My (hopefully not) Doomed 7970 Cooler Replacement Project

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

Extremely [H]
Joined
Oct 29, 2000
Messages
38,878

(click for larger)

So I got a WC spacer and attached a Corsair H80 and some Accelero Extreme heatsinks to my RAM and VRM's.

Looks pretty ( :D ), but unfortunately I made a boo-boo when removing the stock heatsink :(

I slipped with a screwdriver and damaged two traces leading to the right of the two bottom RAM chips (visible in the large image if you zoom in around the bottom right cooler mount)

The system still occasionally boots to a distorted desktop and I take the distortion as a good sign it may be repairable, so I went to Radio Shack to get a conductive trace pen and also picked up some clear nail polish to seal it all up.

WISH ME LUCK GUYS (I'm going to need it) :(
 
Extremely [H]. May the hardware gods watch over you. :cool:
 
Those 2 etchings at the very bottom of the card? If it is those thats nothing. Youve only exposed the pcb layer which does not harm anything. You should also mount a fan blowing towards your VRM's as well. Doesnt need to be much.

EDIT: Had to blow it up to 300% to see it. A trace pen should fix it right up :) It looks like a circle gouge to the left of the memory chip right?

Also what are the dimensions of the VRM heatsinks you are using? I have some small ramsinks id like to be able to use on them.
 
Last edited:
EquaLiZr said:
Those 2 etchings at the very bottom of the card? If it is those thats nothing. Youve only exposed the pcb layer which does not harm anything. You should also mount a fan blowing towards your VRM's as well. Doesnt need to be much.

EDIT: Had to blow it up to 300% to see it. A trace pen should fix it right up :) It looks like a circle gouge to the left of the memory chip right?

Also what are the dimensions of the VRM heatsinks you are using? I have some small ramsinks id like to be able to use on them.
Click to expand...

Here's the damage I am referring to.

6804480778_dd2a144a68_z.jpg


Very tough to take a picture as its so small.

Since the first image, I've cleaned it with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and put a thin coat of clear nailpolish on it, just to seal anything else I may have uncovered in the impact.

Next I am going to use a fine tipped sharp instrument to scrape the top of the traces clean and connect each one using the trace pen.

They are so small though. I tried scraping just one of the two traces clean and it was near impossible. I am going to need an eye loup and a very fine tipped instrument. I may even have to paint on the trace material from the pen using a needle as even the fine tipped pen I have applies it WAY too thickly.

You are correct, there is another area of damage near the AMD logo to the left of the left RAM chip. I don't know how that happened as I only slipped once. Doesn't look like it damaged any traces, but it did take off the first layer of the board. I'm just going to seal it with nail polish to be safe.

Thanks for the words of encouragement though :)
 
EquaLiZr said:
Also what are the dimensions of the VRM heatsinks you are using? I have some small ramsinks id like to be able to use on them.
Click to expand...

I'll have to pull out my caliper and check. They weren't a perfect fit (surprising since its a 7970 kit...), but they were close enough.
 
I've also got to be honest this seems like a waste of effort. By far the limiting factor here for overclocking will be the VRM cooling. The h80, even if it works will provide no more benefit than the accelero xtreme heatsink

in fact i wouldn't surprised if the gpu runs hotter than it would with the accelero
 
dikky said:
I've also got to be honest this seems like a waste of effort. By far the limiting factor here for overclocking will be the VRM cooling. The h80, even if it works will provide no more benefit than the accelero xtreme
Click to expand...

It will blow the heat outside the case, and in my Raven RV03 case I have a 180mm fan sucking in cold air right below the video card, which I hope will keep the VRM's cool, especially since they now don't share a heatsink with the hot core.

Time will tell.
 
dikky said:
I've also got to be honest this seems like a waste of effort. By far the limiting factor here for overclocking will be the VRM cooling. The h80, even if it works will provide no more benefit than the accelero xtreme heatsink

in fact i wouldn't surprised if the gpu runs hotter than it would with the accelero
Click to expand...

and the accelero fans push air on this VRM heatsinks... without any fans the VRMs will get really hot...
 
Just use the needle like you said and take it slowly. U should be able to fix it.

If not, slap the orig cooler back on and RMA it.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038453399 said:
It will blow the heat outside the case, and in my Raven RV03 case I have a 180mm fan sucking in cold air right below the video card, which I hope will keep the VRM's cool, especially since they now don't share a heatsink with the hot core.

