Best Graphics Card Repair Business in the United States?

[pio]

24 minutes ago, HeyItsChris said:

I think I have dried up soap in between pins still and possible under the what mPGA or BGA or whatever you call it?  The Silicon chip, underneath it where the pins are might be dirty from when I used hand soap to clean it the first time (what an idiot i am) but its a lesson learned.  I think I can still fix it just need the right stuff & a bit of time.

What are you doing using soap on a GPU???????????

Dude, I think that cards dead.  

Stop powering it up, like I said the other day.  Take it FULLY apart.  Clean it with alcohol THOROUGHLY.  Let it dry for DAYS.  And then put it back together and give it a go.

It's PROBABLY dead at this point though.  Those photos you showed earlier are not a good sign at all.  That's probably dead VRAM.

[pio]

Double post but whatever I don't care:

NEXT TIME you get a GPU wet (with any wet substance)

Take it FULLY apart
Clean it with ALCOHOL (not soap)
Let it dry FULLY for literally DAYS
Put it back together with new TIM and new thermal pads (or putty)
And THEN try it out

Do not EVER try to turn on previously wet electronics (in general) without doing this.  Or you WILL have a bad time.

[LabRat]

51 minutes ago, HeyItsChris said:

I think I have dried up soap in between pins still and possible under the what mPGA or BGA or whatever you call it?  The Silicon chip, underneath it where the pins are might be dirty from when I used hand soap to clean it the first time (what an idiot i am) but its a lesson learned.  I think I can still fix it just need the right stuff & a bit of time.

Take this as a learning experience: Soap is salty and full of conductive ions. Don't use 'soap'.
(at least, not on components like mobos, add-in cards, etc. Ex. I'm having to replace my KB, from repeated 'washing abuse'. But, it was a $5 Goodwill RedDragon So, *shrug*)

Since, there's been power thru the card w/ generalized high-resistance shorts, I'd say there's a 90+% chance that even a professional would decline repairs.
The issues are likely systemic across the card, now.

Into the future...

If you clean w/ water, never use 'soap', rinse with tap water then, rinse w/ distilled water then, lastly w/ high-purity alcohol.
Leave to dry 3-7days passively or 1 full day in the hot airflow of a heat-pump dehumidifier.

Straight 70-91% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol will 'take care of' most 'gunk' and even food spilled on components (I have an embarrassingly large amount of experience with that, BTW) 

The 'best' or at least 'simplest/easiest with most cleaning-potential' method is to use an aerosol low-flash point cleaner like:
CRC QD Electronic Cleaner
CRC Electrical Parts Liquid Cleaner

(Note, the QD stuff, is a LOT less 'nasty' than the literal Dry Clean Chemical in the other stuff but, still must be used in a ventilated area, preferably outside.)

 

As a Hail Mary of sorts, you *could* pick up some CRC stuff to have on hand, and give it a try on the damaged card. Just, read the instructions/warnings; QD Electonic Cleaner is made for this use (nooks, crannies, mixed materials)

 

 

  

26 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

What are you doing using soap on a GPU???????????

Dude, I think that cards dead.  

Stop powering it up, like I said the other day.  Take it FULLY apart.  Clean it with alcohol THOROUGHLY.  Let it dry for DAYS.  And then put it back together and give it a go.

It's PROBABLY dead at this point though.  Those photos you showed earlier are not a good sign at all.  That's probably dead VRAM.

Edited January 28 by LabRat

[HeyItsChris]

Thank you everyone for the advice.  So whats the chip called exactly nowadays that the silicon is on?  Also I think underneath the chip is where the problem is & I think I'll try & source some 99% isopropyl alcohol & some of that good high quality CRC cleaner you speak of, can I get it at ACE hardware or Walmart even preferably?  Do they sell 99% isopropyl alcohol at Walmart, i thought they only sold up to 91%...  Thanks

[pio]

2 minutes ago, HeyItsChris said:

Thank you everyone for the advice.  So whats the chip called exactly nowadays that the silicon is on?  Also I think underneath the chip is where the problem is & I think I'll try & source some 99% isopropyl alcohol & some of that good high quality CRC cleaner you speak of, can I get it at ACE hardware or Walmart even preferably?  Do they sell 99% isopropyl alcohol at Walmart, i thought they only sold up to 91%...  Thanks

The die?  Or are you talking about the actual GPU socket that the die sits on?  Not sure what you'd technically call it tbh.  I also just woke up too lol.

 

Anything 70%+ is fine, but definitely want 90%+ if you can for cleaning electronics.  70% is fine though, just takes longer to dry.

