VOGONS


First post, by biessea

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Hi all friends,

here I am another day in the beautiful world of old hardware in the best forum in the world!

Today I have a new challenge, I have bought an old Quadro FX 3000 for 30 bucks, the seller said it remains in a closet for about 10 years.

I powered on and It runs correctly!

But after some test I immediately saw that something was wrong.

I decided to going deep and downloaded the old software Ntune, to monitor the card and I saw after some seconds that the GPU went to throttle.

The temperature exceeded the 100 degrees sometimes and so the GPU went from the original 400mhz to a 300mhz state (1,3v. against 1,2v. in throttle mode).

So I decided to do something, I cannot see a videcard throttling with its nice original cooler just beacuse, and I'm sure about it, under the IHS the paste (tim) is sure went away or worse, isn't more at all and the NV35 GPU don't make contact to the heatspreader.

And this is the situation because the GPU went more than 100 degrees and the cooler feels only a little warm, not so hot.

Anyway I read on internet if someone do that process to remove the heatspreader and unlucky I didn't found so much, only a thread where the OP said that he removed the HIS and the situation went better drastically, but unfortunately the post was so old and he doesn't posted any photo recommendation.

So I decided to do by myself. I will use a heat gun, a little knife.. and liquid metal paste. I hope to succed and I will post results and photo so someone will find one day this thread useful, I hope.

I attach the screenshot of the Rivatuner program where you can easily see the throttling.

Computer lover since 1992.
Love retro-computing, retro-gaming, high-end systems and all about computer-tech.
Love beer, too.

Reply 1 of 10, by biessea

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Unfortunately, while I was taking off the heatsink, I broke off two resistors, so I had to solder then and I'm not so good on solder it passed about two hours to resolder them.

Anyway now the card boot, no problems.

Tomorrow I will try to cut of the HIS over the NV35 GPU.

I post the photo of the two resistor solded on the PCB, before and after.

Computer lover since 1992.
Love retro-computing, retro-gaming, high-end systems and all about computer-tech.
Love beer, too.

Reply 2 of 10, by rasz_pl

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capacitors, and I see two more spots with solder looking like something was ripped out

https://github.com/raszpl/FIC-486-GAC-2-Cache-Module for AT&T Globalyst
https://github.com/raszpl/386RC-16 memory board
https://github.com/raszpl/440BX Reference Design adapted to Kicad
https://github.com/raszpl/Zenith_ZBIOS MFM-300 Monitor

Reply 3 of 10, by biessea

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rasz_pl wrote on 2022-12-09, 21:08:

capacitors, and I see two more spots with solder looking like something was ripped out

No no, if you search another PCB of Quadro fx 300p there aren't any others.

Are they capacitors yes? So probably this is why the card run good Anyway even if I really didn't soldered them good. 😀

Computer lover since 1992.
Love retro-computing, retro-gaming, high-end systems and all about computer-tech.
Love beer, too.

Reply 4 of 10, by Doornkaat

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biessea wrote on 2022-12-09, 12:16:

So I decided to do by myself. I will use a heat gun, a little knife.. and liquid metal paste. I hope to succed and I will post results and photo so someone will find one day this thread useful, I hope.

I believe the heatspreader as well as the original cooler are made entirely from aluminium. Liquid metal TIM is not compatible with aluminium. It creates a very brittle alloy with aluminium meaning the cooler will be destroyed. If the surface contacting the die isn't copper don't use liquid metal.

biessea wrote on 2022-12-10, 09:14:
rasz_pl wrote on 2022-12-09, 21:08:

capacitors, and I see two more spots with solder looking like something was ripped out

No no, if you search another PCB of Quadro fx 300p there aren't any others.

Looking at pictures online I'm afraid I'll have to agree with rasz_pl. You're still missing one capacitor.
Maybe it's a revision thing but the pads also look like there used to be something there.

