Got a laptop like this once, and it was such a mess that after hitting the board with extremely high pressure air, 90% alcohol, brushes and swabs, I finally figured out the right way to do it, I placed the motherboard in the trash and used the screen for a different laptop.
True but not at the same time. You practically have to repad and repaste 3090s just to get the memory temps within Micron's specced 100c limit, since Nvidia thinks it's all fine and dandy up to nearly 110. Liquid metal is absolutely not necessary whatsoever though, unless you're going for extreme benchmark numbers.
@@scythelord "Extreme benchmark numbers". Not really. Even professional benchmarkers still using high quality paste and not liquid metal especially on GPU. In other words, just don't mod your components that still under warranty. If you still want to, wait around 1 -2 years from newly purchased card and do what you want if you know what you're doing.
@@scythelord Exactly. Changing the thermal pads and repasting is fine, but liquid metal is a bit too extreme and frying a 3090 right now when supply is low? Big ooof there.
@@Ashraf690 I usually watercool my GPUs but I make sure to run them in my system for 1-2 months before disassembling the card that way you're more likely to find out if a card is faulty. Also when applying liquid metal I use electrical tape like Scotch Super 88 to cover the substrate around the gpu die, not using anything non conductive to cover it is idiotic.
Here a tip for everyone who intends to do this: cover everything around the part you use liquid metal in and that is mot supposed to get any on it with nail paint. You can remove it or leave it on, but it protects the parts. But in general don’t do this… it snot worth the 10 degrees you safe…
or even better, there's some rubber paint stuff that extreme overclockers use that's much safer to use on electronics and will insulate against moisture and conductive materials
and that's why deeeear costumer there is somthing called non conductive thermal paste so it's not gonna hurt anything. This is one of the main reasons non conductive thermal pastes were invented in the first place.
@@boricua1123 From the looks of it didn't know what the fuck they were doing either. Looks like they just scratched the surface to leave marks. You need a fine grit sandpaper like 3000grit or so to completely remove any oxidation but leave a VERY faint texture so the LM has something to adhere to and make a good fusion between parts.
@@Bourinos02 Of course, you want to use a very fine one to remove the oxide layer that has formed that way it forms a better bond to the actual metal and not to the oxide layer which will inhibit the heat transfer.
@@SilvaDreams Sorry but that doesn't make much sense... If the chip manufacturer placed it there, it must be only around 100 nanometers thick, and if it is occuring naturally, it is quite literally only an atomic bilayer. So there would be negligible to unmeasurable gains from the heat transfer perspective. Could you elaborate a bit more?
I used suction from the lab's distribution to clean all kinds of stuff from my boards. 25 inch+ vacuum through a 2mm id. sipper tube. I also used a trap to catch the occasional part that would try to escape.
Have you considered using a solder sucker to remove the liquid metal? id imagine that would be a useful tool for a job like this one, also its plastic tip is non conductive too :)
The desoldering station I used in the navy had a vacuum attachment. This used in conjunction with your heat gun should make it relatively easy to remove the liquid metal.
Why didn't he just get a water block for the card. The PS5 has liquid metal but it also has foam boarders to keep it in one spot so it does not spread potentially causing a short like this card did.
I've only seen one liquid metal application video, and they taped off the processor with masking tape, and spread that liquid metal as thin as they could so it would have the least possibility of spreading after they put it back together. That was Gamers Nexus, I think. I guess customer did not see that video.
@@d3vastat0r89 , I think people don’t realize it’s not your typical thermal paste and don’t feel confident with just putting a little and in turn we see disasters like this on north ridge fix 😂
@@fattony6203 , we only use liquid metal at work for overclocked workstations that are processing at max capability for up to 3 days… liquid metal reduces average temp about 11degrees Celsius which is great however we are a team of electrical and mechanical engineers with lots of technicians and metal worked that took 2 years to get liquid metal use right for our intended purposes! Also liquid metal can eat away at other metals if you’re not careful including SMT component leads and in some cases solder joints… if you’re a regular gamer and PC builder you shouldn’t even try messing with liquid metal! The padding and additional spill shields we have set in place only work we’ll because we have our mother boards custom built with layout options that enable us to prevent this stuff from ruining most things lol.
I have a feeling that the solder balls under some of the ICs will be bridged from the liquid metal. I understand people want to DIY things to get performance, but I don't recommend doing those things yourself if you do not have a good plan or maybe someone with experience to supervise. Let's hope the step-down converter is all the card needs.
Almost a $4k card at one point in time! Let's put some liquid metal that probably has a 1c degree change compared to super safe thermal paste rofl. What an idiot who owned this card.
Dude.... I'd like to meet the noob who did this... Please take my advice here boys, it's ok to be new and to learn to apply liquid metal.... It's a NOT OK to learn to apply liquid metal on a currently/recently worth 4000 dollar card lol
BGA solder balls getting bridged is very common in LM damaged cases. The repair technician must take the GPU and VRAM off for close inspection, reball them afterwards. Very time consuming and expensive repair job.
Nice video. Always coat (insulate) surroundings before applying LM and apply carefully as LM tends to drip very easily. On my first use, it dripped on my floor and skin. And avoid using it on movable objects like laptops. And unless Your card hits 90+C often do not use it!
I’ve used liquid metal many times before and the number 1 rule is to surround it with electric tapes or equivalent to prevent it from leaking elsewhere. Sony does the same thing for their PS5 as well.
Most of liquid metal comes with syringe which is very hard to control volume to apply. Easy to overshoot. The correct approach is to apply little bit on swab then apply it CPU die with super thin layer.
@@derekchan1570 buildzoid did a video on how to use it, you never apply to the item you apply to a ear bud then to the item. He also used a lot lot lot lot less than most "tech" channels & dappled it to both slicon and heat sink. I dont like the stuff, not worth it.
Liquid metal behaves really wierd when it comes in contact with ordinary thermal paste and might make a cleanup job easier. I can't really explain since my last build was a long time ago and I cannot really remember. I have used Arctic Silver as a shield against liquid metal in my graphics card.
