Re: Thermalright HR-03+ Ramsink Adhesive Tape.... DON'T USE!!!!

[Andrew LB]

Today I perfectly cleaned up all the spots where the ramsinks were supposed to go and while they seemed pretty weak, i used them anyways.

After an hour or so, one fell off my upper 8800GTS SLI card and shorted out the lower 8800GTS. And since they were in SLI..... BOTH CARDS GOT FRIED!!!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163450


Use Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive instead!

edit: This is worth a sticky IMO.

[Postal Dude]

Any sort of warranty thing you can claim on. Thats like £500 worth of equipment because of some dodgy manufacturing and poor choice of materials. I think thermalright should foot the bill for those things

[zanzabar]

did u use the right cleaning products to remove the thermal film form the ram otherwise tape dosnt stick

[Airbrushkid]

I'm with zanzabar. You may think there clean but your wrong. I used several different types of cleaners. But not until I actually used automotive lacquer thinner that they where really cleaned and the tape stuck. Mine have been on for about 4 days now and been running about 15 hours a day. And they haven't fell off yet.

[Airbrushkid]

Just think how many people have used them and they haven't fallen off yet...

[jimmyz]

I put some blue Zalman sinks on a x700 pro when i bought the card (long, long time ago, 2yrs?) the sinks wouldn't even stay put long enough to put it in the slot. so i used acetone to clean the chips, and it has been in and out of at least 4 pc's and sat in a drawer for a few months and those sinks are still rock solid. I would be afraid of removing them.

[Andrew LB]

did u use the right cleaning products to remove the thermal film form the ram otherwise tape dosnt stick


Yes, i know how to properly clean heat sinks and surfaces like memory chips. I've installed aftermarket ramsinks on over two dozen cards and have never seen this occur before.

The best stuff i've used for years is called "goof off" adhesive remover which smells pretty much like acetone and takes off really tough glue very well. It's also awesome at removing thermal grease or compounds like Arctic Silver. It dries really fast and then I finish the job with either isopropyl alcohol that is over 90% or ideally Arctic Clean (which is what i used today).

Just think how many people have used them and they haven't fallen off yet...

I'd bet a lot of the more experienced guys tend to use AS5 with dabs of super glue in the corners like I used to...

I put some blue Zalman sinks on a x700 pro when i bought the card (long, long time ago, 2yrs?) the sinks wouldn't even stay put long enough to put it in the slot. so i used acetone to clean the chips, and it has been in and out of at least 4 pc's and sat in a drawer for a few months and those sinks are still rock solid. I would be afraid of removing them.

Gotta be careful with acetone or goof-off since they tend to corrode certain plastics and metals. But the stuff works wonders.

[LuckyNV]

not the first time I've heard of falling ram sinks

assuming you cleaned each RAM chip as you said, you must then firmly press and hold each RAM sink in place for up to 15-20 seconds, it will hold well like that.

I learned that method with VF700, a couple of ram sinks fell off simply because I didn't put enough pressure for long enough. My HR-03 sinks held on first time.

its worth testing the cards in another motherboard, just to make sure its not the motherboard slots or something.

[Airbrushkid]

Well maybe I'm smarter then the ones that had theres fall off. Because mine are still on. My 6600 Gt and a 6800 Gt OC still have theres still stuck to them...

[jtf2]

i just put a small dab of crazy glue on each hs.
not going to fall off,and if i need to remove them,just a little twist and they come off easily

[xenoasd]

one of my heatsinks didnt stick so i removed the thermal tape and used some as5. works like a charm. the others sticked pretty good.

[Origin_Unknown]

here's my reply from your other thread;

I really fail to understand why people keep saying that rubbish? i use the tape that was supplied and mine isnt falling off. one of them wasnt as sticky as the rest but after a quick burn in using ati tool the thing is now on and will only come off if i pull it off :rolleyes:


also one ram sink falling off isnt going to kill both your cards, you'll find its something you've done when mounting them

[Empty_Quarter]

Even though the tape is weak, it sticks in place for me, unless I knock it off. It has never fallen off on its own. Im assuming after reading this thread that using AS5 will allow a better bond?

[swaaye]

Oh I would just never trust thermal tape. I've been down that road, many years ago with older vid cards. That's why I don't own one of these Thermalright coolers. Their design to use tape is ridiculous. I have extreme doubts about those staying on for any significant amount of time.

[Andrew LB]

Well maybe I'm smarter then the ones that had theres fall off. Because mine are still on. My 6600 Gt and a 6800 Gt OC still have theres still stuck to them...

