sealing in your fate

[bigpoppa]

hey fellas.. this morning i booted 'er up and after about 20 mins of run time, i started to see some indications of what i think was condensation. The screen started to get different color pixels and then i started to see discoloration on the border of each window. Now, im not sure if this was condensation doing this, but i was pretty sure it was.
That led me to my next issue. I now needed to figure out where the air was getting in. I am so sure that it was well beyond air tight. So i started to dismantle everything and when i removed the baker block from the cpu, not a drop of water did i see. So, my question is, is it possible that when sealing the socket and whatnot, that you seal in some air that will in turn become condensation? it makes perfect sense. so in that case how do you get all the air out from the places that are not visible to the eye?
So far i have added more sealing material around the socket and i filled the pin oles with even more dielectric grase. So far i'm ok, but well see what happens in another 30 minutes.

[Oc2theSkY]

Here is an idea for you. Seal everything as normal then take a small siryng (thing you get shots with, don't know spelling), put the needle through the seal string or whatever and slowly pull out the air. As you pull the needle out push the seal string together to seal it up before the air gets back in. Just an idea anyway.

[TheDude]

Not needed. Condensation occurrs with the introduction of ambient air into the sealed chamber....when the colder air sealed in the chamber meets the warmer ambient air.
Check your seal string and evap head install to make sure you aren't getting any air leaks. The tiniest hole can cause problems.
From your description, I would look for a possible water drop or condensation hitting your video card or a video card getting ready to have problems for whatever reason. :D

[bigpoppa]

ok, now someone is telling me that itrs my VC doing this, but i dont have cooling on my vc, well, cooling that will give me condensation....ive sealed everything like the best possble way and its still doing it, i just chnged VC's and now its ok, but the color is still whack! when i say ok, i mean that its not getting to the point where the monitor shuts off.
any ideas anyone? kinda kwik wud be nice as i am unsure how long ill be able to be up and running

[bigpoppa]

update, color is ok, lol...i forgot to change it to 32 bit from 256colors when putting in the badazz geforce2...now im concerned about my other card...why all a sudden is it pixelizing and getting where the monitor shuts itself off. weird...
EDIT: never did this before when my cpu was on air. now last night was night #2 on phase change and this happens..is it going to kill me gf2 in time also?

[TheDude]

Since you have a custom phasechange setup, I don't know what it looks like or how it's setup. If your evap head is located above your video card, condensation could be dripping water on your card...or your hose could be dripping onto your card if the hose is pressed up against something that could cause condensation.

[Marci]

Or it could be a lack-of-power issue for the other card.... need more specs fer that tho...

[bigpoppa]

wow, i just checked and looked at my rails. and bios is readin my 12v rail @ 0.12v wtf. theres no way it at 0.12v...or my :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: wudnt be running, wud it? Ive got a antec 550 TC vmodded 3.3v rail. Im also on an NF7 with full vmod. the old card(the one thats messin up) is a GF3 ti500 128mb. the one that im using now that works is a GF2 64mb. anything else as far as specs u need? wow! 0,12v on the 12v rail....must be misreading

[TheDude]

It's also possible that the card that was giving you problems had some thermal paste on it somewhere it did not belong. This could happen easily just from handling both.

[bigpoppa]

ok, so what about my rail reading 0.12v
it MUST just be reading wrong

[TheDude]

Originally posted by bigpoppa
ok, so what about my rail reading 0.12v
it MUST just be reading wrong

I would think it must be reading wrong also....can't see how that could be correct. Are you still having problems or did switching the VC clear it up? Which PSU are you using?

[bigpoppa]

no, everything is cool with the VC now. but when marci mention something about power and voltage, i checked on my rails and saw that the 12v line is readong .12v. im on a Antec 550TC vmodded 3.3v line

[TheDude]

Just curious, what are you reading the rails with?

[bigpoppa]

bios and mbm, same thing really.....what else wud u use.....other that a mm...but even so, why is it reading al whacked out

[TheDude]

There's all kinds of apps but they basically pull it from bios. MM would be best.

[bigpoppa]

is it safe to assume that if it WERE at 0.12v on the 12v rail, it(the computer) wud not be running...seeing as the cpu runs on 12v

[biglipzit]

hey man great to hear it wasnt condensation and it was the video card... could just be going dead. about the thermal grease in the wrong place... thermal grease doesnt conduct electricity otherwise when it gets all over ur cpu it could burn out some bridges on athlons... even tested artic silver and they isnt conductive either... get a volt meter and check those rails but i say if its an old geforce 3 card that went bad then it was just from age or somehting, had cards go out on me like that before and mobos also... without any cause. just normally an imperfection in some chip that grew larger than bargained for that kills it all

[bigpoppa]

Originally posted by MickeyMouse
are ya looking at the 12v or -12v rails?? also flash to the newest bios as im sure you have flashed since i dont the mobo mods..

did ya run the board on air and set the voltage and stuff first??

thats why I "PUSHED" that you do that before ya install this unit now forever you'll be tring to find out whats wrong with so many different things than just condensation..

yes jason, lol. ive done everything u ssaid to do. no im not mixing up the - and + rails. the - rail reads ok. yes ive flashed from 19 tp 14beta, back to 18 then agan back to beta14.

[TheDude]

biglipzit,

I have to disagree with you to an extent on the thermal grease. I have had it cause artifacts on my own video cards more than once while carefully removing it fixed the problem and I know others in here have done the same. It's true that many are not conductive, especially the newer ones. It doesn't have to conduct enough to burn anything up, just enough to cause artifacts and even kill the card.

[Sovereignty]

Originally posted by biglipzit
hey man great to hear it wasnt condensation and it was the video card... could just be going dead. about the thermal grease in the wrong place... thermal grease doesnt conduct electricity otherwise when it gets all over ur cpu it could burn out some bridges on athlons... even tested artic silver and they isnt conductive either... get a volt meter and check those rails but i say if its an old geforce 3 card that went bad then it was just from age or somehting, had cards go out on me like that before and mobos also... without any cause. just normally an imperfection in some chip that grew larger than bargained for that kills it all

Actually a lot of thermal grease IS conductive, like AS3. I've seen cards get shorted from sloppiness when applying it. AS5 is not conductive though, and neither is Shin Etsu, OCZ Ultra, and maybe a few others.

[PyroTeknik]

ceramique = no conductive

[biglipzit]

i did a test with artic silver 3 to see if it was conductive and could be used to connect bridges on my pc and it wasnt... i zapped 120 volts at it between 2 electrodes 1mm apart and still no conduction. I know alot of synthetic white ones arent conductive... why make a conductive thermal grease when u know how messy they get and fall all over cpu's... i find it very strange thermal grease would be conductive when i have tested quite a few and havent found one to be conductive yet.

[TheDude]

biglipzit,

All I can tell you for sure is that I have lost video cards to thermal paste. I assumed it was because it caused shorts and was conductive. I have not tested it and do not know it for a fact, but how else could it kill or cause artifacts on video cards?
I admit that the cause is an assumption, but the result is a fact. I don't know what else to tell you. :confused:

[PyroTeknik]

so it was just coincidental that when i put AS3 on my MOSFETS the board died :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[TheDude]

biglipzit,

If you're positive, try smearing some on your video card or mosfets. I wouldn't advise you to try it on anything but a POS card or board though.....cause you are gonna screw it up. It's been the cause of many a dead board and card.