RTX 4090 got lucky after Water block installation. How to RMA a card with a broken Warranty seal?

[@ApocDevTeam]

Those tiny little dudes saving the GPU from the 12V death sentence. True heroes.

[@stanimir4197]

it's a pwm signal, 25Khz (or so), adding a 10nF capacitor on the signal path would prevent frying the GPU.

[@KrisFixGermany]

I've seen many processors that did not survive after such a mistake. This one is lucky

[@WhatWillYouFind]

Sound engineering and electrical design is LESS profitable, so when you see it work as intended . . . the moment of pause and appreciation of it is far more impactful. :D

[@kapioskapiopoylos7338]

@@stanimir4197 lmao, absolutely not, it is in fact a complex signal as per fourier analysis, 25kHz + 0Hz dc component + the harmonics as the pwm signal is a dc square wave not an ac sinusoidal, in other words putting a cap in series will absolutely not work. And if the gpu has a high impedance at its output (input if you put the RGB connector on the fan connector) combined with a low rise time from the psu aka high frequencyency on the 12v rail will result in a complex voltage divider with a low impedanceance path from the capacitor. Appart from rendering the fan inoperable you achieve nothing much. it may prevent the gpu from dying or it may not but surely it won't allow the fans to work, at that point just cut the trace and you are sure.

[@Wetboyslim]

​@@KrisFixGermanythis gpu has more durable protection diodes inside :) But the memory chip has been fryed when these 12 volts come to its VTT voltage through opened protection diode. This chip has shorted the line and saved another memory chips. So, this small pwm driver cant save another components in case of short 12v to pwm signal. Simply 10 k ohms series resistor can protect in such cases.

[@MrMudtit]

He's like an electronics wizard. I've never been more impressed by any other channel. Truly amazing.

[@stanimir4197]

He is good, indeed. But this very repair was not hard, totally not showcasing his skill.

[@KrisFixGermany]

There is no difficult repair if the diagnosis is approached correctly

[@jaredjones6570]

​@@KrisFixGermany That's so inspiring! Keep it up! Right now, I'm following the steps you laid out in troubleshooting and repairing a Gigabyte RTX 3090 card with a crack near the PCIe connector. My card is a Gigabyte RTX 3080 TI OC Gaming GPU but it's similar enough. The 5th layer was undamaged but the 3rd layer had the first three traces broken. I've dremeled down and attempted soldering multiple times. I have a single trace left to solder. I'm sure I'll get it soon. I'm just doing it in my spare time. I'm even more impressed by how easy you made it look after attempting it. The traces are only twice the width of my individual hairs 😂.

[@stevencharette7918]

i agree kris is much much more the just a logic board repair professional he is a high level engineer 100%,

[@Ahmed_Helmy_AH]

great work kris , please do not skip soldering / desoldering scenes because it is fun to watch . thank you 👍

[@Thunderbolt03]

I love how you inspect every single thing before coming to a conclusion on the problem, very good troubleshooting

[@SoranoGuardias]

Kris at 11:20 you had a clear indication of a problem. You had a solder ball stuck to the side of a capacitor next to that memory chip. Bottom cap.

[@askorczewski]

Kris, you just made my day... I was sleepless after watercooling my Inno3d with Alphacool reference block - I did it perfectly fine but I was worried about eventual problems after 3 or 6 months... Now I know that I'm covered. Thank you very much for this info!

[@greatdrd]

Great video as always , thanx

[@KrisFixGermany]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Verssales]

Best tip ever, not always if it fits you should plug into it.

[@garyr7027]

You're good at this, about as professional as it gets.

[@DJaquithFL]

If I ever have the misfortune of blowing up one of my GPUs even though I'm in the US I absolutely will send it to you for repairs!

[@KyberGaming47]

this information should be shared by everyone, sooo many people screw up warranties, and it would be very good for people looking to buy water blocks, they could grab specific blocks etc that enable them to keep their warranty and thats pretty awesome, of course it limits your options greatly but still its a step in the right direction

[@fel2834]

Another great video, Kris. Glad I found your channel through Debauer. I greatly enjoy the super in depth repairs and style of videos.

[@danytoob]

Brilliant work. Watching a master inspect and track down faults (even though I don't have a clue what he is doing ...lol🤔🤔🤯) it's fascinating and a great learning experience. Thank you Kris!!

