GTX 580M burnt - probably of oily substance from thermal pads.

Hey all,
I've tried my best to find the proper part of the forum so this is what happened.

I've upgraded my Alienware m17x R3 with GTX 580M and i've placed new thermal pads - 2 weeks later my card burnt out with specific smell so after opening the laptop i see Oily substance on the chips and everywhere where were these pads - probably a short circuit

After 5 hours of googling and reading in the forums, i'm hitting you with the question - Is this oily leak substance from thermal pads electro conductive or should i look somewhere else for the problem.

After this happened i sow that my pads are 4.0W/mK and were thinking maybe because of their low thermal conduction they got so much leak ?
How about if i buy 11-12 W/mK pads - is there a chance to leak less because i read on other forum in which people are saying that it's normal to leak and usuasly it does not making problems but it was about desktop GPU-s.

Anyway I would be very grateful if you tell me good website for international delivery of thermal pads - Here in Cyprus you cant find NOWHERE and if it's possible maybe to guide me for better quality?

P.S. I'm posting a picture of this just to see what is all about and if somebody is wondering what pads to take maybe this will help him/her for the choice of thermal pads

P.S. The last picture in the right top corner you see 3 small chips (however they are called) that have burned.

 

Ohh darnit. That's definitely oil (or moisture, generally) that shorted the memory chips a bit (and also those transistors.) One question, do the memory chips rest upwards when you have the laptop right side up?

You probably got a low-quality thermal pad.

 

Yes, the memory chips rest upwards when the laptop is in proper position and there is few chips under the graphic card also ......

I don't understand much from thermal pads when i bought em so i just stick with not the cheapest ones there were on ebay and also i bought em from power seller with many feedbacks about theese thermal pads.

After todays investigation seems that at the moment in ebay there is no thermal pad with higher thermal conductive than 4.0W/hK

In Monday i will be able to take my old graphic card until i sort out the issue with this one (if there is any solution about it) So any wise ideas if there will be problem to tryin use the same thermal pads which leaked already ? Maybe they wont leak that much and lets say that if i use the laptop only for browsing and 2d movies NO GAMING maybe this won't be a problem for the next 2-3 weeks until those from frozencpu arrives ?

When i used it 3 days ago on Batman Arkham Asylum on full details it went on 76 celsius for a long time and didn't made any problems, and last night when i started the game again but on my Zalman cooling pad with 3D then the problem occured.

I'm really having no choice since you can't find even low quality pads in this country.

 

The burnt resistors suggest a strong short somewhere.

Oil is normally a non conductor unless contaminated. Your pads look like a high heat disaster.

Hopefully you have return rights on the card?

Using your old card will let you check your B+ rails if you have the means. Hopefully nothing was damaged by the higher TDP video card?


GL!

Hmm, those were caps which tend to be over voltage problem...

 

Oil should not conduct, people even do submersion cooling where they just put their computer in a vat of oil to cool it.

Those pads must have had moisture or they degraded into something that was conductive. Big bummer bro.

 

So i will try in Monday and since i don't have any other pads left i'll just clean with spirt (90% alcohol) the pads from the oil substance and will try just to see if it's working (wish me luck). If it works, i'll use it only for internet browsing and movie watching until i get back to my own country and then i'll secure nice thermal pads but still wish me luck

The old one is GTX 460M so it shouldn't reach so high temps to make so much oil and this should save it until i do something better after 2 weeks.

I just want to hear any last opinions about it, so if somebody has a sugestion or think that this experiment should't be done please speak now or remain silent forever

P.S.
I still need advice from where should i buy quality pads with international delivery. Thanks in advance guys, your help is much appreciated.

 

Here you have some operational servers submerged in mineral oil
Its far superior to traditional cooling. Don`t know if there is a difference between the oil from the pads or the mineral oil they use though. If I remember correctly people have successfully made french fries by pouring normal cooking oil over the desktop and dipping the french fries in it. I think there are some youtube videos about it



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Well ..... i can say only one thing ...... ""
Now back to the subject

After i finish with this i will post what happened. Since oil should't be the problem i guess that the humidity in Cyprus is over 90% and maybe something mixed up with the oil and did the short circuit or maybe it was a faulty graphic card - I do believe that Alienware m17x R3 is capable to handle with GTX 580M since this is the end up graphic card for this model (actually it worked with 675m also but i lost the 3D and this is different and long story) so i think my laptop should manage fine with this card anyway.

However let this thread be useful for somebody else and just in case if you wonder what thermal pads to find i STRONGLY RECOMMEND higher class thermal pads with thermal conductivity of 12.0W/mK in order to keep his GPU in most cooler condition and hopefully to avoid my fate

That's it, THANK YOU FOR THE HELP, any other comments about the subjects are wellcome - Thanks to all who wrote in such short timings.

 

I would not become too fixated on your pads. Any oil you see should be silicone based. Questions arise as to proper contact and surface cleanliness during install. Anyway 3M and Fujipoly seem to be popular. my old no name stuff was used without problems, sorry. Those looked like the memory chips that over heated.

Then again it could have been the odd video card that rolls over and dies. My old 7900gs comes to mind.

It sounds like you are stuck with the card so feel your pain. Good luck with your 460M.

 

Well, it's interesting because it worked about 2 weeks, and when i sold my old one in ebay i've send it in friday lunch time to the guy but since the collector passed already the card is in the poste office on 2 blocks away from home but nobody works at saturday or sunday here so i wait several more hours and i'll be infront the office before they start work Unfortunately (for both of us) i'll have to refund the buyer once i get my card but ..... i'm sorry my laptop is more important

P.S. My card burnt around 12 hours after i dispatched my old one - like on the movies right ?