@@ariewijaya1679 hot air blower ... is for soldering and not for blowing stuff away ... and since liquid metal is toxic you do not want to blow it everywhere
I've never tried it myself, but my thought is that for this sort of thing you might want to try getting some (medical) syringes to suck up the liquid metal. They can be bought pretty cheaply as diabetic supplies online, which I have found quite handy for various things myself (or if you want something a little safer, you can get blunt-tip ones too (which won't go straight through your finger accidentally) but they do cost a bit more, because they're generally considered "lab supplies") But boy, they really managed to get that stuff absolutely everywhere, didn't they?
I'm a vet MD that also repairs/builds PCs in my free time for almost 30 years now (actually paid for my college that way). I often use old surgical instruments when doing so. My suggestion is at 6:39 you could use a suction device that we use in medicine called a vacuum suction pump to remove the liquid metal. I know there probably are tools similar to this in your field but in my experience due to the quality of making surgical tools tend to be better. Cheers P.S. The way you say Metal makes me feel you are a metalhead 😁🤟
In some instances, repasting older products can help tremendously. BUt in all instances, work with that which you know what you're dealing with. Liquid Metal is about on par with fucking with the registry.
"... Caused by liquid metal". No, that's not true. The damage was caused by someone who carelessly splooged liquid metal on the board against all recommendations and instructions.
for some 1 to miss with a brand new GPU thermal pad, theoretically he is looking for the best solution to lower the temp by maybe a few degrees, so theoretically he should already make some research to know the best in the market and what pros and cons each type has. it just doesn't make any sense
@@gastongl404 It isn't as if you even get so much of an improvement from a die-to-heatsink solution like GPUs anyways. CPUs are different, as there is an IHS.
The simplest way to deal with LM is to suck it up with something like a very small syringe (the one LM comes in is good for this, or even get smaller if available), or micro pipettes. This was indeed hard to watch, as the owner did NOTHING to secure the area from LM spillage.
@@_to_dream_or_not_to_dream not realy since most heat doesnt come from the small components but if u want to remove it after the work is done u can do remove it with acetone
I've long known liquid metal was a very risky substance to use but this really just highlights how crazy an idea it is for most users. Just not worth the risk.
It may be worth the risk, actually. But only if you know, what EXACTLY are you doing. For GPU, mostly changing the thermal paste for some better paste and thermal pads (if they´re worn out or defective) is enough.
@@Morpheus-pt3wq Losing a 3090 in 2022 because of not just using thermal paste and pads in risky and unnecessary. Imagine the look on his face when instead of a little higher temp it cooked.
@@Morpheus-pt3wq For non-soldered cpus it is definitely worth it. Gave me a delta of around 20-25°C after removing the heatspreader and applying it. However I protected the SMDs around the chip by applying clear nail polish without any solvents or additional ingredients. Done like this it is far less risky. However on a GPU you don't have the heatspreader between chip and cooler, so it's far less worth it.
@@hopentethking1966 Thats the "know exactly what you are doing" part. The area around needs to be insulated, or closed off from spilling, like its done in PS 5. If everything is done right, it dramatically decreases temps, thats why people are doing it.
A small vacuum (dedicated vacuum pump, not a shop vac), think of a air brush setup but with reversed flow, the paint pot will be the catch tank (small hard foam filter to prevent material getting into the pump) , regulate the flow, have a silicon flexible nozzle to get into the crevices, will probably require some fiddling to get it just right, or a lab suction pipet for a manual option, just a thought.
Underneath that one IC where you pushed some liquid metal in, then got it out with hot air - looks like there is still a lot more. Maybe put some picks in the freezer / ice - see if the cold hardens it so it can be pulled off. Insulate your hand to keep the tool cold longer. Try compressed air, spray into a bag...
Liquid metal is nasty stuff, it can degrade aluminium, solder, maybe other metals. I would not risk my expensive instruments if I can use the cheap stuff. Anyway He would have to go over with something else to get the remaining stuff off.
Well, liquid metal helped me a lot, when i was OCing my old i7 4770K. But i did my research, applied it correctly and insulated the components next to chip.
I'd really love to get into liquid metal, but the manufacturers need to come up with a more user friendly way of applying this safely to a build, it's too risky especially right now.
You can apply liquid metal safely, you need first to buy some expensive spray that leaves a polymer coating. Louis Rossman mentioned but I can remember the whole process. Also some use transparent nail polish to protect the chipset resistors. But again, the reward for a couple degrees is not worth it. Add another fan and you will drop more than changing to liquid metal.
Copper desoldering braided wick is probably worth a try to soak it up. I'm guessing, never tried it, but it would be high on my list. You'd have both the wicking action and the copper acting like a sponge for gallium at a molecular level. Possibly hit the wick with some flux and heat, to clean it, if it doesn't work without (so the gallium gets some fresh copper to eat, not for the heat). Or, if you have one handy, a syringe should do it. There are spring loaded desoldering syringes on the market with small nozzles (intended to suck up normal molten solder, but no reason they shouldn't work with cold liquid metals as well). Medical syringes with a small needle might help as well, for precision work in tight spaces.
The easiest way I've found is by using a qtip that basically has a small amount of LM on it and then use its own surface tension to suck up whatever is around tiny resistors and caps by slowly trying to touch them. Done that on a couple of laptops so far and seems to be consistently reliable.
@@poland-nosteamserver6378 If you've ever applied too much thermal paste you would know how it can ooze out a bit. The same thing can happen with liquid metal, or by accidentally squirting some out from the applicator on anything outside of the IHS.
How that's amazing, I also want to fix board level repair soon when I can afford to buy some tool. As of now I love watching you're video man I learned a lot. Love from PH❤️🇵🇭
You can chill the board which causes the liquid metal to solidify. You can them chip it off, though not much time to do so before it goes liquid again. Only issue is on rare occasion certain components can develop stress fractures if brought down too low. I use a bottle of electronics duster, turn it upside down and spray in a small container. Then soak cotton swabs in it. Can then chill select locations to solidify.
To add while watching the video till the end, had the same case a long time ago, and used an electric vacuum pump to remove all liquid metal very easily. and yea you just said if someone has an easy way to write in comment, well I just did.
If you want to improve the thermals of an air-cooled graphics card like a 3090, then buy a gigantic third-party universal VGA heatsink and just use normal thermal paste.
