GPU Mod Gone Horribly Wrong

Ah. didn't occur to me at the time that the pcb was layered. Lesson definitely learned.
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This is an unfortunate reality of "hobbies". You know one apsect, which you can be an expert on, but you know nothing of the rest of the process because it has no direct affect on you.

Those area's are generally considered "keep out", but you have no idea just how big the keep out area extends. He also could have accidentally shorted out neighboring planes within the PCB, that by themselves were keep out, but not safe from plane to plane.

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You were right about the layers. I booted the pc while holding a metal screwdriver in the hole to simulate soldering the hole shut. But it just started smoking. The card is F**ked
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Jesus, this reminds me of that old Internet thread about the guy that used sandpaper to clean his paint job because Internet experts told him to.
 
What makes it worse is that the instructions for mounting the bracket explain exactly what to do to install it. There doesn't even need to be a hole there because the bracket mounts to the existing holes and provides a hole for the closed loop cooler to attach to.

I don't really have a leg to stand on here, I actually destroyed a Radeon 7950 trying to mount a Arctic Accelero Extreme 7970 on it. When removing the stock heatsink I missed a screw and applied too much force, cracking the PCB. At least that was only a $300 card...
 
erm... when is drilling into a pcb ever a good idea?
It's not really modding, it's stupid.
GPU modding is fairly limited to removing a resistor or two to upgrade your latest crippled NVIDIA card to be recognized as a tesla or whatever they were doing.
 
Nothing wrong with drilling PCB, I have had todo it a couple of times on some boards costing something like $1000 (once populated) ... Difference being I have access to the GERBERS and bare boards to trial
 
Oh man, this gets better.

Apparently, this is what he was trying to install on to the card. His issue was that the bracket holes did not line up with the holes in the PCB. So he decided to drill the *PCB* rather then the bracket. I'm not going to judge, becuase I have done stupid stuff in the past, but you have to learn how to engineer your problems wisely....which hopefully he got out of this.

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Hypergreatthing said:
erm... when is drilling into a pcb ever a good idea?
It's not really modding, it's stupid.
GPU modding is fairly limited to removing a resistor or two to upgrade your latest crippled NVIDIA card to be recognized as a tesla or whatever they were doing.
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There are a number of instances... usually it is to drill a via due to wrong tracking.
I have had to drill a reasonable sized hole due to a layout engineer used 100V clearance spacing not the needed 1500V. BUT I knew where to drill and it was a stop-gap until the respun cards came in
 
I simply have no words for this. I feel bad for the guy too.

I just don't get how he could figure that "modding" his $750 GPU made sense over modding (or just getting a new one altogether) a water block bracket.
 
westrock2000 said:
This is an unfortunate reality of "hobbies". You know one apsect, which you can be an expert on, but you know nothing of the rest of the process because it has no direct affect on you.

Those area's are generally considered "keep out", but you have no idea just how big the keep out area extends. He also could have accidentally shorted out neighboring planes within the PCB, that by themselves were keep out, but not safe from plane to plane.


Jesus, this reminds me of that old Internet thread about the guy that used sandpaper to clean his paint job because Internet experts told him to.
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The experts told him not to do that, he did it anyway. Not the same as people saying try this and see what happens. They told him not to fill it in otherwise he could fry everything else. He tried it anyway because he is an idiot.
 
Exavior said:
The experts told him not to do that, he did it anyway. Not the same as people saying try this and see what happens. They told him not to fill it in otherwise he could fry everything else. He tried it anyway because he is an idiot.
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The logic of just filling in a PCB hole with solder is baffling.
 
Why not just scrap your custom steal case and get something that fits all your components... ugh. What a complete waste of money. Wish I had the money to just ruin a GTX980ti like that and not give 2 shits about it.
 
I am hoping this is someone with a busted card who thought they would drill some holes and act stupid to get some attention...

