8800gt aftermarket heatsink problem

[manticero]

I have installed a Zalman VF900 heatsink/ramsinks on an evga 8800gt and the card is spitting out garbage to the monitor. I cleaned everything with 95% rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth, stuck on the heatsinks, applied thermal paste to the GPU, and installed the GPU cooler. The MOSFET heatsinks will have to wait, as i wasn't privy to needing them prior to be purchasing it (but will not run under load until i receive). I'm guessing i did something to damage it along those lines. Any ideas?

 

[Guest]

Sounds like you may have borked your card. I installed that heatsink on my 8800GT and it works fine.

My first heatsink had stripped threads on it and because of that I couldn't secure one corner and this lead to very high temps. I called Zalman and they sent me a new one and it installed and works great.

I never got any strange response out of the card like you're explaining. 95% alcohol should evaporate very quickly so it probably couldn't have caused a short. Did you check and make sure you didn't have any grease outside the GPU?

 

[coozie7]

When removing the old cooler did you touch any part of the circuit board with the screwdriver? The fine circuit lines on the surface are incredibly easy to damage.
Did you make sure no traces of grease were on the edge connector when you reinstalled the card?
I suspect the real culprit is too much thermal compound on the GPU causing a short.
Try removing the VF900, cleaning and refitting with less thermal compound. Oh, and DON`T use rubbing alcohol to clean it use PURE alcohol such as IPA (isopropyl alcohol) or surgical spirit, after all you do n`t know what the other 5% is, do you?