Got 3090 aorus xtreme which has probally the biggest heatsink of the 3090s. But they cheaped out on thermal pads and Ive heard the big vapor chamber inst probally surfaced. The memory junction is somewhat ok 96c but I still bought some thermal pads and slapped some alumium fins ontop of the backplate to get it lower.
@@coolspot18 i have my 3090 watercooled and i can tell you the chips in the back get so freaking hot that even watercooling doesnt help. Only after i bought the watercooler for the backplate for the 3090 it fixed it. Its a huge design flaw of the 3090 and i hope they will improve it on the next model
You can use handheld suction solder remover to catch the liquid metal. I may be missing the actual name of the tool but I used it when I used to repair VCR and Video Cameras. also you can use a copper sleeve with soldering iron, once you have gathered all the liquid metal to a blank space on board.
@@markus98sb probably good as a last step I would start with an electric solder sucker with no heat as close as possible to the board then use compressed air
It comes off easier when you "prime" the swab with other liquid metal. So, you use one swap to clean off the IC plate, then wipe off as much of the liquid metal you can from that swab, and use it to wick up the small bits. that being said... the dude used way too much. I was able to do 3 GPUs and one laptop CPU with the liquid metal that came in 1 pack, and I still have a ton left over. smh.
liquid metal terminated a super-hard to find 3090. Sad reactions only :( Also note: liquid metal (gallium) savagely destroys aluminum. If there is aluminum in your tools, they are very likely damaged after working with that..
The best way to remove "Liquid Metal" is not to use the absolutely horrible stuff in the first place, it's probably under the GPU or other BGA chips thoroughly flush the board with IPA under pressure from a very small nozzle while standing it on it's edge vertically, I've seen so many amateurs try to use this & destroy CPU's & GPU's.
@@Hunter_Bidens_Crackpipe_ unless you dont move your laptop, i advice you stay away from LM, even if you coat everything on gpu\cpu with nail polish. Good thermal paste and clean radiator(s) are half of the job, you should also undervolt both cpu and gpu, it will do more than LM, and is much safer.
Remember that one notebook, which "stopped working after thermal interface change" liquid metal spill on cpu power source, and some got under vram chips. Its so frustrating...
Use a solder sucker to remove the liquid metal. The fast suction action should pull it away easily. Also compressed air through a small nozzle to blow away some liquid metal.
I would also use compressed air after cleaning all the visible liquid metal, to push it out from under the bga-chips. he should also try to look under the bga-chips from the side, but that might be hard with a board this crammed.
As far as i know, liquid metal thermal compound is actually a metal alloy which contains gallium, and gallium really loves aluminum. It forms sort of an amalgamate with aluminum, and the speed of intercalation increases with temperature. Many solid capacitors are aluminum based, and i don't know if the multi layered pcb's of the motherboards use aluminum instead of copper for the ground planes and so, but my guess is that any gallium alloy shouldn't be used as thermal conductive compound where aluminum parts are involved, and that includes electronics. Imho. Or what do you think?
I used Liquid Metal once on my CPU. I delidded it, cleaned it, put Liquid Metal on it and resealed (with the gap) the IHS like original. I didn't insulate the SMDs that were under the IHS. It was also my first delid and first use of Liquid Metal, but the CPU works for 5 Years now without any Problem. I worked gently, slowly and watched a good Video of doing that beforehand. The difference was -10-30°C depending on the Overclock. The TIM on the DIE seemed faulty. It looked like there was an airgap. Of course one can only see it AFTER delidding.... So it was worth it. But watching other RUclipsrs who are shooting Liquid Metal all over, because they cant handle a Syringe gives me goosebumps.
To be fair Vram temps on 3090s are reaaally high so i get why he tried to fix it... i just dont understand why you'd work with liquid metal. for the first time it seems. on a damn 3090.😩
I can't believe the owner didn't even bother to go around the GPU die with liquid electrical tape and then letting it dry to protect those components around the die. That is a must! And to use so much of it. WTH man? 😳
Looks like the customer washed the motherboard with liquid metal as it is seen all over the board. You have a hell lot of work to do on this board. Hope it is a fix, awaiting to see it fixed soon.
he painted the entire board with liquid metal because he wanted the whole board to be 'cooler'... now it has a 'cool board' ready to be put in a museum.
You have to use a dry Q-Tip or swab. No alcohol. Roll the Q-tip over the liquid metal, don't brush or wipe it. That gets it off. Then the remaining tiny traces can be pulled up with an alcohol saturated swab.
The point is that unless this card is fixed the customer lost 2k. That makes an opportunity for a cleanup methods testing experience. After phisical inspection and manual cleanup i'd try an compressed air. Sinking it in alcohol may also be an option yet maybe a bit aggressive and may require replacement of capacitors. You can also grab some of this metal and check how it behaves on different board after heated up and treated with alcohol. Maybe you will find a method to reduce it's stickiness so it can be efficiently blown off or brushed off. As soon as it get's under bga ofc.
Thats why i never use liquid metal , i stick to "Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut" paste , even though it doesnt perform the same level as liquid metal , at least its better than stock factory thermal paste ❤❤❤
@@TheJirkal I know , but the risk of losing your thousand dollar hardware is too high of a risk 💔, unless that person is experienced in applying LM and taking precautions❤️
That was one hell of a mess. The amount of substance required is actually just a single droplet, not a whole tube. Those smd capacitors usually has to be covered with nail polish.
Use tooth brush and isopropyl alcohol a lot! and before reapplying it cover the components with waterproofing urethane conformal coating then cure it and check it with UV light and re-apply it till you get it completely covered.
I've been using liquid metal for years, rarely have to replace, it does dry when you take apart to check, but the cooling capacity is still way better than normal paste
Got a laptop like this once, and it was such a mess that after hitting the board with extremely high pressure air, 90% alcohol, brushes and swabs, I finally figured out the right way to do it, I placed the motherboard in the trash and used the screen for a different laptop.
people think liquid metal is this magic ingredient that will double the speed of their machine
@@geovani60624 they dont need to think cause IT Just fact. Its way cooler so i can overclock way better
@@lakaldrak yeah? by how much? does it really matter enough to risk losing your thousand dollars gpu to get like 5 more fps in a game or two?
@@lakaldrak yeah burning your hardware is an absolute fact son.