Sir you are absolute legend! Not becuse of your experience and knowledge actually because of your joy to work and making your customer happy. I can really see from your face that you are really happy solving problems. Also your commitment is fantastic. Most of the techinicans in my country refuse to repair even the tiny problems and I already saw your drill, rewire videos. Cheers

[@jralrazaz2828]

All I can say is perfection is your business, love all your videos, keep it up 👍.

[@theLordklappstuhl]

Great video again! I learned so much recently watching your videos about graphic cards, been watching all the videos you updatet! Keep the great work up!

[@FranCal92]

You truly are a GPU surgeon. Keep up the good work!

[@MultiDarker123]

Kris, exceptional video as always. I am watching every your release religiously. Please post more content :)

[@ziaddassoum]

Kris, You are a Master ! As always, Knowledge, skills and straight to the point !

[@budp.4209]

Kris, you are a Hero, you need to be a global service, Thanks for sharing you knowledge and skills. From USA thx !

[@jarnom85]

11:17 Bottom of the 3 SMD capacitors, ball of solder peeking under. That ram chip or the smd cap has run incredibly hot for a moment for that to happen (didnt watch entire video yet).

[@JoannaHammond]

I was gonna say, warranty void stickers do not automaticaly void your warranty in the EU/UK. They do make it harder to get work done, but it's not a simple refusal. In the US warranty void stickers are basically against the law.

[@DeinElektroniker]

Great video. I recently had the same problem with the rtx 3070 Ti, which also had a water block installed. short circuit at 1.8v, it turned out that a bit of liquid metal got under the memory and after cleaning everything returned to normal

[@proqem6604]

Hidden gem of a channel. I love your videos, I think I found a new interest. Keep it up!

[@larryrodriguez1977]

DUDE!!!! I love your videos! Can you please do a video about the temps used and maybe the tools when you desolder a small component with the tweezers? I am learning with a cheap station and bad boards to start with but it would be nice to hear from a seasoned pro how you approach a gpu or motherboard repair. Thanks brother and keep doing what you're doing because we all love it

[@girder123]

I'm amazed at the knowledge you acquired about the power rails and how the cards works without proper documentation from the manufacturers. Did you reverse engineer the reference design, and apply that knowledge to the other manufacturers designs (which are probably based on the RD)?

[@aelaan12]

I am so impressed Kris, "sehr gut gemacht", but the biggest question remains: Why did the customer do this? I think the lesson from this is: Do not just plug stuff into holes that look the same without knowing what you are doing. These cards are so expensive, why would a customer think they can improve it by "half-assing" a water cooling "solution" to it. If the card overheats in the system, it is an issue with airflow or the case is not breathing enough for the card to remain within operating temperatures. I see way too often systems come in where fans are just blowing against each other. Flipping one fan over, so the air flows properly through the case and the issue is solved. If I were a customer and had the feeling the card would need more cooling, I would be calling Inno3D and discuss with them if a liquid cooled card could work. Maybe they even sell the card with the liquid cooler already installed.

[@glenyoung1809]

I think too many warranty issues are customers doing bone headed moves and not caring what happens because "we can claim warranty repairs" if something goes wrong. I think plenty of AIBs see this behavior too often and you can't fix stupid. There is also a problem too many YT and tech channels promoting what I would call reckless behavior in overclocking cards for benchmark bragging rights and pushing the idea that anyone can do it! Kris did a video about some idiot who screwed up putting liquid metal on their 4090 and completely borked their 4090 in the process. Anyone doing DIY installs should RTFM and strictly follow the guidelines or not do it at all if you don't have the experience! In this case the client blindly going ahead and plugging into the fan header because "it looks the same as a header meant for LCD power so it must be just as good!" almost cost him the whole card. I guess some people are rich enough not to care about little details like that, instead of thinking about what the manufacturer had intended. On the other hand people like Kris make a good living trying to save idiots from themselves.