Smarter? Ha! I’ve been doing this for over 15 years now and know exactly how to properly clean heatsinks and apply proper pressure. I find it extremely offensive that you have the audacity to infer that I’m “not as smart as you” simply because this incident occurred.





Chances are I just got a bad batch because they all got screwed up and were very weak even after proper application. I know many of you are thermalright fanboys, much like myself… but this is bull$hit.

Also…. When I spoke with the guys at EVGA, they said if one SLI card gets shorted…. It can easily short the other due to the SLI bridge connecting the two.
And to make sure there is no motherboard issues, I specifically went and got another cheap video card and it works PERFECTLY in both slots with no issues. It’s not the board, its not my ram, its not the PCI-E sockets….. IT WAS THE RAMSINK THAT CAME OFF.

[Origin_Unknown]

*sigh* so what if you've "been doing it for 15 years" accidents can happen.

To 'flame' a company for something that may or may not have been related to a heatsink falling off its obsurd. Many, Many people use that heatsink with the thermaltape and its ok.

[Airbrushkid]

You are right!!


*sigh* so what if you've "been doing it for 15 years" accidents can happen.

To 'flame' a company for something that may or may not have been related to a heatsink falling off its obsurd. Many, Many people use that heatsink with the thermaltape and its ok.

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

i ignore that some have had success, like andrew & many others (and not just on here) ... i didnt! i know what im doing and out of all the ramsinks only 2 stuck and i applied them ALL the same.

to use the mother of all phuck upts - assumption that because the first few were installed with no issue that all future models will be without issue is ludicrous. manufacturing defects, bad batches & even a change of supplier components can make all the difference to a manufacturer's product.

the TRUE's mounting pressure is a damn good example. so think before telling people they havent installed it incorrectly. if only one or two people report it, fine, but when its 100's .... well its common sense really? there are so many products that have suffered issues since its release, no matter how awesome and perfect they were. remember the a, c and s panels of the 226bw? the 22" WT, WTQ, WTQ-F, WTQ-S etc? list goes on!

i mentioned my thoughts on the poor adhesive of the ramsinks on my thread on lapping the 8800gpu & HR03 :

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163273

feel free to tell me i or andrew we dont know what we are doing. there is a degree of common sense here when reading all these complaint, and unfortunately andrew has lost out (big time). sorry andrew, i bet you are gutted!

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

Even though the tape is weak, it sticks in place for me, unless I knock it off. It has never fallen off on its own. Im assuming after reading this thread that using AS5 will allow a better bond?

i wouldnt trust just thermal paste to hold it on. i have some thermal epoxy on 2 corners of each of my ramchips and as5 in the middle

so far so good. 41 idle and little over 50 load with a slowish 90mm fan (silenX - BOO) - going 120mm scythe tomorrow.

and as the guy said above, thermal paste has been known to perform poorly, but its often been put down to a bad batch, which is probably the case

[Bbq]

I have a Thermalright HR-03.
It comes with heatsinks with the double sided tape. There are 10 of the heatsinks on the card.

Only 3 remained due to the tape not sticking.

I just took the last 3 off.


Thanks for the warning.

[Rattle]

so can someone put these on the IC's and not make a permanent bond and not have to worry about them falling off? does glue ruin the thermal properties?
Is there some kind of tape that superior this defective stuff that TR uses ?

[zanzabar]

thermal apoxie dosnt its made to transmit heat through itself

but relay it comes down to cheeking it befor u put in the case and removing the thermal film (thermal right has a warning on thier website)


http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_support_faq_hr03.htm#q13
Question13:


I purchased a unit of HR-03 but I find that the adhesive thermal pad is not sticky enough and the ram sinks are constantly falling off.
Answer:


Some video card manufacturers have special layer of treatment on the top surface of their video memory chips to further help heat transfer. That’s why we strongly suggest that before installing the RAMsinks, the surface be cleaned with rubbing alcohol to achieve best condition for adhesive.

[SaII]

did you hold the ram sink down for 10 secs?

[Andrew LB]

and unfortunately andrew has lost out (big time). sorry andrew, i bet you are gutted!

Yes... and no.

Luckily the extremely nice guy at EVGA I spoke with has agreed to let me RMA the cards even after I told him about them having Thermalright HR-03+ coolers on them and the incident with the ram sink. The kid was really cool about everything and after he got all my information, he struck up a conversation about what kind of PC I have. He was extremely impressed with what I was running and I think that the fact that I actually knew what I was talking about when it came to all the technical speak, helped the outcome and his decision to RMA.

