• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Refurb 9800pro ... weird *pics inside*

P

Phranq

Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
842
So I ordered a 9800pro 128mb from refurb newegg and got a retail 9800pro atlantis with all the retail stuff that comes with it...but I opened the box and took out the card and of course there has to be a problem. A piece came off, is there any chance I can glue it back on myself? or is it not worth it so i should send it back.







 
The pictures aren't that clear, but it looks kind of like the heatsink on one of the MOSFETs or an IC. A very small dab of superglue should work just fine to reattach it. If you have a thermal epoxy it would be better, but....
 
Hard to really see detail since the pics are blurry, but it looks like a tiny
heatsink to me.

You can probably get some Arctic Ceramique and stick it back on yourself.

:edit:

lol Cross post.
 
Ok, its definately a little heatsink that should be attached to an IC , pretty much where you put it in the last picture. What I cant tell is if the heatsink tore off the IC with it between your second and third picture. It looks like it didnt though so just clean of any adheasive on the underside of the heatsink and put it back on with some arctic ceramic epoxy. If it did tear the IC off with it then definately send it back.
 
see in pic2...there is that black rectangle on the block...it's like a different shade of black than the rest of the bottom of the block. Is that bad? I can see the thing that it's off of and it looks ok.
 
I wasnt really sure if that black rectangle in pic2 was the actual IC, but it appears in pic3 that the IC is still on the card and fine. The color difference you are noting is just the white thermal adhesive on the underside of the heatsink and the black is the heatsink itself?? Get some pure isopobyl (sp?) alcohol and clean the underside of the heatsink off then get some new thernal epoxy and glue it back on and you should be good to go. Some plain white thermal paste with a tiny drop of super glue mixed in should even suffice in holding it back in place.
 
so what would happen if i fix it and then it decides to break a couple weeks later?
 
if you a really uptight about RMA'ing, send it back now, if not, reattach it, if it breaks within 30 days, send it back.
 
I'd send it back immediately! You paid for a GPU that is in 100% working and pristine condition and i'm sorry but I'd want what I paid for. End of story. I love newegg and shop there alot but if you don't get what you paid for then you need to make sure it gets fixed by newegg.
 
If the card works, then just place a little superglue to hold the sink on teh IC. You might want to use a little dab of thermal paste on it, but just dont use anything that has silver in it, you dont want it ot short out antyhing,k and then put a tiny bit of glue on it to hold it. and it will be fine.

Since its a refurb, i would make sure it works before your rma time is over. Maybe you got a really nice core that will OC well :) Just remember that the heatsink that is on the core sucks for the 9800s
 
I don't like to OC until the card works for a few months...so I won't hurt anything if I just put in the card without the little heatsink for 5 minutes to see if it works...no games or anything
 
if i rma to newegg what am i going to get back? I paid $86 for this card and they sent me the retail version of a $130 card...I don't mind what I get in the end as long as it's a 9800 pro that works for over a year at stock speeds.
 
if they have no more refurbs, they will only give you a refund. you will eat shipping
 
Newegg sent me a retail 9800 pro though...so what's Sapphire's policy about this? isn't there some sort of warranty?
 
Ok..

1. See that little button on your camera called Macro, press that, then take close-ups.
2. I wouldn't take an Atlantis card for $50, it's got a 128-Bit memory interface.
 
I have some "completely denatured" alcohol here...I've heard you want high concentration alcohol for cleaning off paste on computer equipment, but I'm not sure what exactly this is.
 
Phranq said:
see that little digital camera that my friend has...it takes pictures worse than my cell phone.
Click to expand...

Ah, judging by the clarity of the background of the pictures I thought it might be a descent camera...
 
nah, his camera sucks...it's old the view screen is all blurry and the standard view doesn't work...the picture it takes is off from where you pointed at...
 
Phranq said:
Newegg sent me a retail 9800 pro though...so what's Sapphire's policy about this? isn't there some sort of warranty?
Click to expand...

when you buy a newegg refurb it comes with what the original person who owned it sent back to newegg when they rma'd it, so if they sent everthing back to newegg than thats what you got, newegg usually list items as oem because sometimes they dont come with everything
 
how much paste should I put on? Should I put it on the heatsink the just place it on the IC, or push it to make sure it stays? I've never made a repair like this before.
 
Yeah we should be clear here. New egg refurbs are actually "refurbs" not refurbished. I guess "someone's else's return that very loosely seems to work per our tech dept" would hurt business. :p:

With pastes there is very clearly such a thing as too much. Just a liitle man. Most paste has one purpose, yours has two: to make it stick, and fill-in microscopic gaps for heat transfer from the chip to the heatsink. That's it, it's not special sauce, it's for gaps you mostly cant see. If you're not using thermal epoxy I guess you'd want as little as possible glue in the corners, something to hold it on. While youd still use thermal paste for heat transfer.
 
no, it's arctic alumina adhesive stuff...thanks. So real thin then? I just want enough so it runs and doesn't fall back off
 
Is alumina conductive? The reason I suggested arctic ceramique adhesive before was so that it if squished out from around the IC and covered some of the pins, then it would be non conductive and wouldnt short out the IC.
 
If it is...I'll be very mad at Arctic Silver, but their website explicitly states

Arctic Alumina Adhesive is a pure electrical insulator, neither electrically conductive nor capacitive.
Click to expand...


Edit: btw, fixed it, it's been running well for about 5 hours...hopefully it stays that way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top