Radeon 9700, broken core?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
  • Start date Start date
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Bill

Just whipped out my ZM80A-HP manual. There is no mention of a riser/spacer.
If there were one, I would imagine it would be noted because it would
require knowing where it is so that the sink could be installed correctly.
I imagine some sort of markings around the riser/spacer would be necessary.
Also, in the instructions, it very clearly states to use extra heatsink
grease to compensate for the height of the spacer surrounding the GPU.
Click to expand...

I went and removed that metal shim. It wasn't even allowing the stock
cooler to contact the GPU. The Zallman Z80A works very well without it.

Bill
 
I just installed my new water-cooling system, and accidently broke a
itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny corner of the GPU core.
When I booted up the system, the picture on the screen was totally
****ed up.
I removed the gfx-card, and "polished" the core. I inserted it once
again, and everything worked just fine after a while.
I played some games, watched some DivX, shut down the computer, and
the next time I booted up, it worked just fine, but after a while the
problem went back.
What's wrong? Is the core broken?

Kristian Skjøtt
 
I just installed my new water-cooling system, and accidently broke a
itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny corner of the GPU core.
When I booted up the system, the picture on the screen was totally
****ed up.
I removed the gfx-card, and "polished" the core. I inserted it once
again, and everything worked just fine after a while.
I played some games, watched some DivX, shut down the computer, and
the next time I booted up, it worked just fine, but after a while the
problem went back.
What's wrong? Is the core broken?
Click to expand...

You think?
 
sounds like a badly mated cooler block, the core is overheating

I understand there is a spacer around GPU core that is slightly higher than
core. You need specially machined heatsink for 9700 GPU.

-Kent
 
-
Kent_Diego stood up at show-n-tell, in FNq6b.45126$cj1.22712@fed1read06, and
said:
I understand there is a spacer around GPU core that is slightly
higher than core. You need specially machined heatsink for 9700 GPU.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. I'm using the Zalman ZM80A on a 9700. The difference in
height between the spacer and the core, on my card, is very minimal.
 
I understand there is a spacer around GPU core that is slightly
Not necessarily. I'm using the Zalman ZM80A on a 9700. The difference in
height between the spacer and the core, on my card, is very minimal.
Click to expand...
Try it with a ZM80. The ZM80A was made to fit 9700 as it has recess for
spacer that ZM80 (and many other heatsinks) do not have. Its only a few
thousands of an inch too high but makes a big difference.

-Kent
 
My zalman heatsink has no recesses. It's perfectly flat.

-
Kent_Diego stood up at show-n-tell, in MKr6b.45155$cj1.18761@fed1read06, and
said:
 
Just whipped out my ZM80A-HP manual. There is no mention of a riser/spacer.
If there were one, I would imagine it would be noted because it would
require knowing where it is so that the sink could be installed correctly.
I imagine some sort of markings around the riser/spacer would be necessary.
Also, in the instructions, it very clearly states to use extra heatsink
grease to compensate for the height of the spacer surrounding the GPU.

-
Kent_Diego stood up at show-n-tell, in MKr6b.45155$cj1.18761@fed1read06, and
said:
 
I don't need to cull documents, from the web. I have the manual, in my
hand. I, also, installed the damned thing. It is flat.

-
Kent_Diego stood up at show-n-tell, in pAs6b.45176$cj1.24454@fed1read06, and
said:
 
Kent_Diego said:
Here is a description of problem:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1288

Zalman recommended a lot of thermal compound to fill gap in ZM80
instructions, a bad idea. They fixed this with ZM80A.

This shows picture of ZM80A with machining around heatsink about 0.003" to
fix spacer gap issue:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1323&page=3

The ZM80 had flat bottom, the ZM80A does not.
Click to expand...


NoNoNo..its not the "shim", I have taken that off. thats why i broke
the core.
but I think its strange that it didn`twork.. that worked agane.. and
now dont work.. så I not really sure if its bronken or not.
thanks
 
-
Bill stood up at show-n-tell, in (e-mail address removed),
and said:
I went and removed that metal shim. It wasn't even allowing the stock
cooler to contact the GPU. The Zallman Z80A works very well without
it.
Click to expand...

I found that I had to put the front plate of the Zalman on crooked (either
one did not fit exactly to the holes!) in order to get it on there snug. As
I said, earlier, the difference in heights on my card is very minimal
(almost nonexistent). I could see the footprint of the core, on the shim,
after removing it while trying to get the best fit (with just a thin coat of
thermal grease). Had it on there, for about a month now. No probs. Nice
and silent, too :)
 
when you broke the corner off the core you probly also put a small crack in
the core. try this underclock the card to keep it cool and see if it will
run. i remember reading years back some guy cracked a amd cpu and if he
underclocked it it ran fine but any time he clocked it at normal speed it
crashed. the crack is probly makeing it overheat due to the core not
spreading the heat like it shuld.
 
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