The kid is also a computer modder and has a quad as well. He had to 'one up' me by throwing in that he has dual BFG OC Edition 8800 ultras, a QX6850 Quad Extreme.... and some fancy water cooling setup.

Nice kid though. Started to get me thinking about looking into a different line of work.

Even though the tape is weak, it sticks in place for me, unless I knock it off. It has never fallen off on its own. Im assuming after reading this thread that using AS5 will allow a better bond?

How did you get that idea? I'm talking about re-applying all the ramsinks with Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive.

I've used the stuff in the past in two applications. I've tried both methods, the first of which is to do a super thin layer of the thoroughly mixed two part adhesive on the whole memory chip and apply pressure with these rubber padded clamps that are spring loaded. They're made for keeping bags of potato chips closed after you fold the open end of the bag. They work great and apply good pressure without risking damage of the card.

The second method is similar with the "chip clip" but I use a small dab of the mixed adhesive on each corner of the memory chip and then some AS5 in the center.

From my experience though, I don't think the as5+adhesive method would yield any significant results over the other technique. maybe 1-2'c IMO.


did you hold the ram sink down for 10 secs?

I centered the ram sink on the memory chip and used the little "potato chip clip" i described earlier in this post to keep excellent pressure on it and to ensure it doesn't slide around because when you use your fingers, the ram sinks tend to move around a little.

oh... and I left the clip on each ram sink for 30 seconds.

[Origin_Unknown]

zanzabar in relation to your quote, i just used my finder to remove that layer ;)

[zanzabar]

that makes since but i have a 9600xt and i couldent get sinks to stick no mater what with tape i tried 91% iso, the arctic silver cleaning stuff and some frys brand stuff and none worked to make them stick so there is something on some chips

[Ar3s]

had no issue with my thermalright ramsinks sticking on. the zalmans even the fatal1ty range were horrible... had to buy arctic silver adhesive to stick it on for good. only found out recently of microcools thermal tape. great stuff.

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

great news about the RMA andrew

[Tulatin]

Hey, of course, having a big conductive object shorting together a bunch of sensative electronics won't be problematic at all. Hell, giving a 1.2v core 12v is good for it!

Yeah, i've had plenty of non-stick thermal tape in my time. Swiftech's "premium white pads" are on par with 3M's Tape for evil - and oddly, Zalman's Blue sinks are the ones that adhered best for me.

[Retro]

I was leery about using the thermaltape on my installation, even before I installed mine I read enough posts on forums about the tape not working well on HR-03+ ramsinks.
I don't recall where I read it but I saw where a guy lightly sanded the ram chips in addition to thorough cleaning with isopropyl. That's what I did to mine, I used 1500 grit although 1000 grit worked fine also. Very light sanding, then thorough cleaning with isopropyl. I only used two of the stock TR aluminum sinks, two of the low profile ones under the heatpipes and the stock hsi heatsink. The rest I replaced with two different types of Thermaltake copper ramsinks. I would have preferred Enzotech sinks but they are hard to obtain and expensive here.
The Thermaltake copper sinks were quite a bit heavier than the TR sinks but stuck great after sanding the ram chips:up:

[Andrew LB]

Well.... in preparation of sending the cards to EVGA, I did an extremely thorough examination of both PCB's and didn't see anything that looked out of the ordinary. Not burnt traces, discolored solder points, areas where a heat sink would have left a mark if it bridged a circuit it shouldn't have.

Really odd.... it's going to be interesting to see what EVGA says the cause was.

Right now my rig is restricted to a 7100gs pci-e card so gaming is out of the question. I am definitely enjoying the rendering power of a quad core with 6gb of ram and RAID-0 though... :)

[LuckyNV]

Well.... in preparation of sending the cards to EVGA, I did an extremely thorough examination of both PCB's and didn't see anything that looked out of the ordinary. Not burnt traces, discolored solder points, areas where a heat sink would have left a mark if it bridged a circuit it shouldn't have.

Really odd.... it's going to be interesting to see what EVGA says the cause was.


keep us posted :)

I shorted the back of my GF4Ti4200 with a custom heatsink I made to place right behind the GPU area, I saw a big orange spark, no burn marks though, then again the card still works.
What I mean is, if the heatsink did fall, might have been something so delicate it didn't take much to bugger it.

[RubberDuck]

I'm using them little blue Zalman heatsinks on the wifes X800Pro and none have fallen off yet. So I'll keep an eye on them if they do I'll use Use Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive instead. :yepp:

[Andrew LB]

Just to be 100% certain nothing else has been damaged, I'm also RMA'ing my motherboard to Asus. While It's currently working with a borrowed 7100gs... it's failed to post on two occasions even @ default settings. I've tested the memory and CPU in another computer to be certain they were not damaged, and they are perfectly fine.