Time will tell.
Click to expand...

well good luck...
i would go for the accelero itself or a waterblock... and that's what i'm going to do after I come back from my holidays next month
 
Zarathustra[H];1038453451 said:
That is my plan! :)



Not sure I'd feel right doing that.

I did something that screwed it up, outside of normal use.

I feel like if I can't fix it, I ought to suck it up and take responsibility for it.
Click to expand...

Why? they are just going to recycle the card.. Seems like a waste to not at least try and RMA it.
 
EquaLiZr said:
If not, slap the orig cooler back on and RMA it.
Click to expand...

Really? Im going to assume your life is full of dishonesty. :rolleyes: All you losers that RMA cards because of your own stupidity are only raising up the prices for everyone.
 
Cowboy420 said:
Really? Im going to assume your life is full of dishonesty. :rolleyes: All you losers that RMA cards because of your own stupidity are only raising up the prices for everyone.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I disagree. There are more factors than the 50 people who may RMA a 7970 within this year..
 
Let's please not turn this thread into the Pro's and con's of warranty - well - fraud.

If anyone has any further suggestions for repair, I'd appreciate it though :)
 
I guess that it wouldn't hurt to try and use something aking to a Erasing Shield:
http://store.qualityart.biz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=305_322&products_id=97197

You could try to make one yourself with an old credit card or affiliation card of anything, just to help you shield and define the specific spot that you want to trace.


Another option would be to use the nail polish, now scrape the specific spot of the topmost lane to fix, use the pen with a small sheet of paper (a postit note) as a shield so the paint doesnt smear over the other lanes; wait for it to dry, apply a small layer of polish to seal, scrape the 2nd damaged lane, do the same thing of tracing with the paper limiting the thickness of the trace, cover and do the last lane. << long but i guess that it could work.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038453345 said:
Here's the damage I am referring to.

6804480778_dd2a144a68_z.jpg


Very tough to take a picture as its so small.

Since the first image, I've cleaned it with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and put a thin coat of clear nailpolish on it, just to seal anything else I may have uncovered in the impact.

Next I am going to use a fine tipped sharp instrument to scrape the top of the traces clean and connect each one using the trace pen.

They are so small though. I tried scraping just one of the two traces clean and it was near impossible. I am going to need an eye loup and a very fine tipped instrument. I may even have to paint on the trace material from the pen using a needle as even the fine tipped pen I have applies it WAY too thickly.

You are correct, there is another area of damage near the AMD logo to the left of the left RAM chip. I don't know how that happened as I only slipped once. Doesn't look like it damaged any traces, but it did take off the first layer of the board. I'm just going to seal it with nail polish to be safe.

Thanks for the words of encouragement though :)
Click to expand...

I'm like super dooper interested to see if you can get this to work as I'll soon have a spare H70 and if your project works it'll keep me from having to invest $125 in a water block.

As for the repair:

The large chip on the bottom is probably not going to cause you any issues and putting that clear coat on it was a good idea.

The two smaller traces you probably should have left bare until the repair was finished and I'd recommend not powering that card up again until you get them fixed. You are going to have some time invested there to repair them. I've done this type of work by hand several times over the years. Sometimes due to an errant screwdriver.. sometimes just modding stuff to get more voltage. Anyway, get ready for some tweezer/xacto knife action.

You need to clean up the most broken part of the traces. I cannot tell very well from the photo but it looks as if part of the upper damaged (the one in the middle of the 3 in the photo) trace is actually raised off the PCB a little bit. That raised portion is going to have to go. VERY CAREFULLY use an xacto knife to remove/cut away any raised portions of the damaged trace. If there is not any disregard this step. The lower trace looks as if it just got nicked.

Get some painters (blue) tape or masking tape if that's all you a have laying around and isolate an area of the two damaged traces with enough of both showing that some of the undamaged portions are showing on either side of the damage. Don't be stingy with the tape covering the surrounding area as it will protect the rest of the card as you "operate" on it.

We need to get that nail polish off and get some copper exposed. Get some nail polish remover remove the clear coat from the masked off area entirely. Once you have as much of the clear coat off as possible with the solvent clean the area of any residue with isopropyl alcohol.

Get the finest sandpaper you can lay hands on and cut a few sections into about 1/2" squares. Use the tape to isolate one trace at a time so only the trace is showing. Using the eraser on the end of a pencil sand the trace until the just the copper is exposed. You want to expose copper a little beyond the damaged area so you have some good trace to work with. Do this slowly and carefully checking progress often. You only want to go deep enough to expose the trace copper.. no more. Do this with both traces.