[@KrisFixGermany]

Everyone makes mistakes

[@jaredjones6570]

Watercooling was a good choice in many respects. Often, the air cooler is bulky and heavy (even to the point of causing cracks in the PCB). The air cooler is also not always sufficient to handle the ever-increasing power draw of modern GPUs. In this case, watercooling did no damage whatsoever. It was actually RGB that killed the system. RGB strips serve no purpose and are more trouble than they're worth. 😂😂😂

[@dasiro]

It's not a crazy idea to connect matching connectors. The problem is that they're not standardized to always supply the same voltages as with the bigger connectors from the PSU (and even there it's a risk with modular power supplies: do not ever blindly connect them if they weren't with the PSU itself).

[@idklmaostilldontknow3592]

Dude your knowledge is amazing, thank you for showing us how you work

[@AiCryptoSpace]

Sehr schön boss 👍🏽

[@registrazioniduemillaotton6030]

Excellent fix as usual

[@mortarat]

If one day I have a problem with my GPU, I know where to send it :D ! Great video. Seeing your work make me wanna know more about it so yeah keep up the good work Kris.

[@kiki_de]

Your work is truly impressive and amazing.

[@gloeckle]

nice job and good explanation! cheers

[@Cornz38]

In the UK, warranty seals mean NOTHING. They have to prove that you broke the item by your actions. So, if you break the warrenty seal to, for example, change a fan and 2 months later the card fails, it is clearly not the fault of fitting the fan and despite you breaking the warranty seals, they would have to honour your warranty.

[@chewbaccabg]

Hi there, what's the test software you use to test the GPU? Is it available anywhere?

[@rzcosme]

I would like to know either.

[@TheCrozenfox]

3:14 They are nice to provide the warranty despite the customer did the assembly himself and he could have damaged the card if he did not do the assembly correctly.

[@tocsa120ls]

11:23 there's a solder ball stuck to the side of the bottom cap....

[@KrisFixGermany]

I also noticed that. Many caps in this row have such a small solder balls. Most likely solder paste from the manufacturing process.

[@xcom9648]

Just got this card a few days ago. temps are very good, max 64 and below 10 hotspot delta. don't see need for waterblock, although it does dump a ton of heat in the case making my AIO go pretty loud.

[@Maxximilian]

It seems you approve Inno somehow 😁 good job Theodore quality work as always.

[@KrisFixGermany]

There are a lot of things I don't like but correspondence with them is very easy and they are willing to help

[@aldaricJohnes]

Awesome job, those video are are impressive and cool to watch. Keep on with the good work.

[@Accuracy158]

Usually by the time someone is buying a 4090 I would expect to know the difference between a fan and RGB header. It's not like you can even plug that in without forcing something.

[@blower1]

Very nice work. Very nice indeed.

[@RichardHollowayGaming]

Makes me feel better about INNO3d, as I have changed the paste on my 4090, so hope I'm covered if anything dies in the future

[@bobkat88]

Hello, is it possible to create a tutorial on how to install and use Nvidia MODS/MATS software?

[@Th3Fly1ngCow]

this guy is a wizard

[@schorsch4496]

Happy Easter Kris

[@KrisFixGermany]

Frohe Ostern 🐰

[@musicera777]

That's super interesting and educational. Thanks for sharing!

[@cardboardpig]

Good to know they will warranty cards using the AC block; that's who I bought mine from.

[@jorgeluisboschalfonso4975]

Thanks for your video and more content like this you are amazing kris

[@mgut17]

perfect, i am getting the 4070ti from inno3d and gonna order the waterblock from alphacool, thank you for this information

[@DevilbyMoonlight]

The customer is so lucky he should buy a lottery ticket! excellent and methodical troubleshooting methodology, so a top result, btw I've been using alphacool gear for almost a decade and its never let me down

[@stephan1712]

i also replaced my aircooler on the inno3D 4090, and while i removed the stock cooler i found ah copper flaker under the stock thermalpads... there where also one of the small 4x themalpads missing that are sitting around the gpu chip itself... i got pictures of it postet in hardwareluxx forum....

[@StackedWashingMachine]

Interesting repair thanks for sharing

[@inagerli]

Absolut beeindruckend !

[@gman7949]

Good repair job. Why would someone spend so much money on a card to only open it and void the warranty. There are factory options available with a water block pre installed 🙃.

[@dimmit2148]

all perfect, but we gonna love to see you more often :)

[@WXSTANG]

I wouldn't accept warranty from that! Some people shouldn't be messing with that stuff. But great work diagnosing the issues!

