Fluid leaking from NorthBridge???

[Ryujin2003]

Hey guys. My PC has been getting dusty. I got a set of case filters from Demcifilter for you NZXT Phantom. I took my GPU out to clean it's heatsink, and I see this goop from the bottom of the NB and part of the board. It's not from my H100i AIO. Physically impossible. I'm assuming it's the NB because it sits vertically, and only shows at the bottom. What is this? Should I be concerned? Should I contact MSI for RMA?

 

The fluid is slick, kinda oily feeling.

 

FX 6350 OC @ 4.5

H100i v2

AMD 970 Gaming MB

16gb Corsair Vengeance 1866 DDR3

Asus AC1300 PCIE Wireless card

OCZ 700MXSP

[givingtnt]

3 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Hey guys. My PC has been getting dusty. I got a set of case filters from Demcifilter for you NZXT Phantom. I took my GPU out to clean it's heatsink, and I see this goop from the bottom of the NB and part of the board. It's not from my H100i AIO. Physically impossible. I'm assuming it's the NB because it sits vertically, and only shows at the bottom. What is this? Should I be concerned? Should I contact MSI for RMA?

 

FX 6350 OC @ 4.5

H100i v2

AMD 970 Gaming MB

16gb Corsair Vengeance 1866 DDR3

Asus AC1300 PCIE Wireless card

OCZ 700MXSP

picture ?

 

perhaps just a bit of thermal compound ?

[bgibbz]

There shouldn't be any kind of fluid in the northridge. It may be from a capacitor. Try to see if you can find a popped capacitor. 

 

 

Edit - I don't see any popped capacitors near the mark. Clean it off with alcohol. 

[Ryujin2003]

1 minute ago, givingtnt said:

picture ?

Just u0loaded. Forgot it, and the edit wasn't going through. Thanks.

[itsmyjobtoknow]

Got any picture to show us exactly what it is you're looking at?

The way the fluid look will give us an idea what it could be.

 

Looks like grease...could be the thermal pads

[anybodykek]

Just clean it off..?

[ARikozuM]

It could be thermal paste or pads that is thinning... I think...

[W-L]

5 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

-SNIP-

Take it off and clean it that looks like the oil from the thermal pads has started to leech out, it happens a lot especially on GPU's and hot components. 

[Ryujin2003]

2 minutes ago, bgibbz said:

There shouldn't be any kind of fluid in the northridge. It may be from a capacitor. Try to see if you can find a popped capacitor. 

Do capacitors have oily liquid inside?

 

1 minute ago, itsmyjobtoknow said:

Got any picture to show us exactly what it is you're looking at?

The way the fluid look will give us an idea what it could be.

 

Posted. Sorry, tech difficulties.

1 minute ago, anybodykek said:

Just clean it off..?

But should it be there?

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

It could be thermal paste or pads that is thinning... I think...

I've never heard of them liquifying. I've seen old pads. They just turn to goop. Paste generally dries into powder. And I don't smoke or anything.

[Ryujin2003]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

Take it off and clean it that looks like the oil from the thermal pads has started to leech out, it happens a lot especially on GPU's and hot components. 

My NB reaches 75C on Prime95 stress, otherwose, it's under 60C under normal gaming. Is this normal? Will this cause damage? I assume if it were conductive, I'd been screwed already. But is this a sign of future failure?

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

I've never heard of them liquifying. I've seen old pads. They just turn to goop. Paste generally dries into powder. And I don't smoke or anything.

I have a few thermal pads that are unusually oily/greasy that I refuse to use. That's why I mentioned it.

[W-L]

Just now, Ryujin2003 said:

My NB reaches 75C on Prime95 stress, otherwose, it's under 60C under normal gaming. Is this normal? Will this cause damage? I assume if it were conductive, I'd been screwed already. But is this a sign of future failure?

No it's not a problem other than being a little messy, you can clean it off with some 99% ispropyl alcohol. 

[anybodykek]

5 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

My NB reaches 75C on Prime95 stress, otherwose, it's under 60C under normal gaming. Is this normal? Will this cause damage? I assume if it were conductive, I'd been screwed already. But is this a sign of future failure?