If not....Wow, why would you mod a PCB over modding the mount/cooler? Not only is it less risk, it is also cheaper if you fuck up.
 
naib said:
There are a number of instances... usually it is to drill a via due to wrong tracking.
I have had to drill a reasonable sized hole due to a layout engineer used 100V clearance spacing not the needed 1500V. BUT I knew where to drill and it was a stop-gap until the respun cards came in
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I think the key is that you knew exactly where you could drill.
On a consumer board? That's really dangerous when you don't have the schematics.
 
Annnnddddd this is why you don't join a youtube based forum for tech related stuff. We have a 10k desk but they have a guy just randomly drilling into a video card. Jesus man. At least he could've TRIED to send it back to zotac before breaking it in half. I know its not completely ethical but the worst they could say is no.
 
My question is why didnt he just drill a different hole on the cheaper cooler to match his video card? That would have been my first thought, widen the screw hole on the cooler so it slid up to the position on the card. But hind sight is 20 20. Poor card....
 
Reminds me of when I killed a fresh 3770k with a delidding accident. I did 3 in a row, and on the 3rd one I was talking to some people and hit it parallel to the vice and not against it, chip went flying off and hit a cement wall and shattered the PCB. $400 brain fart.

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Hypergreatthing said:
I think the key is that you knew exactly where you could drill.
On a consumer board? That's really dangerous when you don't have the schematics.
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the key is GERBERS not schematics. Schematics tells you nothing about the board construction.

And yes as the design authority with the schematics and the GERBERS I was in a perfect place todo this, but read what I was quoting "erm... when is drilling into a pcb ever a good idea?"
Ever is the key part. There are times when it has to be done.

erm... when is drilling into a pcb ever a good idea, without design files" is something different
 
naib said:
the key is GERBERS not schematics. Schematics tells you nothing about the board construction.

And yes as the design authority with the schematics and the GERBERS I was in a perfect place todo this, but read what I was quoting "erm... when is drilling into a pcb ever a good idea?"
Ever is the key part. There are times when it has to be done.

erm... when is drilling into a pcb ever a good idea, without design files" is something different
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Glad you straightened that out for us. ;)
 
Late in life, this is how my father-in-law approached things. Drill holes, ask questions later, etc. I ALWAYS had to make sure I was home before he came to visit or he'd pull something like this before I arrived.
 
n3ckcutta said:
Why not just scrap your custom steal case and get something that fits all your components... ugh. What a complete waste of money. Wish I had the money to just ruin a GTX980ti like that and not give 2 shits about it.
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I know, right? You can get a pretty damn good PC case for all of $40 US. If you're spending $1,000 CAD on a video card the least you can do is spend a little extra for a proper case.
 
I hope this guy doesn't ever have children.

I'm no expert with limited electrical knowledge, but I know to never drill the pca.

A Google search or asking on a forum, would of been the first thing I did if I was in that guys shoes.
 
wonder if thats an Asus card..would be the first legit refusal of warranty for physical damage. lol
 
People dumb enough to drill a hole into a PCB shouldn't build their own computers (or own a drill or anything other than a pillow). Actually I take that back, he'd probably find a way to kill himself with his own pillow.
 
LOL, as soon as I saw the "welds" on his custom case I knew this guy should never try to mod anything.
 
Raffin said:
LOL, as soon as I saw the "welds" on his custom case I knew this guy should never try to mod anything.
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I kind of thought the same thing, I just assumed.....no hoped.....that it was a very very specific application. Slag everywhere, nuts/bolts instead of rivets. I didn't want to face that I was seeing a pattern emerge.

But again, it could be like a 20 year old that's just getting this stuff. So I will cut slack as I was there one time myself, and I can tell you around that age I did my first water cooled system and it was not pretty nor was it planned out well, but I was crazy proud of what I did. It didn't end like this, thank god.

My first engine rebuild didn't go real well, but I learned alot. So, that's all I'm hoping for for this guy.
 
I almost want to call shenanigans on this...It just seems too stupid.

Drilling a hole through a PCB and then going online to show people what you did? My God. If this is real then this individual deserves some sort of :facepalm: of the year award. That GTX 980 sure deserved better.
 
