Quote from: bitcoinbearhk on July 15, 2014, 12:19:11 AM

you scared the hell out of me ... just received my liquid pro yesterday, and some thermal pads too from coollab

i hasitate to apply now ...

btw, how many chips can one syringe of liquid pro cover?? I only got 1 syringe and doubt it would be enough even for one machine ...

I don't think you need to be scared. But I will say that I've basically had this happen with the last two boards I've applied TIM to. The first was over a month ago using Noctua HT-N1. It seemed fine, then a die went bad (remember there are 8 dies per board). There was no rhyme or reason to it either. I inspected afterward an my application was fine. No overflow, short circuit, or anything.

Most recently, using LP, the same thing happened but worse. The temp sensor went along with the goldstrike die causing more problems. A dead die isn't so bad. You just lose 1/8 of your boards hashing power. I can't say I blame LP for this either.

Particularly if you have no choice and your machine is running way too hot, then I'd say to go ahead with the LP. I honestly believe it's better than other TIM.

Some notes:

1. I modified my jig since I can't find long M3 screws near where I live (Lowe's doesn't have them). Simply put, I cut the chopsticks down to about 2" long and just used them as temporary screws. Turns out I really didn't need the foam and the top part of the jig. The sticks / wooden pins worked just as well as my more complicated jig. Regardless, you really do need something to keep the water block in place when applying any TIM to these machines.

2. Use a good solvent to get rid of the old TIM. I used Arcticlean. But who knows, maybe that's the culprit here for all I know. It is a common element.

3. Make sure you apply LP to both the cores AND the bottom of the water block. I feel like one syringe of LP can do an entire machine, or pretty close to it. You really DO NOT NEED MUCH material when applying. When you "paint" it on to the bottom of the block you'll see. It's like you're spreading it only a few molecules thick.

4. After you restart your machine and especially if it seems ok, try to just leave it that way for at least 24 hrs. I feel like in both instances where I've had a board drop a die, it happened after a restart that occured shortly after application. I'm speculating here.

Here is something else to consider. In both my cases, it's been the last core on the board that's gone bad: core7. So I'm not convinced this is necessarily the fault of any TIM or application method. That last core seems to be the weak link in the chain and was also likely the problem core running hot in each case. So there might be more going on to these failures than we'll never know until some ex employee of CT writes a book or something.

LP goes on more like silver paint than thermal paste. It also won't stick to a surface until you spread it a bit. Try to resist the urge to put on too much.

Be careful and you stand a good chance. But then again, that's what I thought when I started applying Noctua last month (before I went to LP) and I still had a chip go bad. Any time you work on one of these very fragile boxes you're taking a bit of a chance.