn on after the smoke thing, but ill make a vid on it

[Itnozetr3]

1 hour ago, PriitM said:

Yeah, definatly make a video. First time ive heard of a GPU smoking but working...

Here, i hope you can understand what im saying, cause my english speaking is worse than my writing

[PriitM]

55 minutes ago, itnomink said:

Here, i hope you can understand what im saying, cause my english speaking is worse than my writing

Thanks for the video. If it does not let you turn on the PC, then it might be sad news for you bro. If you have the option to, try in another machine or take it to an IT/electronics (not electrics) repair shop to be quickly tested for shorts. Did see a lot of thermal paste on the GPU but that should not cause a short. 

 

I could not spot burn marks from the vid, but it could also be an internal short inside the circuit board. Attached a typical burn pattern, its this creamy white/yellow mark. And burns can also be black of course.

 

Sorry for your loss, I hope it was not expensive...

[Itnozetr3]

14 hours ago, PriitM said:

Thanks for the video. If it does not let you turn on the PC, then it might be sad news for you bro. If you have the option to, try in another machine or take it to an IT/electronics (not electrics) repair shop to be quickly tested for shorts. Did see a lot of thermal paste on the GPU but that should not cause a short. 

 

I could not spot burn marks from the vid, but it could also be an internal short inside the circuit board. Attached a typical burn pattern, its this creamy white/yellow mark. And burns can also be black of course.

 

Sorry for your loss, I hope it was not expensive...

dang, alright, thanks for the help, rip 100 bucks for me i guess

[PriitM]

36 minutes ago, itnomink said:

dang, alright, thanks for the help, rip 100 bucks for me i guess

Ouch, 100 bucks for a mining 480... after the first mining boom, 580 8GB models went for that sort of price. And that was 6 years ago. I would very much like to meet the seller and "talk" to them... this card should have been around 60 bucks at most.

[Itnozetr3]

1 hour ago, PriitM said:

Ouch, 100 bucks for a mining 480... after the first mining boom, 580 8GB models went for that sort of price. And that was 6 years ago. I would very much like to meet the seller and "talk" to them... this card should have been around 60 bucks at most.

oh yeah my bad, it was 65 bucks, wasnt 100, i didnt check the USD to IDR price