[HeyItsChris]

Well boys, I got er' done.  I pulled that Vega 56 red dragon apart,  gave it a nice isopropyl alcohol bath & threw it on tin foil balls, threw it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.  I have a proud announcement, it's working beautifully now.

[pio]

31 minutes ago, HeyItsChris said:

Well boys, I got er' done.  I pulled that Vega 56 red dragon apart,  gave it a nice isopropyl alcohol bath & threw it on tin foil balls, threw it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.  I have a proud announcement, it's working beautifully now.

[HeyItsChris]

Only problem is the fan now seems off and on, and can't control it by msi afterburner unless i screwed something up with applying Soft Power Play Tables at it.  

[LabRat]

17 minutes ago, HeyItsChris said:

Only problem is the fan now seems off and on, and can't control it by msi afterburner unless i screwed something up with applying Soft Power Play Tables at it.  

Judging by the reported symptom(s), yes. It's likely software-side. 
I've had my Vega be recognized as yet-another of the same card, and the old card be stuck in hidden devices.

IIRC, this is why everyone spams "Run DDU in safemode", and are right to do so. 

 

BTW: Congratulations!
I've only ever once had such luck (with a freebie eWaste laptop, IIRC)

Edited March 2 by LabRat

[HeyItsChris]

I reinstalled WHQL-R-ID-Software-Hybrid-24.1.1KB-Beta-AFMF-24.10.01.03-Jan5-Win10-Win11-PolarisVegaNavi-Nebula & still cannot control the fan & it's not turning on in game and the hotspot gets hot.  It's doing great overwise its in need of some fan action.  How do I test the fan in windows?  I tried msi afterburner and amd radeon settings to no avail.

 

*UPDATE*
I think its a driver problem with R.ID because the official 24.1.1 has the fan working.

Edited March 2 by HeyItsChris

[HeyItsChris]

Doesn't matter which driver I'm on, I tried 24.1.1 R.ID driver & 24.1.1 official & 23.1.1 official all do the same thing.  The fan turns on for about 30 seconds, then turns off.  Why?

 

I wanted to change some fan parameters.  What should I change?  I know the fan rpm max is 4,000rpm & I want the fans to go 100% at 48*C.

 

Thanks

 

[LabRat]

1 hour ago, HeyItsChris said:

Doesn't matter which driver I'm on, I tried 24.1.1 R.ID driver & 24.1.1 official & 23.1.1 official all do the same thing.  The fan turns on for about 30 seconds, then turns off.  Why?

 

I wanted to change some fan parameters.  What should I change?  I know the fan rpm max is 4,000rpm & I want the fans to go 100% at 48*C.

 

Thanks

 

"Enable ZeroRPM" should probably be off.
I've had issues with that on my Vega(s) (the 6500 XT is fine being left as-is, for w/e reason)

 

Also, the acoustic limit, I typ. set to 0, to disable. 

 

%s aren't reliable, and RPM-sense can be errant*

Found this out myself, and even my 'stock cooling' Vega 64 never can go to "100%" due to age/tolerances of the blower. 

 

I'm also not 100% sure as to the construction and circuitry for the fan controller. It's not impossible that it's damaged. 
*-RPM sense and PWM control are both flavors of 5V TTL (IIRC).*So, disruptions or errant/reflected signals/feedback can make things go wonky.

edit: maybe do another through cleaning w/ toothbrush and alcohol in/around the fan header, and any ICs+board components connected to it? A high-resistance short somewhere could be 'knocking' the fan controller into a safe mode of sorts.

ex. the SanAce80 contra-rotating server blower I have on my MI25/WX 9100, reports absolutely unreal and wild RPMs. I'm about 99% sure it's some kind of 'crosstalk' with co-located PWM control signal, or EMI-issue from the 2x 2.25A motors. (Not impossible the fan is reporting RPM by a different standard, too)

 

Worst Case Scenario: You can re-wire or adapt the blower to be mobo-controlled.
IIRC, You only need the PWM line ran to a fan header.
Though, separately powering the blower will give a teensy bit of TBP headroom. (IIRC, the Vega stock blowers can draw like 25-50+W at peak)

Edited March 2 by LabRat

[Sir Beregond]

On 29/01/2024 at 11:52, HeyItsChris said:

Thank you everyone for the advice.  So whats the chip called exactly nowadays that the silicon is on? 

Well the actual silicon die is on the substrate (the little PCB its attached too) which is then soldered to the main PCB via BGA.

