Strange death of 290x

[liomojo1]

I bought a 290x referent and i thought it was a little hot and decided to change the thermal paste! After i change it and the pads of the vrm-s , when i put the card now it starts with artifacts and windows loads but when install driver and restarts , windows stops at this : http://imgur.com/a/3gBXY
Every time it loads it is this picture, even if it is as a second card , when i plug a monitor it shows this! May be it is a fax from space i could not decode:-))
the gpu starts to get hot when this loads , i made a bios with 300/150 mhz , and this shows again , but the gpu doesn`t gets hot! What could be the issue? Can anyone help! I checked the paste again and everything looks ok , but what could have happened?

[ol92]

I bought a 290x referent and i thought it was a little hot and decided to change the thermal paste! After i change it and the pads of the vrm-s , when i put the card now it starts with artifacts and windows loads but when install driver and restarts , windows stops at this : http://imgur.com/a/3gBXY
Every time it loads it is this picture, even if it is as a second card , when i plug a monitor it shows this! May be it is a fax from space i could not decode:-))
the gpu starts to get hot when this loads , i made a bios with 300/150 mhz , and this shows again , but the gpu doesn`t gets hot! What could be the issue? Can anyone help! I checked the paste again and everything looks ok , but what could have happened?

The thermal paste may be conductive and have leaked to some components : try unmount see if my supposition si true and apply again a lesser quantity of thermal paste...

[adaseb]

So before you took it apart it worked?

Generally I find that changing the thermal paste on any reference GPUs doesn't do much. Only upgrading to a better heatsink+fan makes a difference.

Like the above poster, you probably added too much and it leaked all over the chip, or you ended up damaging some component when you took it apart.

Sometimes the heatsink is glued to the chip, and when you pulled too hard you might of caused damage.

[liomojo1]

Actually it was glued , but i though that some stupid before me put glue! I found a crack on the chip on the right uper corner if you zoom a bit , could it be the problem? below it you can see the glue!

[ol92]

Actually it was glued , but i though that some stupid before me put glue! I found a crack on the chip on the right uper corner if you zoom a bit , could it be the problem? below it you can see the glue!

I had a similar crack on my gpu die (a radeon  5850) some years ago due to too much pressure with the heatsink (my fault): the gpu had to be sent to RMA.
Your gpu is probably dead.

[liomojo1]

I cleaned it very well with chemicals for this , but with no luck! I left it to a friend to warm it up , he has a special heater for this! We will see what will happen and write back!

[64dimensions]

I have three of these cards and I found that changing the thermal compound helped reduce the operating temperature by about 5 degrees.

As others have pointed out, you used too much. There are surface mount components surrounding this die.

For the record:

I use Antec Nano Diamond Thermal Compound Formula 7.

This particular compound has two advantages:

1) It has a high thermal conductivity because it uses diamond particles.

2) It remains viscous and doesn't dry out and become chalky.

I use the ball method. A small ball of thermal compound (6mm - 8mm) is deposited in the middle of the die. Using a moderately viscous compound insures that the paste spreads out evenly from the center. There are several you tube videos on this.

Never use acetone in cleaning any electronics. Isopropyl alcohol works best. In the US, Fry's electronics sells this. You can also get 91% at a drug store. After wiping with isopropyl, air dry for a few minutes.

I'm not sure that the corner chip is a big deal. If you have cleaned off the die, tried everything else and written off the card, I would put a tiny dab of some sort of superglue on the cracked area with the hope that the dried superglue passivates/stops any current flowing.

[koody]

The solder balls maybe cracked in reassembly due to too much pressure with the heatsink, try reflow it, if it works make a reballing.

[liomojo1]

I cleaned it with chloroform! When i opened it,the thermal paste was all over the chip so it shouldn't be an issue! I put arctic ceramics as a thermal paste, but the second time i put mx-4 arctic silver!

[liomojo1]

Sadly after heating the card It is dead , can`t boot at all , i will try it as a second one to see if windows sees it! R.I.P

[adaseb]

For this reason is why I don't bother changing any thermal paste's on any GPUs. I just blow compressed air every few months.

Last few times I did it, I ended up ripping apart components on the PCB due to thermal paste being stuck to GPU and another time I dropped a GPU from 2-3 feet.

[liomojo1]

Like Russian say , Ecли paбoтaeт нe тpoгaй!

[sxafir]

Reballing or reflow bga may fix artifacts.

[liomojo1]

Selling it for parts! Thanks guys!

[Cereberus]

I don't think it will sell fast unless you sell it really cheap. For next time if it happen for you to have 290x or 380x ,390x these cards do well with their thermal paste and stock fans but they need added power for cooling that is why for such cards the PC case to have massive cooling performance like 4 or 5 case coolers from Corsair,Thermaltake or NXZT. I build one PC for 2 friends with 2 290x and in a NXZT full tower case.
Added all the possible case fans RGB from Corsair and their PC is running great and cool.