@@NyanKuro so Then dont so it simple isnt IT? My CPU is 20C cooler. The only Thing u need to do is to refresh the LM every year
"If it's working don't fix it"
Wise word from this channel and many others
True but not at the same time. You practically have to repad and repaste 3090s just to get the memory temps within Micron's specced 100c limit, since Nvidia thinks it's all fine and dandy up to nearly 110. Liquid metal is absolutely not necessary whatsoever though, unless you're going for extreme benchmark numbers.
@@scythelord "Extreme benchmark numbers". Not really. Even professional benchmarkers still using high quality paste and not liquid metal especially on GPU. In other words, just don't mod your components that still under warranty. If you still want to, wait around 1 -2 years from newly purchased card and do what you want if you know what you're doing.
@@scythelord Exactly. Changing the thermal pads and repasting is fine, but liquid metal is a bit too extreme and frying a 3090 right now when supply is low? Big ooof there.
*if its not working dont fix it
@@Ashraf690 I usually watercool my GPUs but I make sure to run them in my system for 1-2 months before disassembling the card that way you're more likely to find out if a card is faulty. Also when applying liquid metal I use electrical tape like Scotch Super 88 to cover the substrate around the gpu die, not using anything non conductive to cover it is idiotic.
The owner of this card watched too much of Terminator; he wants his 3090 to become T-1000.
nope. he watched too muche ps5 videos.
🥴
"3090 for sale on eBay"
Never had liquid metal on it
Here a tip for everyone who intends to do this: cover everything around the part you use liquid metal in and that is mot supposed to get any on it with nail paint. You can remove it or leave it on, but it protects the parts. But in general don’t do this… it snot worth the 10 degrees you safe…
or even better, there's some rubber paint stuff that extreme overclockers use that's much safer to use on electronics and will insulate against moisture and conductive materials
"Dear customer, how much liquid metal did you put on?"
The Customer: "YES!"
Enough to short the mother board 🤣
Customer: "Massive dumps!"
and that's why deeeear costumer there is somthing called non conductive thermal paste so it's not gonna hurt anything. This is one of the main reasons non conductive thermal pastes were invented in the first place.
they gave it to the terminator who came on it
he must first uv glue caps around bga chip
lol man this guy sprayed that liquid metal everywhere
Verge style
@@nightruler666 lol
This is the warrant working.... fortunately not all ... but often some absurd things happen.
@@P-G-77 good luck getting that covered under warranty lmfao there's a reason it was sent to a 3rd party repair shop.
He paid for the whole tube, he's gonna apply the whole tube.
He must've smashed that cooler back on. I've never seen liquid metal shoot across any board like that.
The owner used waaaaaaaaay too much.
@@boricua1123 From the looks of it didn't know what the fuck they were doing either. Looks like they just scratched the surface to leave marks. You need a fine grit sandpaper like 3000grit or so to completely remove any oxidation but leave a VERY faint texture so the LM has something to adhere to and make a good fusion between parts.
@@SilvaDreams Wat? You guys are using sandpaper on direct die liquid metal jobs?
@@Bourinos02 Of course, you want to use a very fine one to remove the oxide layer that has formed that way it forms a better bond to the actual metal and not to the oxide layer which will inhibit the heat transfer.
@@SilvaDreams Sorry but that doesn't make much sense... If the chip manufacturer placed it there, it must be only around 100 nanometers thick, and if it is occuring naturally, it is quite literally only an atomic bilayer. So there would be negligible to unmeasurable gains from the heat transfer perspective.
Could you elaborate a bit more?
Did a part 2 ever happen for this? I can't find it and I am totally invested in seeing if this thing can be fixed.
I'd be shocked if this thing still works, assuming it was powered on in that state. Probably a total loss
Was looking for part 2 don't see anything
A small desoldering pump can help when removing liquid metal
I was thinking the same. Suction would work better than trying to grab the blobs with a tweezer.
Hi pressure air house can clean the whole thing
I used suction from the lab's distribution to clean all kinds of stuff from my boards. 25 inch+ vacuum through a 2mm id. sipper tube. I also used a trap to catch the occasional part that would try to escape.
"if it's not broken do not fix it" - sums up the video pretty well
"If it works, don't fix it."
"If it ain't broken, fix it till it is."
I'm starting to sense something trascendental.
Or the version you tell novice programmers. "If it ain't broken, don't break it."
this is a classic case of 'More Money Than Sense"
This proves money isn't necessarily obtained by intelligence.
This 3090 is probably paired with 3300x box 😂
@@a36538 it's probably paired with a fuckin ryzen 1100
I do not agree, if he was that wealthy he didn't need to take it to fix, he simply would've bought another one.
@@tony001212 the 3090 could have been a gift from him to him so it has sentimental value.
Have you considered using a solder sucker to remove the liquid metal? id imagine that would be a useful tool for a job like this one, also its plastic tip is non conductive too :)
The desoldering station I used in the navy had a vacuum attachment. This used in conjunction with your heat gun should make it relatively easy to remove the liquid metal.
I think the verge's ''professionals'' tried to make a new video on how to switch to liquidmetal. lol
The pc building is a masterpiece
Jackson Pollock painting
well he definitely screwed it with confidence.
@@bsc3128 he didn't use a anti static bracelet 🤣🤣🤣
Why didn't he just get a water block for the card. The PS5 has liquid metal but it also has foam boarders to keep it in one spot so it does not spread potentially causing a short like this card did.
cuz liquid metal is so much cheaper than getting a 300$ block
I've only seen one liquid metal application video, and they taped off the processor with masking tape, and spread that liquid metal as thin as they could so it would have the least possibility of spreading after they put it back together. That was Gamers Nexus, I think. I guess customer did not see that video.
@@d3vastat0r89 , I think people don’t realize it’s not your typical thermal paste and don’t feel confident with just putting a little and in turn we see disasters like this on north ridge fix 😂
Thermal Grizzly paste. No liquid metal bullcrap. Why do people attempt things that they shouldn't?
