Card unstable after watercooling?

[straxxus]

As the title indicates, I Installed a waterblock, and now my 980 will no longer overclock at all without crashing the driver. Its a weird issue, because i never used to run into driver crashes when overclocking, normally just artifacts. I did change some stuff around as far as my power supply was concerned, and now have 4 hard drives on the same rail, i was thinking this might be the issue? does a gpu use the same rail as an hdd does? any other recommendations?
p.s. I already tried uninstalling/reinstalling newest drivers

 

[Zantal]

It shouldn't use the same rail, It may depend on the manufacturer though. (I am not sure as I am not an expert)

What I do know about though is something about watercooling, and more precisely if you didn't place the conctact pads correctly (those that go between chip and waterblock) you can have such issues. all it takes is 1 misplaced ram cap or the block not being evenly fixed to the card (less likely and very easy to spot)

Or your card was never great to being with.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

What PSU?
Is the GPU fully in the PCIe slot?

 

[straxxus]

My PSU is an evga supernova 750 g2, and yes, I did seat the card again into the slot and it didn't change anything. I think I'll pull the block apart and reseat/trim some of the thermal pads and see if that works.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

The PSU is almost certainly NOT the issue.

I think pulling the block is your best idea, let us know how it goes.

 

[Soulcatcher668]

Over tightening the mounting screws can cause problems as well. Make sure you are not bending the PCB when you reinstall after checking the thermal pads.

 

[straxxus]

Well, I took it all apart, trimmed the pads with an xacto knife, and re-seated the backplate a couple times for good measure, and my previous over clock now validates! No driver crashes yet. Temps are also a surprising 15° cooler. Thanks for the help!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Great news, fingers crossed it holds up!

 

[Zantal]

Yeah, I had the same issue, where one cap just decided to slip away unnoticed. Have fun with your new setup =)