Crazy gpu temps

[REULINI]

Hi everyone. I want to apologize in advance for the long post, but I really need your help.

I own 670sli (both with waterblocks) and last week one of the cards started heating a little more than usual so I decided to fix it this past weekend. Everything went well, both cards has great temps (around 26) until Sunday afternoon my screen goes black and I thought windows screwed up. So I rebooted and after that evga precision only detects one card and the nightmare begins. I noticed one of the cards had a little bit of water between the pcb and the backplate, so I unplugged everything, removed both backplate and waterblock, cleaned and dryed everything up and now I have placed the card with a lot of rice. I also noticed the power connector extensions were humid and they are now drying. Hopefully the card will survive. I will only test this in about 3/4 weeks. Do you think it will survive?

Now I have another problem (as if the other one wasnt enough). After all that mess I booted my pc with the other card (after I cheked if it had any water too, but it didnt) and now it has very hot temps.. I was in windows with a few programs opened and it was around 55C. After that I opened bf3 and it went to 102C. I immediately closed bf and then it went to 70C. It is very strange since on saturday it was around 26C. I already confirmed that thermal pads and tim are both correctly placed. I've done this several times before, I dont know why this is happening.

Can anyone please help me?

thank you very much and sorry for the big post.

[Joshyy]

First the very basics and stupid questions to make sure.

 

Thermal compound used?

Pump still alive?

Filled enough?

Rad clear of dust?

Used the correct heat block for the GPU and tightened it?

[REULINI]

- I used the noctua NT-H1

- Yes

- Yes

- Yes, cleaned it this weekend

- Yes

 

Both blocks are from the same brand (xspc). Also my 3770k (delidded) is at 30C.

[Joshyy]

If your tubing is clear, is there plenty of water flowing through the GPUs? My only thought (Not having much knowledge of WCing) would be lack of waterflow or water not being cooled. 

[REULINI]

Yeah, the tube is filled with water. This is really strange since the cpu is perfectly fine but the gpu isnt..

[REULINI]

Do you think the thermal pads may be used too much? I have this block since September 2012.
but again, it doesn't make any sense since Saturday it was working perfectly fine..

[KylSp]

You probably have air trapped in the block.

[REULINI]

You probably have air trapped in the block.

 

How can I fix that?

[KylSp]

Tilt your case so the ports are high.

[Najuno]

Yeah really sounds like air in your gpu cooler, what kind of pump do you use? Can you manually regulate the waterflow? Cause if so turn it up and down it will help to bleed the air out of your system.

 

To the first card that got humid... well I have little hope for this card cause usually what happens when the power connectors get wet is that you generate a short circuit and that tends to fry your mosfet on the pcb.

How long have you had the water in the loop when this happened and did you use a silver coil to kill bacterias?

[REULINI]

The pump is a d5, so yes, I can regulate the waterflow. I will try doing that then.

The water (distilled) had about one month before this started. To kill bacterias I'm using one monsoon silver bullet. I pulled it out this weekend and it was possible to see that it was working, it wasnt cleaned, brand new anymore. btw, do you think I should get more? or is one enough?

[Ghost]

If your PCB is completely "normal" so no burnt chips then your card might be okay. Look towards the VRM section of the card when looking for burn out chips. They can be pretty hard to find.

[REULINI]

I just put the "good" card back on air and the temps are fine now. I guess either the block is screwed, or I need to get new thermal pads. I also inspected the "wet" card and this is what I found

 

 

what do you think Ghost?

[airdeano]

I just put the "good" card back on air and the temps are fine now. I guess either the block is screwed, or I need to get new thermal pads. I also inspected the "wet" card and this is what I found http://imgur.com/zPhxrR7,DhJ8aai,8YydBba what do you think Ghost?

 

ewwww *sizzle*! those aren't supposed to be there. looks like something got in the

GPU area and shorted or heated the circuits. got so hot, looks like C680 and C670

desoldered and dropped their fuse/resistors. might compare your other GPU to the

back of this one and count the differences (if same brand/model)

[REULINI]

I posted a link to imgur with 3 images, but it just showed here the first image. On the second one it shows another mark like that ones, but on the other side of the card and it was there before all this happened. I don't know how it got there, but the card was working fine. hopefully the rice with take that out

[Najuno]

Wow that PCB looks very bad imho... I would bet that there are some components that got fried...

 

Well to answer your question if the water was in the system for just a month and if the tubes had not too many bacterias, it should not be a problem at all. But like always when it comes to water cooling, it's hard to predict.

 

I had once a fitting getting a little bit loose and a lot of water spilled into my old rig (had a side window a saw it right away). Even though the water wasn't that fresh (but I always use a silver coil), after drying the hardware the system ran without issues... but you never know.

[flibberdipper]

Keep an eye on your other card, just in case, as well as the rest of the components. But your wet card is almost 100% dead.

[REULINI]

alright guys, thanks for all the answers! just one more thing: is there a possibility of ruining other components while checking if this card is working or not?

[flibberdipper]

alright guys, thanks for all the answers! just one more thing: is there a possibility of ruining other components while checking if this card is working or not?

As in you plug that card in and test it?

[REULINI]

As in you plug that card in and test it?

 yeah