@@fattony6203 , we only use liquid metal at work for overclocked workstations that are processing at max capability for up to 3 days… liquid metal reduces average temp about 11degrees Celsius which is great however we are a team of electrical and mechanical engineers with lots of technicians and metal worked that took 2 years to get liquid metal use right for our intended purposes! Also liquid metal can eat away at other metals if you’re not careful including SMT component leads and in some cases solder joints… if you’re a regular gamer and PC builder you shouldn’t even try messing with liquid metal! The padding and additional spill shields we have set in place only work we’ll because we have our mother boards custom built with layout options that enable us to prevent this stuff from ruining most things lol.
I have a feeling that the solder balls under some of the ICs will be bridged from the liquid metal. I understand people want to DIY things to get performance, but I don't recommend doing those things yourself if you do not have a good plan or maybe someone with experience to supervise. Let's hope the step-down converter is all the card needs.
Almost a $4k card at one point in time! Let's put some liquid metal that probably has a 1c degree change compared to super safe thermal paste rofl. What an idiot who owned this card.
Dude.... I'd like to meet the noob who did this... Please take my advice here boys, it's ok to be new and to learn to apply liquid metal.... It's a NOT OK to learn to apply liquid metal on a currently/recently worth 4000 dollar card lol
BGA solder balls getting bridged is very common in LM damaged cases. The repair technician must take the GPU and VRAM off for close inspection, reball them afterwards. Very time consuming and expensive repair job.
@@hateWinVista Yep, that's probably a couple of hours work for sure!
@@KattKingston more like 15°C. Which is a lot.
Nice video. Always coat (insulate) surroundings before applying LM and apply carefully as LM tends to drip very easily. On my first use, it dripped on my floor and skin. And avoid using it on movable objects like laptops. And unless Your card hits 90+C often do not use it!
To remove liquid metal use the suction part of a de-soldering station with a tiny suction tip
That's what I was going to suggest.
I’ve used liquid metal many times before and the number 1 rule is to surround it with electric tapes or equivalent to prevent it from leaking elsewhere. Sony does the same thing for their PS5 as well.
Well this dude would have needed to wrap whole GPU in plastic.. :'D
ive seen ppl using nail polish over the resistors around the gpu die. not really sure if thats appropriate though....,
@@utley well, if heat dissipation anin't a problem and you only want to seal the parts: why not?
@@rafaelwoitzuck3186 foreign chemicals in a high end product is something to not be taken lightly.
@Marauder those are thermal insulators...
Did this guy drop the bottle of liquid metal on the board? sure looks like it
Most of liquid metal comes with syringe which is very hard to control volume to apply. Easy to overshoot. The correct approach is to apply little bit on swab then apply it CPU die with super thin layer.
@@derekchan1570 buildzoid did a video on how to use it, you never apply to the item you apply to a ear bud then to the item.
He also used a lot lot lot lot less than most "tech" channels & dappled it to both slicon and heat sink.
I dont like the stuff, not worth it.
The T1000 wants his liquid metal back.
Bruh thats not even liquid metal thats liquid fist babies
You can remove the liquid metal with the syringe.
or with air compressor
@@ariewijaya1679 And spray the toxic liquid everywhere. I wouldn't do that :)
@@an3k 6:07 he did it with hot air blower. why not get full blast with air compressor 😁. off course do it in outdoor
Liquid metal behaves really wierd when it comes in contact with ordinary thermal paste and might make a cleanup job easier. I can't really explain since my last build was a long time ago and I cannot really remember. I have used Arctic Silver as a shield against liquid metal in my graphics card.
@@ariewijaya1679 hot air blower ... is for soldering and not for blowing stuff away ... and since liquid metal is toxic you do not want to blow it everywhere
I've never tried it myself, but my thought is that for this sort of thing you might want to try getting some (medical) syringes to suck up the liquid metal. They can be bought pretty cheaply as diabetic supplies online, which I have found quite handy for various things myself (or if you want something a little safer, you can get blunt-tip ones too (which won't go straight through your finger accidentally) but they do cost a bit more, because they're generally considered "lab supplies")
But boy, they really managed to get that stuff absolutely everywhere, didn't they?
I'm a vet MD that also repairs/builds PCs in my free time for almost 30 years now (actually paid for my college that way). I often use old surgical instruments when doing so. My suggestion is at 6:39 you could use a suction device that we use in medicine called a vacuum suction pump to remove the liquid metal. I know there probably are tools similar to this in your field but in my experience due to the quality of making surgical tools tend to be better. Cheers
P.S. The way you say Metal makes me feel you are a metalhead 😁🤟
there is a tool called a "solder sucker" which is what came to my mind. i think you'll find its similar to what you were thinking.
RUclips has everyone feeling the need to re-paste everything, even when it's fine the way it is. 😄
Can't agree more. Even if the difference is around 5-10%, I would not take the risks. I'd rather go cooling a 3090 with a waterblock instead.
In some instances, repasting older products can help tremendously. BUt in all instances, work with that which you know what you're dealing with. Liquid Metal is about on par with fucking with the registry.
@Cthulhu it's not worth on a brand new gpu
"... Caused by liquid metal". No, that's not true. The damage was caused by someone who carelessly splooged liquid metal on the board against all recommendations and instructions.
Wtf how much liquid metal did this idiot use, the whole tube or what🤦🏾 with all that spilled liquid metal he could have optimized 2-3 GPUs.
Ever heard liquid metal fall of from cpu/gpu? If dont just stfu boi. That happen to me right stfu.
Agree
You are wrong, I had the same problem and it was not my fault. The liquid metal was already applied on cooler. And it killed many PSU
I wish I had to confidence to to try to brick something that expensive
there was no confidence, only ignorance.
for some 1 to miss with a brand new GPU thermal pad, theoretically he is looking for the best solution to lower the temp by maybe a few degrees, so theoretically he should already make some research to know the best in the market and what pros and cons each type has. it just doesn't make any sense
@@gastongl404 It isn't as if you even get so much of an improvement from a die-to-heatsink solution like GPUs anyways. CPUs are different, as there is an IHS.
@@faranocks well, any 1 that's want to use metal liquid should know the risques and shouldn't squeeze it like a mayonnaise bottle xD
@@nukfauxsho ignorance and confidence go hand in hand honestly. You’re both correct.
This is the perfect example of:
"I don't need to watch a HOW-TO video, I know what to do"
Tbf, RUclips has made it significantly harder to find trustworthy how to videos by removing dislikes.