If the above step goes without a hitch. Once again isolate a trace with tape by masking it off. Repair it with a liberal application of the conductive pen material using a needle to apply it. Give it sufficient time to dry then cover it with tape and to the same to the other damaged trace. Remove the tape from just the isolated area and check your work. If it looks good with no conductive goo bleeding across the traces you should be good. If there is some bleeding across the traces clean it off very carefully with the xacto knife. That conductive pen goo dries to kinda a chalky texture and if you are not careful it will come off in chunks. when it looks good plug the card in and check functionality.

If it works.. woo hoo and time to put some more clear polish over the fix and call it good!

If not it's probably because the conductive pen goo is not carrying enough current to make the components they are feeding function properly. At this point you are probably going to need to try to solder the broken points. I can help ya there too but you are going to need a very good soldering station with the finest tip available, some flux and some resin based solder. Lemme know how the conductive pen turns out.

GOOD LUCK!
 
Oh... and to add. Anyone else trying this I would recommend using oversized ramsinks and VRM sinks. The reason the sinks are so small on the aftermarket cooler kits is that they need to fit under the GPU cooler fins. If you go this route it's not an issue so bigger is better. Also.. I'd recommend either using the double sided thermal tape or the G1 material as both can be removed later if you wanna restore your stock cooler.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038453451 said:
That is my plan! :)



Not sure I'd feel right doing that.

I did something that screwed it up, outside of normal use.

I feel like if I can't fix it, I ought to suck it up and take responsibility for it.
Click to expand...

I admire your ethic there.:D
Not too many people around who would take that responsibility.
+10 karma points for you.

Now, is it:eek: fixed?
 
magoo said:
I admire your ethic there.:D
Not too many people around who would take that responsibility.
+10 karma points for you.

Now, is it:eek: fixed?
Click to expand...

Not yet. Need to get some tools. Had some family stuff to tend to this weekend so I didnt have the time to work more on it. It's probably going to wind up taking me some time.

I need to get some sort of magnifying glass or magnified work station to pull this off. Those traces are tiny!
 
Evil Scooter said:
I'm like super dooper interested to see if you can get this to work as I'll soon have a spare H70 and if your project works it'll keep me from having to invest $125 in a water block.

As for the repair:

The large chip on the bottom is probably not going to cause you any issues and putting that clear coat on it was a good idea.

The two smaller traces you probably should have left bare until the repair was finished and I'd recommend not powering that card up again until you get them fixed. You are going to have some time invested there to repair them. I've done this type of work by hand several times over the years. Sometimes due to an errant screwdriver.. sometimes just modding stuff to get more voltage. Anyway, get ready for some tweezer/xacto knife action.

You need to clean up the most broken part of the traces. I cannot tell very well from the photo but it looks as if part of the upper damaged (the one in the middle of the 3 in the photo) trace is actually raised off the PCB a little bit. That raised portion is going to have to go. VERY CAREFULLY use an xacto knife to remove/cut away any raised portions of the damaged trace. If there is not any disregard this step. The lower trace looks as if it just got nicked.

Get some painters (blue) tape or masking tape if that's all you a have laying around and isolate an area of the two damaged traces with enough of both showing that some of the undamaged portions are showing on either side of the damage. Don't be stingy with the tape covering the surrounding area as it will protect the rest of the card as you "operate" on it.

We need to get that nail polish off and get some copper exposed. Get some nail polish remover remove the clear coat from the masked off area entirely. Once you have as much of the clear coat off as possible with the solvent clean the area of any residue with isopropyl alcohol.

Get the finest sandpaper you can lay hands on and cut a few sections into about 1/2" squares. Use the tape to isolate one trace at a time so only the trace is showing. Using the eraser on the end of a pencil sand the trace until the just the copper is exposed. You want to expose copper a little beyond the damaged area so you have some good trace to work with. Do this slowly and carefully checking progress often. You only want to go deep enough to expose the trace copper.. no more. Do this with both traces.

If the above step goes without a hitch. Once again isolate a trace with tape by masking it off. Repair it with a liberal application of the conductive pen material using a needle to apply it. Give it sufficient time to dry then cover it with tape and to the same to the other damaged trace. Remove the tape from just the isolated area and check your work. If it looks good with no conductive goo bleeding across the traces you should be good. If there is some bleeding across the traces clean it off very carefully with the xacto knife. That conductive pen goo dries to kinda a chalky texture and if you are not careful it will come off in chunks. when it looks good plug the card in and check functionality.