The card is a good catch for 30 bucks btw. Congrats!😃

Reply 5 of 10, by biessea

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Doornkaat wrote on 2022-12-10, 10:18:
I believe the heatspreader as well as the original cooler are made entirely from aluminium. Liquid metal TIM is not compatible w […]
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biessea wrote on 2022-12-09, 12:16:

So I decided to do by myself. I will use a heat gun, a little knife.. and liquid metal paste. I hope to succed and I will post results and photo so someone will find one day this thread useful, I hope.

I believe the heatspreader as well as the original cooler are made entirely from aluminium. Liquid metal TIM is not compatible with aluminium. It creates a very brittle alloy with aluminium meaning the cooler will be destroyed. If the surface contacting the die isn't copper don't use liquid metal.

biessea wrote on 2022-12-10, 09:14:
rasz_pl wrote on 2022-12-09, 21:08:

capacitors, and I see two more spots with solder looking like something was ripped out

No no, if you search another PCB of Quadro fx 300p there aren't any others.

Looking at pictures online I'm afraid I'll have to agree with rasz_pl. You're still missing one capacitor.
Maybe it's a revision thing but the pads also look like there used to be something there.

The card is a good catch for 30 bucks btw. Congrats!😃

Thanks,

Probably you all are right, anyway the card boots and go in 3d regularily.

Thanks for the hint about liquid metal, I will put then the Arctic Silver mx4.

And I will let you know.

Computer lover since 1992.
Love retro-computing, retro-gaming, high-end systems and all about computer-tech.
Love beer, too.

Reply 6 of 10, by Doornkaat

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Yeah, some of those caps aren't crucial under normal operation. If it works it'll be fine.👍
Good luck with removing the heatspreader!
Here are some pics with the heatspreader removed so you know where to cut extra carefully:
http://www.yjfy.com/Museum/video/Quadro_FX3000_ES.htm

Reply 7 of 10, by biessea

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Doornkaat wrote on 2022-12-10, 11:37:
Yeah, some of those caps aren't crucial under normal operation. If it works it'll be fine.👍 Good luck with removing the heatspre […]
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Yeah, some of those caps aren't crucial under normal operation. If it works it'll be fine.👍
Good luck with removing the heatspreader!
Here are some pics with the heatspreader removed so you know where to cut extra carefully:
http://www.yjfy.com/Museum/video/Quadro_FX3000_ES.htm

Thanks a lot!

I did the work quite easily with a cutter!

I put the photo, now I am testing the card and for the moment results are very good.

PS: I decided to not put the IHS now, and cool with the Arctic Silver MX4 directly over the NV35 core, applying the cooler like other models had. And it works flawlessy!

Computer lover since 1992.
Love retro-computing, retro-gaming, high-end systems and all about computer-tech.
Love beer, too.

Reply 8 of 10, by biessea

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Hey there! Mission succeded! I can say I am happy in this way, I decided to not re-apply the IHS, but make direct contact between the cooling system and the nice NV35 GPU.

And here we have the results!

At 400mhz GPU doesn't touch the 70degrees.

Overclocked GPU to 470mhz (I can't go over) I never reach more than 74degrees! No more throttling so, the performance are really good!

I'm so happy, I put the screenshot of the 3dmark03 in default and in overclock (470mhz GPU 950mhz RAM)

I hope to help someone that want to remove that damned IHS and finally cool the GPU in the right way!

Computer lover since 1992.
Love retro-computing, retro-gaming, high-end systems and all about computer-tech.
Love beer, too.

Reply 9 of 10, by Doornkaat

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Great success!😃

Reply 10 of 10, by ElTentakel

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How did you remove the headspreader? I did it with a Quadro FX 1300 by cooling it down in the freezer. It was a very rough experience. But now I have an hot air station and I could heat it up to a fixed temperature. Which is the best temperature to do so? I have a Geforce 5800 XT as patient, which I realy don't want to damage 😁.