[@bollox116]

Kris is a GPU GOD no one can deny it !!!!! Truly amazing work

[@David-Zita]

Like always Good fix, sometimes it is just good to leave these expensive cards alone if you don't know what you are doing.

[@Morpheus-pt3wq]

And even if you know, what you are doing, you should still be extra careful.

[@pawelkempinski4634]

Yeah... 100% Agree. how can you put a led strip to a fan connector just because the connector "fits" ... unbelievable. i Put a 20 ton trailer on a Smart, just because the connector fits and didnt expect the clutch to fail... :D

[@danw3735]

Nice work

[@reiener]

Wieder ein super Video, danke dafür. Ich hatte gesehen das bei dem Ram Chip bei 11:16min eine kleine Lötkugel am unteren Kondensator hing, kann es sein das sich einfach 2 lötpunkte am Ramchip selbst verbunden haben und dabei die sichtbare Lötkugel rausgedrückt hat und der Chip selber eigentlich noch in Takt ist?

[@KrisFixGermany]

Dies sind Reste von Lötpaste. Der Chip hat einen Kurzschluss

[@MaD_fX]

Very nice!

[@MrDvneil]

excelent work

[@guidodibartolomeo6043]

Great...

[@hphp7587]

Great job. And excellent knowledge. Where do you buy spares from and how do you find out the part number manufacturer etc

[@KrisFixGermany]

It is a time consuming process to keep all the parts in stock so that we can carry out repairs quickly.

[@njmust]

I want this test tool program.

[@Zagroseckt]

Atleast in amaraca those seals dont mean squat anymore.

[@Bluelagoonstudios]

Sometimes luck is part of the job, well done!!

[@svenhoff2653]

That the gates for the Fans were damaged by the customer i can understand. But what has damaged the one Memory chip? If there were a problem on the Memory voltage lane, there should have been more chips damaged or not? Or was it a fluke that the Memory chip died at the same time?

[@bezbeli]

Gut gut, as always.

[@-FOXX]

the Electronics Gandalf!

[@BeezyKing99]

What about an EVGA 3090 FTW3 with an EK water block?... I put the block on it... 4 months later, it quit posting.

[@KrisFixGermany]

The reasons could be many. I recommend that you contact an experienced technician

[@limmel3588]

That wouldve been a pretty hefty financial mistake if it wasn't for you to fix his card with your incredible expertise. Cheers!

[@mikegaming4924]

What about 1.8V rail that has 56 ohms and pulls 100 mA at 1V. nothing gets hot

[@pc7950]

Lovely Videos. Thanks for sharing. Would you recommend any Company for Current 4090s? i was thinking about a Inno3D/Zotac card since they rarely have coil whine.

[@vishnukumark6757]

VERY NICE WORK. HOW MUCH CHARGED FOR THIS WORK? IN US DOLLARS.

[@KrisFixGermany]

All prices are listed in our website

[@vishnukumark6757]

@@KrisFixGermany THANK U, I WILL CHECK UR WEBSITE. I AM FROM INDIA. I AM UR NEW SUBSCRIBER.

[@deanderlp6892]

Satisfying and very informative video as always. Thank you for making these videos, they have been very educating and fun! :D But I've got a question out of curiosity.. is it possible to upgrade the RAM-Chips of a GPU if they have the same Pin Layout as the original one?

[@KrisFixGermany]

Everything depends on the bios and gpu configuration. Many times is possible to upgrade, but not worth it

[@deanderlp6892]

@@KrisFixGermany Thank you for the Info. But interesting to know.

[@awilliams1701]

I bought my 3070 (I wanted a 3090, but couldn't find one) with a water block pre-installed. Probably overkill for that card, but I had already decided 100% watercooling. I'm a little worried about screwing it up even though I've been building computers for 30 years. But it sounds like he didn't read the instructions. It reminds me of when someone wanted me to fix their computer. They just recently installed a CD-burner. It smelled HORRIBLE!!! I'm like with a smell like that I'll be surprised if anything is salvagable. I opened it up and I'm like you have got to be kidding me. They plugged the floppy power cable into a fan header!!!!! I'm like seriously!?!!?!? 4 pin vs 3 pin and it doesn't quite fit. Yeah if you want to short out half the motherboard that's a great way to do it. lol I tested all the components except the CPU (I didn't have a compatible motherboard). The only thing that survived.....was the cd-burner. lol Everything else was toast.

