Overheating Damage concerns...

Okay guys, so you have a right to call me an idiot, or just an overthinker, but I got 'lucky' on this one.

Last night I installed a GTX 260m into my G50vt-X1 and its smooth as butter. I had been using it today for a little bit and finally got around to looking at temps on the hardware using HWmonitor.

To my utter shock and dismay, i found the GPU temperature to be astronomically high... I took a screen capture of the temps to show you all:



Yes... this screen capture was taken AFTER I fixed the problem, which turned out to be that the heatsink was not seated correctly after I had installed the 260m and taken out the 9800m...

I was stupid and thought the GPU was misreporting temps, but I got wise to it and decided to open up GPUz and it was, again to my dismay, reporting the same temps as hwmonitor...

Now, the laptop didnt shut off during this time, it just kept on trucking, and it even ran things fine, until i decided to turn it off and crack it open.

I'm not receiving any artifacts or lines, etc... while playing SC2 beta, so would you guys say that this gpu's limited exposure to 309F temps was just a close call? Should I be worried about any damage considering that I have NO artifacts, and everything is running smoothly (and cool I might add... Idling at 45C now)

Thoughts?

- G

 

Anyone have an educated opinion (besides my own)?

 

Well.. not really educated opinion but i BAKE GPU's from laptops (well, did 4 times), Nvidia GF7950 GTX and it fixes them. Thats right, it fixes them good and they become "like new" because baking is the process how they are created.

The motherboard is inputed with the chip and all kinds of things, it goes on a belt through an oven where the temps are much higher (about 300+ C) for short time for contacts to all solder in and then its QC'ed.

GPU's are designed to withstand this heat so no damage done. However, the components around them are NOT.

Also, another bet could be on damaged heat sensor.. I got the same with my Rock laptop (in sig) where it is reporting temperatures like -43 C which is not exactly possible..

I would run the laptop, borrow from somebody heat measuring laser thing machine (sorry, not sure how is it called :S ) and check the readings compare to HW monitor.

Best of luck!

-Mel

 

I think i figured out the problem...

Here's what I feel the issue is:

9800m GS:



gtx 260m:



the thing surrounding the GPU is different on the gtx 260m and therefore, it is unable to make proper contact with the heatsink... I'm almost positive this is the problem here, and as such, I am wondering how I can go about remedying this problem...

 

Hmm, how does the heatsink encapsulation look like?

Could be sort of fixed with a thin but large layer of thermal non-conductive strip (like you have there on 2nd pic) eg. from Akasa or better brand which would make heat contact with the edges, passing the heat to the heatsink.

But thats just the theory.

-Mel

 

First off, I'd be suspicious those 150+ C readings. If a GPU got to around 118C, the computer would shut down to prevent (further?) hardware damage, much less something ridiculous like 154C. So I'm thinking something is buggy with the heat probe.

Now that you've reseated the heatsink, run some games or stress tests, and use something like EVGA Precision to monitor your GPU temperatures in real time. See if they get that high again.

As for the physical dimensions of the GPU, the die is slightly higher than that border-thingy the GTX 260m has going around it. The heatsink of the G50vt should work fine with it using normal thermal pasting. However, I would suggest getting a thermal assembly made for a GTX 260m just to be sure.

 

I just asked Forge for advice regarding this. I read somewhere about a copper shim, and I know hes the one who posted it, but I cant find the thread anywhere...

I hope he gets back to meee

 

Hey Forge, the problem isnt the thermal probe as when im idling on startup it reads low temps...

I feel that the problem is that its not seating correctly. Ive tried screwing on the heatsink and every time I try, it only hits a single corner with AS5.

Like i mentioned in my previous post, I saw something about a shim...?

 

Oh and as for finding the thermal assembly for the GTX 260m, its impossible... the estore has none in stock for the G51 or the G60, and I cant find one on ebay... Looks like Ill have to use this copper shim instead?

 

Probably. And don't use AS5, since you might need to use a thicker-than-optimal coat of TIM. Use something that still performs decent with thicker applications. I find that Arctic Cooling MX-3 is pretty good with that, though I'm sure other's can recommend it.

As for a shim, take a piece of copper--I used 0.0216''/16 oz/0.55mm thick copper--and cut it to fit the die. Now hammer and sand it until it's perfectly flat, and voila.