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Attention PNY Ti4200 owners (others too?)

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InThrees

Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2003
Location
Southeast US
I just had my box apart to reapply a thinner layer of AS3 to the core/HSF junction (success, lower temps!) and while I was in there, I decided to pull my Ti4200 to dust the heatsink.

My Ti4200 has a flat aluminum heatsink held on by two plastic spring pins with the spreading tips that go through holes on the card and spread to hold the pins in place. I thought to myself that it wouldn't be difficult at all to remove the HSF and replace whatever cheap stock gunk PNY used with AS3, so I decided to go for it. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to compress the 'spread' and back them through the hole.

When I pulled it off, I immediately wished I had a digital camera, because what I saw was downright dissapointing. First, the machining on the base plate is downright DISSAPOINTING. We're talking rough grooves here. Unfortunately, I don't have the materials on hand to lap it, or I would have. Second, the thermal compound used was the white paste variety, and it DIDN'T EVEN COVER THE CORE COMPLETELY.

Needless to say, I was glad I investigated. I carefully cleaned the HSF and the GPU to remove all the old white gunk, and applied new thin layers of AS3 to ensure complete coverage.

I haven't tried increasing the core's speed yet, so I can't say for CERTAIN that there is improvement there, but on the other hand, what I did *HAS* to be better than the job of the bored diffident monkey working the assembly line.

Something to check out if it concerns you.
 
Yeah I noticed that on my old PCI MX 420 (the paste and incomplete covering of the core). I recently purchased a Raptor ti4200 (at CompUSA for $80) and I'll probably check it out this weekend and replace whatever paste they used with some AS3.
 
eeps! ive got a pny gf4 4600, ive had no problems so far with overheating but iam planning on water cooling it so iam not particualy worried about it. ill check it out now and take a pic if possible.
 
woohoo! i won't be removing anything. it seems to have. erm melted on doesn't seem to be any damage to the card but the actual heat sink is stuck on the only way i recon i can get it off is by fileing the end of the spring clips off. also there are traces of clear plastic glue around the heat sink. i hope that the heatsink is glued down rather then fused down :S eerk.

i tried compressing the spring pins on the other side of the card but all i managed to do was rip up the plastic pins smaller then the hole but still no movement.

luckly ive already bought my gf4 wc block so no worries, the chip hasn't melted so far ill just put off the ocing till the wc kit is in.
 
in removing my heatsink (MSI card) I had to remove a locking pin from each leg, only then could I press the barbed ends together. I grabbed the pin from above (it was a thin part sticking out of the thick leg) and pulled it out from above, the rest was obvious.

I also had to put my card in the freezer for a few minutes because they used some sort of thick sticky tape in addition to the pins.
 
It's gotta be attached somehow - if there's no mounting hardware, it must be epoxied on. (Which could be good? You'd think someone epoxying a heatsink onto a GPU would take a little care?)
 
I've never done it personally, but reading here I've seen people who have either used a hair dryer to heat the heatsink to 'just beyond touch-comfortable' or put their cards in the freezer.

After that, there's a common theme - use a credit card or something as a leverage base to protect the video card, and use a thin bladed screwdriver or knife or something to gently pry the edges of the HSF away from the gpu. Some people mentioned twisting, others mentioned moving the credit card from side to side to side and prying at each corner, etc.

Be careful.
 
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