2nd GPU Not Detected (After repasting Thermal Paste)

Oh man.... Of all days, why does it have to happen today?

So, today, I found my Left Over Liquid Ultra and decided to perform a repaste.

And I opened up my heatsinks, only to find out, 2 screws were broken (not by the paste, but due to the false assumption by the Dell Engineer of using my screw driver). I then managed to clean the heatsinks, cleaning the DRIED UP LIQUID ULTRA, leaving behind horrible stains.

I then replaced the thermal paste with my MX4 as I didn't want to use CLU anymore. After then, I booted up the system only to find out, my 2nd GPU was NOT DETECTED. Whut?

Called Dell, dismantled everything twice and nothing fixed.

Does anyone here have the same issue or is it time for a motherboard change? I am losing faith with Alienware...

 

Hmm, are you tried to swap GPUs? 2nd in 1st slot and vice versa. So you will know is that GPU or MB issue.

 

Agreed try that.. I hope you haven't friend your GPU when repasting..

 

Hi guys, thanks for your replies. Sounds more like a motherboard issue.

But in the end, chances are, I probably can't put up with Alienware's nonsense any longer.

I have a HP Laptop which is 5 years old and that is about the same spec as my M14X. And it had no motherboard changes, runs cooler and only had a drive issue (which was then I replaced with an SSD).

 

i had this happen to me, taking them out and reinstalling fixed the issue

it's definitely possible the GPU was damaged during heatsink removal, or maybe SLI cable isn't clicked into the sockets fully

why did you downgrade from LU to MX4?

 

Because, I don't know what I did. the day I applied it correctly and according to how Brother Fox did (was watching his videos and threads)

That day when I opened it up, only to find out that all my liquid ultra is SOLIDIFIED. Stuck on the heatsinks and staining my GPUs and CPUs.

I was afraid to go back and I tried using the rough sponge and the alcohol to clean, but to no avail.

 

Yeow... I had a helluva bad time trying to remove the solidified CLU..

 

Is the residue around the CPU and GPU from your old paste? I hope it's not residue from the liquid ultra. It's probably from the older paste though, otherwise I'd assume your CPU would have issues as well. In the future, you should mask the components around the CPU/GPU die if you use any of these liquid metal pastes.

Also, you mentioned broken screws. Do you mean the threads are stripped? You can always replace those screws (or a stripped bracket) but be careful because stripped threads either on the screws or the bracket means metal shavings are falling in your laptop somewhere. Enough metal shavings can possibly cause a short of some kind. Unlikely, but possible.

 

The thing about CLU...it has to be airtight. The slightest air contamination, and it will dry out. I've had this happen on the 2920XM in my M18x R1, but not the 3920XM or 4930MX in the M18xR2 or Alienware 18. I had tried to cool the MOSFET behind the CPU with a slim thermal pad on the M18x R1...nope. created the slightest air pocket which I didn't even know existed, and boom...solid CLU and spiking temps. I replaced with a fresh coat of CLU and removed the thermal pad, no issues since.