If it works.. woo hoo and time to put some more clear polish over the fix and call it good!

If not it's probably because the conductive pen goo is not carrying enough current to make the components they are feeding function properly. At this point you are probably going to need to try to solder the broken points. I can help ya there too but you are going to need a very good soldering station with the finest tip available, some flux and some resin based solder. Lemme know how the conductive pen turns out.

GOOD LUCK!
Click to expand...

Thank you for all your suggestions. Guess I will have to remove that trace after all.

The reason I coated it before the repair was just incase I nicked the board to uncover a trace underneath it, I wanted to seal that up, so I didnt accidentally short something that isn't supposed to be shorted with the trace pen.
 
jaredpace said:
like to know what ur vrm temps will be if u get ur card working
Click to expand...

So would I.

I tried several different programs that supposedly will read VRM temps to get my baseline before swapping out the cooler, but none of them would read it.

Maybe its a 7970 thing? The software needs to be updated?
 
I use a fly tying station.
Bought it at Ganger Mountain.
Nice light and magnifier, plus some clips to hold stuff.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038456449 said:
So would I.

I tried several different programs that supposedly will read VRM temps to get my baseline before swapping out the cooler, but none of them would read it.

Maybe its a 7970 thing? The software needs to be updated?
Click to expand...

I use hardwareinfo64 and that read my 7970s VRMs just fine, have you tried that?
 
Working on this repair right now using a digital scope at work for magnification.

I've tried and reapplied many times cause I shorted the two traces. It's just too damned small.

here's a closer snapshop from the scope. The magnification is worn off the bottom lens so I can't tell you at what magnification it is, but trust me, it's tiny.

A barely visible drop of trace compound at the tip of a needle is enough to smudge all over the place and short both.

6988411381_e699017e8f_o.jpg


I'm going to try a few more times, but I am starting to think this isn't doable, at least not by me. Maybe if you are a veteran at painting tin soldiers or something...
 
How I would have done it, and yes I have done it befor, and had it work when done.

Nail polish over the Fuck ups, don't even deal with that spot. To the upper left is a solder pad ( or a test pad / through hole.... Whatever.) With the traces well covered, find a place on the other side that is clean and redraw the trace to that, if it means exposing the trace then so be it. Once done with that trace, cover it with polish... You can then work on the other trace. You can paint the seconds trace right over the first if you have to. Just make sure its conductive where it should be, and not where it shouldn't.
 
Thor said:
How I would have done it, and yes I have done it befor, and had it work when done.

Nail polish over the Fuck ups, don't even deal with that spot. To the upper left is a solder pad ( or a test pad / through hole.... Whatever.) With the traces well covered, find a place on the other side that is clean and redraw the trace to that, if it means exposing the trace then so be it. Once done with that trace, cover it with polish... You can then work on the other trace. You can paint the seconds trace right over the first if you have to. Just make sure its conductive where it should be, and not where it shouldn't.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I hadn't thought of re-drawing it. The other side of the board won't work, as there are a bunch of tiny electrical components there, but I may be able to find a better place to draw it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm done for tonight though.

I'll try this again next week.

If that doesn't work, I may try selling it to someone who feels confident they can fix it and use it for themselves, and take this as a life lesson in being more careful with my screwdriver :(
 
Just curious, but is there some reason you can't use a piece of small gauge wire to bridge the gap? Is there too much resistance in the wire and solder and that would throw off some timing? Is it just too small? If these are traces that simply provide power, I see no reason why you couldn't do something like I suggested.
 
I would solder a new wire (knar wire) using the provided pads then glue the wire down.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038502458 said:
Ahh, I hadn't thought of re-drawing it. The other side of the board won't work, as there are a bunch of tiny electrical components there, but I may be able to find a better place to draw it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm done for tonight though.

I'll try this again next week.

If that doesn't work, I may try selling it to someone who feels confident they can fix it and use it for themselves, and take this as a life lesson in being more careful with my screwdriver :(
Click to expand...

Sorry, I typed that up on my phone, and while it sounded ok in my head, I realize the suggestion sounded like I meant to do it on the other side of the board, when in fact I simply meant on the other side of the break in the trace. something else to consider is that you need to make sure that the broken parts are not shorting to each other, as they might be now that you have messed with the conductive pen.

This might turn into a mess... lol.
 
Any updates on this? I saw you were going to check with the manufacturer on the Nvidia forum, anything ever come of that?
 
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