 

13 hours ago, HeyItsChris said:

Well boys, I got er' done.  I pulled that Vega 56 red dragon apart,  gave it a nice isopropyl alcohol bath & threw it on tin foil balls, threw it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.  I have a proud announcement, it's working beautifully now.

Wow, nice job. I figured it was dead and done.

[HeyItsChris]

Check out the performance & the thermals are spectacular.

 

 

[LabRat]

12 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

Well the actual silicon die is on the substrate (the little PCB its attached too) which is then soldered to the main PCB via BGA.

On HBM-equipped and MCM GPU designs, I believe "The Interposer" is the pedantically-correct answer. 

12 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

Wow, nice job. I figured it was dead and done.

Yeah. I was surprised too.

It gives me hope for the MI25 I neglected and let get 'tossed around' nekkid (now artificing).
[TBF, I was sanding cupronickel, copper, and silver nearby it, and using it as a test-fitting model. It's likely more perma-damaged than OP's Soap-washed card.]

[HeyItsChris]

This is the fan profile im using to achieve this kind of thermal performance.

 

[LabRat]

4 minutes ago, HeyItsChris said:

This is the fan profile im using to achieve this kind of thermal performance.

 

Oh. I See. Nice.
Are those are connected to the Card's header? If so, do you have only the Gnds, +12Vs, and PWMcontrol leades of each respective fan "bonded".
(You'll want to leave the RPMsense disconnected from all but 1 fan. Otherwise, the 2-pulse RPM 'read' will see MANY pulses)

[HeyItsChris]

 

[HeyItsChris]

Here's what it looks like.

[HeyItsChris]

Another 4K gameplay video testing out R.ID 24.2.1 for Vega 56/64 and my undervolt and overclock.

 

[LabRat]

5 hours ago, HeyItsChris said:

Another 4K gameplay video testing out R.ID 24.2.1 for Vega 56/64 and my undervolt and overclock.

 

Not *quite* stable:


Dang close tho. (and, pretty solid 60FPS w/ the settings in Radeon Settings)

 

Since your temps looks *fantastic*, maybe let 'er have a lil more vCore?

[HeyItsChris]

@LabRatFor some reason I cannot view that image you posted...  Also it's stable, it has texture streaming issues because I'm running the game on a HDD & the game notifies me saying low streaming bandwidth due to slow HDD.  If it was running on a SSD, it wouldn't have missing texture issues.

 

By the way Vega only allows undervolting, I couldn't get it to go above 1.200v, but it did report 1.244v at one time.

 

Thanks.

[pio]

24 minutes ago, HeyItsChris said:

@LabRatFor some reason I cannot view that image you posted...  Also it's stable, it has texture streaming issues because I'm running the game on a HDD & the game notifies me saying low streaming bandwidth due to slow HDD.  If it was running on a SSD, it wouldn't have missing texture issues.

 

By the way Vega only allows undervolting, I couldn't get it to go above 1.200v, but it did report 1.244v at one time.

 

Thanks.

Can confirm, I've seen similar artifacting on Forza Horizon 5 as well, loading off a HDD on an older system.  Those "artifacts" absolutely DO look suspicious, but if that's the only title doing it.....its likely not a problem, and I'd lean more towards the HDD being the culprit too.

[LabRat]

34 minutes ago, HeyItsChris said:

@LabRatFor some reason I cannot view that image you posted...  Also it's stable, it has texture streaming issues because I'm running the game on a HDD & the game notifies me saying low streaming bandwidth due to slow HDD.  If it was running on a SSD, it wouldn't have missing texture issues.

 

By the way Vega only allows undervolting, I couldn't get it to go above 1.200v, but it did report 1.244v at one time.

 

Thanks.

:doh: The image might've corrupted; prolly my VPN+network load. Sorry about that.

Yes. As you explain(ed) it, 'texture streaming issues' makes sense. After you mentioned that, I was reminded of Id's RAGE. 

 

IIRC, you cannot 'configure' over 1200mv, that's correct.
As you've seen, certain vBIOS may have the LC V64/FE / 300W-MI25 1250mv max powerstate.

TBQH, I'm still impressed this card was non-functional from soap residue not long ago, and now is running like a champ.

Edited March 13 by LabRat

[HeyItsChris]

Thank u so much yeah man its running amazing.  I bought 3x AUB0912VH fans to replace the 4x AUB0712VH.  Can you confirm the cfm output of the AUB0712VH vs AUB0912VH?

 

Yeah the Liquid BIOS is 1.2v as well but with tighter power and temp limits so it's just cooler, not faster.  The Red Devil Vega 64 BIOS is superior imo.

 

Thanks again