red plastic surrounding gpu chip

on my 9800m gs a.k.a. nvszg11000-a02 (thank you mcccomputers) graphics card, which im using in my notebook at the moment and had no handy pictures of it, there is a thin red plastic "film" surrounding the gpu chip. is this an integral part of the chip or can i remove this plastic and replace it without damaging the chip? if i can remove it without damaging the chip is there any advice on how? there is some type of really sticky adhesive or something under it. the reason i ask all this is because my graphics card, the 9800m gs, in question is screwing up (it wont load any directx or 3d acceleration, overheating while idle temp avg around 180-200+ degrees faranheit, when it does load the graphics card successfully say like after the laptop cools off while shutdown overnight then after a few minutes it just freezes up my pc. etc...) needs replaced or fixed and im so broke at the moment so i cant pay the 300 dollars for a replacement. i have been reading all of the forums around the internet for some days now about "reflowing" or "baking" your card (especially 8800gtx's) to repair potential "cold solder joints". i am afraid of this red plastic not being able to take the 385 degrees farenheit. thank you to anyone for reading. please help me

 

anyone? please!???

 

If this is a layer of plastic, it will prevent the thermal grease from making proper contact with the heat-sink and thus will insulate it like pigs in a blanket.

 

Seen it before on some chips. No biggie to leave or remove as long as the chip is DIRECTLY exposed to the thermal grease and heat sink. Which I'm sure it is.

 

They add it in the factory to prevent getting thermal paste on the rest of the CPU because the cheap goop they use is electrically conductive and can short out the chip if it gets on there. But if you use something like IC Diamond, no worries. In any case make sure the goop stays on the chip and nowhere else, otherwise clean real well with alcohol.

You can remove it and I would if you're baking it. Otherwise it'll be like a Shrinky Dink.

 

outstanding answers! perfect! thank you! the information was exactly what i was looking for and fast too...i am very impressed with this site!...i have one final question about alcohol vs the graphics card...is there a part of the card that can be damaged by the alcohol or can any of the components get damaged by the alcohol? rubbing alcohol specifically

 

Rubbing alcohol won't damage your card so long as it is all dried off before you try powering on your notebook with it

 

Try to get the highest concentration alcohol you can. 99% and above are best because it has the least amount of water and least likely to leave residue that could cause short issues too. But if you do a thorough job and make sure it's spic and span, there shouldn't be a problem. Also, I use soft paper towel. cotton balls get their fuzzies stuck everywhere. I even use q-tips to get around the perimeter of CPU itself if there's some goop residing there.

 

thank you very much. i was relieved when the red plastic "sticker" came right off no prob and left very little adhesive that also wiped right off with alcohol pads. i baked the 9800m gs and replaced the sticker...im running the same card right now and the computer behaves the same as prior to baking the card. same problem with graphics acceleration. atleast it didnt make the card not work