Found at Computer Stupidities under hardware abuse.
"I used to be a technician on the U.S.S. Ranger, an aircraft carrier, just before the Gulf War. A new commanding officer had just come on board, and, in preparation for our excursion out to Iraq, he ordered that we go through all our spaces and ensure that everything was secured in place, so that if we hit rough seas, or hit something explosive, there wouldn't be debris flying everywhere. Fairly standard routine.

About two days later, the Ranger's marine detachment called my shop and said, "Our computer is broken." So I head down to the detachment office to take a look. These PCs were the old Zenith Z-248 desktop models, secured with four zillion screws and weighing in at what seemed like half a ton. Our marines had taken the order to secure things pretty seriously, because they had done it with two half inch lag bolts. They had drilled straight through the case, the mother board, the bottom of the case, and the desk it was sitting on, to drop the lag bolts in place.

They couldn't figure out what was wrong, but they knew that it wasn't going anywhere."
​
BTW, I love these new forums and their features.
 
Seems like something Linus would do... The case looks like something thrown together in high school welding class.
 
NeghVar said:
Found at Computer Stupidities under hardware abuse.
"I used to be a technician on the U.S.S. Ranger, an aircraft carrier, just before the Gulf War. A new commanding officer had just come on board, and, in preparation for our excursion out to Iraq, he ordered that we go through all our spaces and ensure that everything was secured in place, so that if we hit rough seas, or hit something explosive, there wouldn't be debris flying everywhere. Fairly standard routine.

About two days later, the Ranger's marine detachment called my shop and said, "Our computer is broken." So I head down to the detachment office to take a look. These PCs were the old Zenith Z-248 desktop models, secured with four zillion screws and weighing in at what seemed like half a ton. Our marines had taken the order to secure things pretty seriously, because they had done it with two half inch lag bolts. They had drilled straight through the case, the mother board, the bottom of the case, and the desk it was sitting on, to drop the lag bolts in place.

They couldn't figure out what was wrong, but they knew that it wasn't going anywhere."​
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I have not laughed this hard in a long time!

Thank You Sir

Semper FI!​
 
naib said:
There are a number of instances... usually it is to drill a via due to wrong tracking.
I have had to drill a reasonable sized hole due to a layout engineer used 100V clearance spacing not the needed 1500V. BUT I knew where to drill and it was a stop-gap until the respun cards came in
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Yeah, but it sounds like you might be an electrical engineer and are familiar with the design of the device.

This reminds me of
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Should have just rammed a couple wood screws through the thing and called it a day.

I've drilled through PCBs before, but ones I had a part in designing. Why someone would even consider it for something like a GPU... Not to mention where you'd likely be drilling to mount a heatsink is likely where all the IO traces are.
 
PersonalJ said:
Yeah, but it sounds like you might be an electrical engineer and are familiar with the design of the device.

This reminds me of ...
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That is horrible. I feel bad for the kid because he is not only extremely gullible, but appears to be developmentally disabled. No one has so little common sense. Then explaining to his parents why he thought it was a good idea to nuke the battery and cook the laptop... man. At least the guy that drilled through the PCB did it on his own accord.
 
Is kinda funny........but is it possible to fix? Some of you guys could probably fix this right? or is traces pretty much impossible to fix?
 
That guy was clearly a noob pay someone with experience if you have no idea.

i've installed a aftermarket cooler on almost every video card i've had in the last 10 years and would never make a mistake like this.

And i can see someone drilling or modding the aftermarket cooler itself but drilling hole in the PCB of your expensive GPU no way dude that inexcusable.
 
primetime said:
Is kinda funny........but is it possible to fix? Some of you guys could probably fix this right? or is traces pretty much impossible to fix?
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Maybe, but there are several layers there and he would have wiped out all of them. Also an issue of the bit snagging a trace and literally ripping it out of the board. The top side looks like just a ground plane, but who knows what's under it. Odds are it's all power related as it's headed from the bus towards the FETs. Since he said sticking a screwdriver in there makes it smoke, the top and bottom layers are probably both power and ground for the card. Even without the screwdriver they're probably shorted now.
 
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