Can you replace the pads on the NB with some paste? MX4 is good, being non conductive. I don't think it's dangerous, but you must have had some paste left over from your cooler. Might as well slap some on the NB

[Ryujin2003]

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I have a few thermal pads that are unusually oily/greasy that I refuse to use. That's why I mentioned it.

Should I look at replacing them? I looked closer, definitely the NB, and coming from underneath the bottom.

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

No it's not a problem other than being a little messy, you can clean it off with some 99% ispropyl alcohol. 

So the NB heatsink will work as expected with potentially no issues? So don't really worry about it?

[W-L]

Just now, Ryujin2003 said:

Should I look at replacing them? I looked closer, definitely the NB, and coming from underneath the bottom.

So the NB heatsink will work as expected with potentially no issues? So don't really worry about it?

Thermal pads don't really degrade but some of them do leak or leach oil overtime so it may be a recurring issue when things warm and cool down each time. 

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Should I look at replacing them? I looked closer, definitely the NB, and coming from underneath the bottom.

So the NB heatsink will work as expected with potentially no issues? So don't really worry about it?

I would just buy a new thermal pad. You need to find what thickness will fit beneath, but it shouldn't be too hard to do.

[LeStringMan]

That is not the north bridge, that is the heatsink for the motherboards vrms.

 

also i am not sure what the fluid is but seems to happen on MSI AM3+ boards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3031062/strange-fluid-leaking-motherboard.html

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

Thermal pads don't really degrade but some of them do leak or leach oil overtime so it may be a recurring issue when things warm and cool down each time. 

I thought the oils were there to keep the pad from drying.

[Ryujin2003]

3 minutes ago, LeStringMan said:

That is not the north bridge, that is the heatsink for the motherboards vrms.

 

also i am not sure what the fluid is but seems to happen on MSI AM3+ boards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3031062/strange-fluid-leaking-motherboard.html

Sorry, over tired and confused. Thanks for the correction!

5 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I would just buy a new thermal pad. You need to find what thickness will fit beneath, but it shouldn't be too hard to do.

I will see what kind to get and do a replacement. Thank you.

 

Thank you all for the quick responses and all the support. If I find allndnything more, I will update.

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

I will see what kind to get and do a replacement. Thank you.

Make sure you buy pads and not adhesives...

[-rascal-]

9 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Should I look at replacing them? I looked closer, definitely the NB, and coming from underneath the bottom.

So the NB heatsink will work as expected with potentially no issues? So don't really worry about it?

What he is saying it that there is typically some kind of grease for liquid glue that thermal pads have (the sticky side of it). Kind of what happens when you use too much liquid school glue to stick two things together.

 

The heatsink should have no issues.

 

Capacitors used on motherboards typically have a solid core -- from your picture, they are solid caps.

SOME capacitors are electrolytic and have a liquid chemical solution inside it.

If they leak, then they have gone bad. These are usually the cheaper (in quality and cost) variants versus solid caps.

[Ryujin2003]

3 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I thought the oils were there to keep the pad from drying.

That would make sense. I replaced the thermal paste on an NVIDIA card from 2000 for a client. The thermal pads were a little tacky, but still existant, where as the thermal paste was chalk. Oil doesn't evaporate like water. Could very well be it.

[W-L]

6 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I thought the oils were there to keep the pad from drying.

Yes but it will still take a very long time as the oil doesn't flash off, a little leeching won't do too much, usually it is caused by excess or being squeezed from installation. 

[radboy16]

I would just like to confirm that I had the same exact problem- With the same exact board.  I had it pretty bad with my board a couple months ago, but I couldn't find any advice related to this, so I just RMA'd my board. They sent me back a refurbished board, of course. However, as soon as I got the refurbished one, looks like that one was sent in for the exact same problem before, and now it is doing it again (albeit, not as bad as my first board).

 

First board is the one with the huge "leak", the replacement is the second photo. Residue was slightly smaller when I got the board.

Seems like an inherent problem with the 970 Gaming. Wasn't really built for good temp management from what I am seeing.

 

So, 99% Isopropyl alcohol should be fine? Maybe a replacement pad down the line? Or am I looking at another board already....?

 

[ARikozuM]

16 minutes ago, radboy16 said:

-mother of all snips-

You can squirt some isopropyl alcohol in the area. Once dry apply a new pad and replace the heatsink.