Short curcuited video card

[joeperson]

I've been running 2x4850's in crossfire. They're both outfitted with the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2. Some of the older ram sinks (think something like this) fell off. In the process it seems to have short circuited some parts of the card.

It's possible the card isn't dead but I'll leave that for this weekend to find out.

Two Questions:
1. Is there something I can use to replace the original adhesive on the ram sinks?
2. If the card is dead would it be better to replace the broken 4850 with a new 4850 or wait and get some 58xx if they go on sale?

 

[crazyhorsejohnny]

If you can't rma the "broken" one then sell the other and upgrade.

 

[SugarJ]

1. Yes. NCIX.com - Buy Thermal Tape 3.5CM X3.5CM ( One Piece ) - Thermal-Tape- X -1 In Canada. or someone on here may have a whole roll and take pity on you.
2. Don't know.

 

[sswilson]

Where are you located?

 

[odis172]

can always mix a little epoxy and thermal grease together. 1:1:2 grease, epoxy, hardener - will never come off. May be a good thing or a bad thing

 

[joeperson]

The card is definitely broken. I pulled my system apart and tried to boot with just the broken card. Absolutely nothing gets to the monitor.

Some background:
There are a couple things that made my particular setup more prone to this problem. I'm currently using the Silverstone Raven R01 so instead of the vrm heat sinks failing onto the giant fin array of the Accelero and away from the card they fall down along the length of the card. The VRM heat sinks them selves are placed across a pair of vrm's and only a smaller part of the reduced surface area of the heat sink touches the vrms. The ram sinks are all still holding just fine.

At this point I'll probably pick up a 5850 in a few months.

 

[joeperson]

Thinking about getting this: BestByte.net - Discount Computer Hardware & Reliable Service: Thermal Compounds & Adhesives
or
Active Tech - Thermal tape
But I'm not sure if the stuff is really expensive or sold in large quantity. Anyone know what rls/cs means?

 

[joeperson]

no more advice?

 

[Lpfan4ever]

Try the oven bake method? I've never done it personally, but I know there's a couple people around here who did it and got their cards working again.
You'd have to find the specifics on it however (temperatures, precautions), as I'm not knowledgeable with that.

 

[mo' power]

What make are your cards? Are they under warranty? Is an RMA possible? If there are no scorch marks or physical damage to the card, return it to stock config and attempt an rma. If not, either buy another card and transfer the cooler or buy 58XX cards if you can afford it.