@@revenge3265 True. But in the tech areas you generally can trust a guy if the production quality is high. (gamersnexus, der8auer etc.) even Linus
The simplest way to deal with LM is to suck it up with something like a very small syringe (the one LM comes in is good for this, or even get smaller if available), or micro pipettes. This was indeed hard to watch, as the owner did NOTHING to secure the area from LM spillage.
you can put several clear coats of nail polish on the little components inside the foam border of the chip to protect from liquid metal
@@_to_dream_or_not_to_dream I believe not, I've seen potted SMDs on PCBs before so nail polish shouldn't be a problem.
I have used electrical tape and it works pretty well too.
@@_to_dream_or_not_to_dream not realy since most heat doesnt come from the small components but if u want to remove it after the work is done u can do remove it with acetone
I've long known liquid metal was a very risky substance to use but this really just highlights how crazy an idea it is for most users. Just not worth the risk.
It may be worth the risk, actually. But only if you know, what EXACTLY are you doing.
For GPU, mostly changing the thermal paste for some better paste and thermal pads (if they´re worn out or defective) is enough.
@@Morpheus-pt3wq Losing a 3090 in 2022 because of not just using thermal paste and pads in risky and unnecessary. Imagine the look on his face when instead of a little higher temp it cooked.
@@Morpheus-pt3wq For non-soldered cpus it is definitely worth it. Gave me a delta of around 20-25°C after removing the heatspreader and applying it. However I protected the SMDs around the chip by applying clear nail polish without any solvents or additional ingredients. Done like this it is far less risky. However on a GPU you don't have the heatspreader between chip and cooler, so it's far less worth it.
@@hopentethking1966 Thats the "know exactly what you are doing" part. The area around needs to be insulated, or closed off from spilling, like its done in PS 5. If everything is done right, it dramatically decreases temps, thats why people are doing it.
Bloody hell he got that liquid metal everywhere
Use ice cubes to remove LM. It goes brittle on lower temps. Or you could just put the gpu in a freezer for 2-3 mins . And just scrape of LM
Ah yes, GOOD condensation.
@@therocinante3443 if the board isn't connected, water isn't a problem.
A small vacuum (dedicated vacuum pump, not a shop vac), think of a air brush setup but with reversed flow, the paint pot will be the catch tank (small hard foam filter to prevent material getting into the pump) , regulate the flow, have a silicon flexible nozzle to get into the crevices, will probably require some fiddling to get it just right, or a lab suction pipet for a manual option, just a thought.
For stuff like this, you could try using micro pipettes. They pick very small volumes of liquids, and have a very narrow point
Underneath that one IC where you pushed some liquid metal in, then got it out with hot air - looks like there is still a lot more. Maybe put some picks in the freezer / ice - see if the cold hardens it so it can be pulled off. Insulate your hand to keep the tool cold longer. Try compressed air, spray into a bag...
Could you use a solder sucker like those handheld ones to remove the liquid metal?
Liquid metal is nasty stuff, it can degrade aluminium, solder, maybe other metals. I would not risk my expensive instruments if I can use the cheap stuff. Anyway He would have to go over with something else to get the remaining stuff off.
Not for tiny metal drops
No, even using the swab sometimes you just "moove it around"
Compressed air and maybe blow it off the board?
@@IMDYT420 in a contained area maybe. Dont want to get those things on other electronics.
I absolutely despise when people use liquid metal on their computer components. They don't realize how caustic it is to traces and PCBs.
That is why you only put in on the chip and insulate nearby combonents
Well, liquid metal helped me a lot, when i was OCing my old i7 4770K. But i did my research, applied it correctly and insulated the components next to chip.
I'd really love to get into liquid metal, but the manufacturers need to come up with a more user friendly way of applying this safely to a build, it's too risky especially right now.
You can apply liquid metal safely, you need first to buy some expensive spray that leaves a polymer coating.
Louis Rossman mentioned but I can remember the whole process.
Also some use transparent nail polish to protect the chipset resistors.
But again, the reward for a couple degrees is not worth it.
Add another fan and you will drop more than changing to liquid metal.
Totally worth it for fans of silence (pun intended)
Desktop GPUs are not worth it but myself have dropped temps by over 10C on a couple laptops and my 6600K (delid)
its worth it in laptop applications
7:25 that clay like stuff formed a face of agony... seems about right.
there is a saying, "if something works, leave it like that, dont try to improve something that already works" i guess this is one of those moments
The mic you have is awesome! Its so freaking tiny and sounds amazing. I actually do wonder how that is possible!
Copper desoldering braided wick is probably worth a try to soak it up. I'm guessing, never tried it, but it would be high on my list. You'd have both the wicking action and the copper acting like a sponge for gallium at a molecular level. Possibly hit the wick with some flux and heat, to clean it, if it doesn't work without (so the gallium gets some fresh copper to eat, not for the heat).
Or, if you have one handy, a syringe should do it. There are spring loaded desoldering syringes on the market with small nozzles (intended to suck up normal molten solder, but no reason they shouldn't work with cold liquid metals as well). Medical syringes with a small needle might help as well, for precision work in tight spaces.
Just remember the liquid metal contaminates aluminum and will destroy it. So if you use a solder sucker it should not have any aluminum parts.
It destroy all the solder joints also after couple weeks
There's another t-shirt right there "if it's not broken don't try to fix it!"
It exists. That saying is as old as time.
" If it ain't broken, I can break it for you "
This what happens when you watch the verge PC build
The easiest way I've found is by using a qtip that basically has a small amount of LM on it and then use its own surface tension to suck up whatever is around tiny resistors and caps by slowly trying to touch them.
Done that on a couple of laptops so far and seems to be consistently reliable.
I was thinking more on a de-soldering sucking pen, that should be enough to pull those tricky gobs.
Why that even happened?
@@poland-nosteamserver6378
If you've ever applied too much thermal paste you would know how it can ooze out a bit. The same thing can happen with liquid metal, or by accidentally squirting some out from the applicator on anything outside of the IHS.
