9800 GX2 Overheating Fix By F4C3.

[F4C3]

After playing Bioshock I noticed on the G15 EVGA Monitor the temps of both cores reached 106 degrees celcius. So I searched online for an hour for a fix and out of 100's of forums only one little topic. Re-seating the cards inside with Arctic silver 5. I was like hmmm, ok lets do this. So I pulled the card apart and was leary about the situation cuz of the amount of screws involved. But kept going until the hardest part which was the backing plat 2 philips screws that were almost impossible to get off cuz of the screw drivers I had. So use a boiler tech flathead to slowly unscrew them. After you pull those screws out you are about to undo the hex screws the the monitor plugs screw into and bingo you are able to gently "unseat" the cards one at a time. When you see the GPU on each card they are a mess. With horrible thermal compound on them and was saying to myself with the amount of crap on the GPU's I don't think this will work. I have a can of Flux Remover for PC Boards (16 Bucks, lasts forever) and heard of using alcohol which would prolly work too but the flux remover really beats the stuff off effortlessly. In a twisting motion spray the remover on the qtip and rotate the solution all around the GPU including the small capacitors around the chip (don't worry). Once done apply the Arctic Silver 5 (half pea size) onto the middle of the gpu. Re-seat and put screws back and repeat the process for the other card on opposite side. Put the case back together and plug in. You will notice that the temps right off the bat are like 30-40 degrees celcius!!! Idle they should be now 52-64! In-game they are now 70-82!!!! What a relief because I heard that the card die's at 110- 120. For those who have a little skill do this method and don't worry about it. If you decide to RMA the board for them to do it you are out 2-3 weeks without the card only to have them use the same garbage to re seat them with and 4 years later have the problem all over again! Thanks for listening. F4C3.