At least I'll have my Toshiba laptop to use while I wait for this crap to get resolved.

.... no gaming for me. Intel integrated graphics really suck. Perhaps i'll get in some old school gaming like Half Life 1 or some old DOS games like Ultima 7. lol.

[PhilDoc]

Bummer what happened. I worried myself with the TR sinks that I'm using. Esp after knocking one off several times and not doing to much to clean the chips. I only used a brief whipe with 70% etoh, but luckily they've all stayed on.

In the past I used the Artic thermal adhesive. It works great, but it does make if much more difficult to remove the sinks later. I killed an old ATI 9600 pulling off one of the memory chips. You can get them off safely, but you do need to be careful.

I don't know what the real answer is. It makes me nervous to use any on the adhesive tapes that I've had. Nice that you were able to rma the cards.

[Andrew LB]

Well... I got the new cards today. And to my surprise, EVGA even gave me an upgrade!! My previous 8800gts 640mb cards were the base model and these replacements are the "Superclocked" variety which seems to run @ 576/850/1350 (core/mem/shader). I have yet to overclock the card but so far they run FAR cooler than the old cards did with factory coolers.

I'll be swapping the coolers off these new cards sometime this holiday weekend after I've had them running plenty of time to assure myself that they are bug free.

I'm also in the process of working out the overclocking potential in my new motherboard. Fearing my board could have been damaged when the video cards got fried, I decided to play it safe and go with a new motherboard, a nice new Asus Striker Extreme. So far it overclocks 600mhz higher with my Q6600 than my old board did. :)

[humeyboy]

Ive had Ramsinks come off easy as new out the box on Passive cards or ones I fitted.

You simply need be carefull till they set with the heat after running a short period of time.

I normally make sure they are fitted neatly, if not I pull off and refit and press down hard, then refit card and run under stress for 10-20mins with ATI Tool with case on its side or even better upside down, then press them hard again and use as normal.

Ive never had then fall off after settings even removing cards and leaving them lying about.

[Retro]

Well... I got the new cards today. And to my surprise, EVGA even gave me an upgrade!! My previous 8800gts 640mb cards were the base model and these replacements are the "Superclocked" variety which seems to run @ 576/850/1350 (core/mem/shader). I have yet to overclock the card but so far they run FAR cooler than the old cards did with factory coolers.

I'll be swapping the coolers off these new cards sometime this holiday weekend after I've had them running plenty of time to assure myself that they are bug free.

I'm also in the process of working out the overclocking potential in my new motherboard. Fearing my board could have been damaged when the video cards got fried, I decided to play it safe and go with a new motherboard, a nice new Asus Striker Extreme. So far it overclocks 600mhz higher with my Q6600 than my old board did. :)
Wow:eek:
That's some great stuff you have now.
Are those 8800GTS cards the new EVGA SSC model?
Nice motherboard too:up:

[Andrew LB]

^^^ Yes. The cards are EVGA 8800gts 640mb SSC's.

[Nazu]

Yes... and no.

Luckily the extremely nice guy at EVGA I spoke with has agreed to let me RMA the cards even after I told him about them having Thermalright HR-03+ coolers on them and the incident with the ram sink. The kid was really cool about everything and after he got all my information, he struck up a conversation about what kind of PC I have. He was extremely impressed with what I was running and I think that the fact that I actually knew what I was talking about when it came to all the technical speak, helped the outcome and his decision to RMA.

The kid is also a computer modder and has a quad as well. He had to 'one up' me by throwing in that he has dual BFG OC Edition 8800 ultras, a QX6850 Quad Extreme.... and some fancy water cooling setup.

Nice kid though. Started to get me thinking about looking into a different line of work.

...
That's very good service from EVGA. I wish we had similar RMA process here in Finland...Here we have to send the card to the shop were it was bought and the shop deals with the RMA. As it's not a straight process with the manufacturer it usually takes pretty long and in some cases you end up being screwed up by the place you bought the stuff. This happened to me when I sent my mobo to the shop for RMA. Now it's been over month and nothing has happened and I still don't have the mobo :mad: I ended up selling my old parts and bought new parts but still I'm pretty F****** pissed about this. Now I had to call this place that deals with shops and other places that don't do their bussiness properly. I'm glad you'r RMA process went well and you got what you wanted :)

[Demo]

Installed my HR03-Plus today, I had no issues with the thermal tape that TR uses, i cleaned the RAM and Vregs with baby oil ( to remove the residue from that white thermal blob ) and cleaned it off with acetone.