How that's amazing, I also want to fix board level repair soon when I can afford to buy some tool. As of now I love watching you're video man I learned a lot. Love from PH❤️🇵🇭
This guys should lose the right to having the 3090…
I think he did already lmao
He should only be allowed to buy a gt 1030 or lower!!!! 😂
Probably bought it to play rtx minecraft😂😂
Look mom, I can run Minecraft in 8k!
@@christopheragent006 710
there is more lequid metal under the chip at 6:05 .... and between the resistor and capacitor at 8:17 ( they are next to the inductor )
Tens of thousands of eyes surely help fixing stuff.
I thought i was supposed to use the entire syringe! I paid for it i'm gonna use all of it!
You can chill the board which causes the liquid metal to solidify. You can them chip it off, though not much time to do so before it goes liquid again. Only issue is on rare occasion certain components can develop stress fractures if brought down too low. I use a bottle of electronics duster, turn it upside down and spray in a small container. Then soak cotton swabs in it. Can then chill select locations to solidify.
To add while watching the video till the end, had the same case a long time ago, and used an electric vacuum pump to remove all liquid metal very easily. and yea you just said if someone has an easy way to write in comment, well I just did.
If you want to improve the thermals of an air-cooled graphics card like a 3090, then buy a gigantic third-party universal VGA heatsink and just use normal thermal paste.
The problem then is you need to also build a cooling solution for the VRMs and VRAM modules which can get quite hot.
Got 3090 aorus xtreme which has probally the biggest heatsink of the 3090s. But they cheaped out on thermal pads and Ive heard the big vapor chamber inst probally surfaced. The memory junction is somewhat ok 96c but I still bought some thermal pads and slapped some alumium fins ontop of the backplate to get it lower.
Yeah, why would anyone use liquid metal... a closed liquid cooler would be more than adequate.
@@coolspot18 i have my 3090 watercooled and i can tell you the chips in the back get so freaking hot that even watercooling doesnt help.
Only after i bought the watercooler for the backplate for the 3090 it fixed it. Its a huge design flaw of the 3090 and i hope they will improve it on the next model
@@Walhor bud 96c hotspot is within safe range lol did you read reddit or something?? only they'll tell you to fix something that ain't broken
Ouch that's an expensive liquid metal mistake especially on a 3090 and the prices they go for
Ps keep up the amazing content 👏
6:05 check the solder balls of this memory chip. It may need to be replaced
I see liquid metal
6:32
@@ReeseL4D on 2 parts there
You can use handheld suction solder remover to catch the liquid metal. I may be missing the actual name of the tool but I used it when I used to repair VCR and Video Cameras. also you can use a copper sleeve with soldering iron, once you have gathered all the liquid metal to a blank space on board.
IM always shocked by people who think they have a better cooling solution than the company who produces the card.
8:07 Yep, expected that; the excessive current draw due to numerous shorts will have taken out that and possibly other components as well.
I would use compressed air to remove it. (Edit: Outside far away from any other electronics and people)
You could potentially trap it under other bga chips worsening it
Not a good way to remove would just splatter all over.
@@TheBlackAndWhiteCow
That's how I clean below cellphone bga chips, you can see the liquid getting pushed away from the bga chips.
@@alreed2434 @TheBlackAndWhiteCow you would use compressed air after removing all the visible liquid metal
@@markus98sb probably good as a last step I would start with an electric solder sucker with no heat as close as possible to the board then use compressed air
It comes off easier when you "prime" the swab with other liquid metal. So, you use one swap to clean off the IC plate, then wipe off as much of the liquid metal you can from that swab, and use it to wick up the small bits. that being said... the dude used way too much. I was able to do 3 GPUs and one laptop CPU with the liquid metal that came in 1 pack, and I still have a ton left over. smh.
THANK YOU
Very interesting. Have you considered using a solder extractor to "vacuum" out the LM?
This. When it forms the balls, it looks exactly as solder.
But i wonder, if the solder extractor won´t end up being destroyed in the process as well.
Maybe a de-soldering pump could do the job. I used it every time for regular soldering / de-soldering.
great video.
liquid metal terminated a super-hard to find 3090. Sad reactions only :(
Also note: liquid metal (gallium) savagely destroys aluminum. If there is aluminum in your tools, they are very likely damaged after working with that..
isnt gallium a poison? they sell that to kids? EDIT i was thinking of Thallium.
dang... one hell of a facepalm... you have alot of patience! will never touch liquid metal.
Why did that noob customer decide it was a good idea to apply liquid metal when he had no clue what he was doing lmao
He watched LTT and thought he was a pro😂
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". My Dad gave me this advice when I was a lad and it has served me well over the years.
Holy hell, that's easily the worst liquid metal application I've ever seen.
The best way to remove "Liquid Metal" is not to use the absolutely horrible stuff in the first place, it's probably under the GPU or other BGA chips thoroughly flush the board with IPA under pressure from a very small nozzle while standing it on it's edge vertically, I've seen so many amateurs try to use this & destroy CPU's & GPU's.
If I would have a 3090, I'll just use it. Liquid Metal is so risky and scary.
I put liquid metal in my $3000 alienware laptop, you can't put too much and you should use nail polish on the surrounding tiny resistors.
@@Hunter_Bidens_Crackpipe_ Lol a laptop for 3K, or the name alienware sold you ahah
@@Hunter_Bidens_Crackpipe_ you realize how this sounds, right?
@@Hunter_Bidens_Crackpipe_ unless you dont move your laptop, i advice you stay away from LM, even if you coat everything on gpu\cpu with nail polish. Good thermal paste and clean radiator(s) are half of the job, you should also undervolt both cpu and gpu, it will do more than LM, and is much safer.
@@TheCanadianMob bet you can get better specs at 1.5k from any other brand
Have you tried solder wick to remove liquid metal
Remember that one notebook, which "stopped working after thermal interface change" liquid metal spill on cpu power source, and some got under vram chips. Its so frustrating...
Use a solder sucker to remove the liquid metal. The fast suction action should pull it away easily. Also compressed air through a small nozzle to blow away some liquid metal.
I would try compressed air for standalone air compressor, not canned one. He has strong air flow so it could be helpful.
This. I've used one to blow water out from under BGA chips on a motherboard that got wet. It should work the same for liquid metal.
@@madmatt2024 nope, you'd just spread the liquid metal out over a larger area. Think of liquid metal as paint that won't dry.
@@kmgrillen I think you're confused. I was talking about getting the liquid metal OUT from under BGA chips after it's already messed up.
wow liquid metal really did a mess on the board .... as always great work.
solder sucker or compressed air in the backyard? might be quicker re removing liquid metal? never touched the stuff myself though
compressed air may push liquid metal under ICs...
I would also use compressed air after cleaning all the visible liquid metal, to push it out from under the bga-chips. he should also try to look under the bga-chips from the side, but that might be hard with a board this crammed.
As far as i know, liquid metal thermal compound is actually a metal alloy which contains gallium, and gallium really loves aluminum. It forms sort of an amalgamate with aluminum, and the speed of intercalation increases with temperature. Many solid capacitors are aluminum based, and i don't know if the multi layered pcb's of the motherboards use aluminum instead of copper for the ground planes and so, but my guess is that any gallium alloy shouldn't be used as thermal conductive compound where aluminum parts are involved, and that includes electronics. Imho. Or what do you think?
I used Liquid Metal once on my CPU. I delidded it, cleaned it, put Liquid Metal on it and resealed (with the gap) the IHS like original. I didn't insulate the SMDs that were under the IHS.
It was also my first delid and first use of Liquid Metal, but the CPU works for 5 Years now without any Problem. I worked gently, slowly and watched a good Video of doing that beforehand.
The difference was -10-30°C depending on the Overclock. The TIM on the DIE seemed faulty. It looked like there was an airgap. Of course one can only see it AFTER delidding....
So it was worth it.
But watching other RUclipsrs who are shooting Liquid Metal all over, because they cant handle a Syringe gives me goosebumps.
Imagine wanting to change thermal paste on a brand new card.😂😂😂😂
Overclocking i guess. But if have No clue how to do IT yes thats Just dumb
@@lakaldrak doesnt sound like this guy know how to do that😂
To be fair Vram temps on 3090s are reaaally high so i get why he tried to fix it... i just dont understand why you'd work with liquid metal. for the first time it seems. on a damn 3090.😩
@@kalashx2113 But the VRAM isnt on the GPU die. Still doesnt make sense.
@@triliner254 what are you smoking?
I will continue using MX-4 thermal paste
A neodimium magnet tacked on to a tweezer may help remove scraped off liquid metal
Is liquid metal ferromagnetic?
@@BlackGymkhana I have no idea
I was thinking this as well but I've no experience with liquid metal. Really just curious if a magnet could be effective.
Got some - tried it - non magnetic
@@jonsmith5087 Good to know that.
It looks like you're trying to clean up molten solder. What a nightmare
I can't believe the owner didn't even bother to go around the GPU die with liquid electrical tape and then letting it dry to protect those components around the die. That is a must!
And to use so much of it. WTH man? 😳
Looks like the customer washed the motherboard with liquid metal as it is seen all over the board. You have a hell lot of work to do on this board. Hope it is a fix, awaiting to see it fixed soon.
he painted the entire board with liquid metal because he wanted the whole board to be 'cooler'... now it has a 'cool board' ready to be put in a museum.
@@orange11squares Also he may be the first person on the Liquid Metal Hall of Shame
can ultrasonic cleaner help remove liquid metal? just wondering.
As liquid metal is a metal and for liquid properties I believe the surface tension of the liquid metal won't help ultrasonic cleaning.
@@aperson9375 I believe it might also push liquid metal under chips, causing new shorts. this is much safer way.
I’m thinking a tiny suction device would be ideal. Kind of like the suction they use to remove ear wax or maybe even a solder sucker
Well i was sure the description said use the Whole tube on 1 GPU.
You have to use a dry Q-Tip or swab. No alcohol. Roll the Q-tip over the liquid metal, don't brush or wipe it. That gets it off. Then the remaining tiny traces can be pulled up with an alcohol saturated swab.
The point is that unless this card is fixed the customer lost 2k. That makes an opportunity for a cleanup methods testing experience. After phisical inspection and manual cleanup i'd try an compressed air. Sinking it in alcohol may also be an option yet maybe a bit aggressive and may require replacement of capacitors. You can also grab some of this metal and check how it behaves on different board after heated up and treated with alcohol. Maybe you will find a method to reduce it's stickiness so it can be efficiently blown off or brushed off. As soon as it get's under bga ofc.
Thats why i never use liquid metal , i stick to "Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut" paste , even though it doesnt perform the same level as liquid metal , at least its better than stock factory thermal paste ❤❤❤
I agree
I also agree 👍
LM has some advantages, 12.5 W/mK vs 73 W/mK is not just a marginal improvement + liquid metal does not degrade as much
@@TheJirkal I know , but the risk of losing your thousand dollar hardware is too high of a risk 💔, unless that person is experienced in applying LM and taking precautions❤️
@@JoshuaG Thats what it makes so exciting, higher the stakes more exciting it is ...
Don't touch a running system! Good old windows advice!
Liquid metal is fantastic but it's definitely NOT for the average joe.
For a difference of 2-3 degrees naaahh .. it's stupid
That was one hell of a mess. The amount of substance required is actually just a single droplet, not a whole tube. Those smd capacitors usually has to be covered with nail polish.
Use tooth brush and isopropyl alcohol a lot! and before reapplying it cover the components with waterproofing urethane conformal coating then cure it and check it with UV light and re-apply it till you get it completely covered.
Where is part 2?
Oof, this is exactly why I never liked liquid metal
i used and no problem you ned just a very small drop and carefully stretch it to all dye he used to mutch
@@cristikreatine Problem is you also need to take your whole PC apart to change it around every 4 months
@@Snecho yes 4 to 6 month you are wright
I've been using liquid metal for years, rarely have to replace, it does dry when you take apart to check, but the cooling capacity is still way better than normal paste
@@Snecho so does that mean all ps5s are screwed in half a year? 😂
Liquid metal removal = magnet, neodymium pref.
Can't tell if joking or just dumb as shit
Liquid Metal is non magnetic
I had a misadventure with liquid metal once. Cleaned it using an airbrush filled with isopropyl alcohol. 25-30psi.
Hi North!
Im mostly a silent viewer but might help here: Everytime i want to remove Liquid metal i use a Syringe to suck most of it up, works wonders!