[@Nikl720]

Nice Video! Btw the commandline tools for checking the video cards, did you code them yourself? Or are they available. If yes are you going to open source them/ are they open source? Liebe Grüße :)

[@basqbas]

Hello. What microscope camera do you use?

[@KrisFixGermany]

Eakins auto focus

[@Magovit]

Props to INNO3D

[@GameBacardi]

7:48 Lesson is, don't install RGB

[@hansmeiyer831]

Holy cow, more money than brains apparently. Imagine destroying a 4090 because you want some bling bling RGB.

[@geoepi321975]

Hi Kris, how can we know if it's a memory chip or another component in parallel on the rail the problem, without a thermal camera thanks.

[@Mafiya67]

Отличное видео!!!!

[@guyva_unito_sree3]

Do gigabyte aorus master 4090s use these "cheap PVM controllers"?

[@Arokhantos]

Warranty void stickers should be forbidden, they should replace it with a QR code sticker pointing to KZbin video such as this.

[@Mr.Unacceptable]

Soldering under a microscope hits my lizard brain I love doing it. Am I sick? Wish i could get a job doing it as I could do it all day if told what to solder where.

[@privatebenfallsprivat8428]

As 3080 just launched I preordered a Inno3D 3080 watercooled from factory with alphacool block on it. I got it around 6 months!!! later and it broke after 2 days without my system even leaking. Probably it was the crappy and cheap plastic alphacool waterblock. I contacted Inno3d warranty team and they refused to have ANYTHING to do with repairs or replacements and told me to contact my shop Ive got it from. Since there was a GPU shortage the only thing the Shop offered me was to refund me the money (700 Euro since it was a preorder). But the prices then where already at 1900€ for a 3080 and no way I could have gotten another 3080 for 700€. Fk Inno3d, never again

[@wolf1438]

I had to RMA my EVGA RTX3090 graphic card (victim of the New world game bug that literally blew up cards). I had installed GPU waterblock from EK. Before RMA I put original cooler back and my RMA passed. I am not sure if it was because of the EVGA faulty GPU callback or its standard behavior.

[@kyoudaiken]

Hi Kris, thanks for the warranty explanation! Do you have an idea how this works with ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and Zotac? If you got a video about this already, please send me a link. If not, I would appreciate if you would ask the same questions you have answered today to those manufacturers as well. That would be wonderful! I would love to know their stance to damaged seals. IMHO, the EU should ban those like in the US.

[@saltysalt7339]

Depends on where you live, at least in germany voiding warranty with seals is illegal already. They will try anyway but that's how it is

[@kyoudaiken]

@@saltysalt7339 Source?

[@saltysalt7339]

@@kyoudaiken Read the law? There are court cases tackling this as well just like EULA always have at least one clause that makes them void in EU law.

[@imperia777]

Hello Kris, is KrisFix GPU tools software available to download?

[@Senesto11]

can u also to the laptop gpu repair because i have a laptop alienware which have a problem in gpu

[@KrisFixGermany]

Sure

[@Senesto11]

@@KrisFixGermany so how can i send you the laptop or get the qoute

[@KrisFixGermany]

@@Senesto11 You can make a repair order here: krisfix.de/en/geraet-einsenden/

[@Senesto11]

thanks @@KrisFixGermany

[@DJaquithFL]

Yeah if a manufacturer wants to get shutout of selling in the USA then denying a warranty repair on just a "broken warranty sticker" is indeed the 1st step!

[@nowaywithyoueveragai]

Hi. After watching this video I got a question about Vram: can a GPU with just one defective Vram work as long that Vram isn't used?

[@KrisFixGermany]

Unfortunately no

[@qefucan7591]

Damn dude, your good.

[@LoCk3H]

its illegal to refuse warranty cus of a broken seal..

[@JOHNYK105]

I dont get it. Customer swap watter cooler on RTX 4090 because high temp. He affraid of what, damage the card ? The Smartest way will be sell card and buy new one with better cooler or water block from factory.

[@Fergie6366]

Its like watching at episode of CSI great work as always

[@thorstel531]

Good info on Inno3D warranty, I didn't know that. I basically assumed that I am putting the card on water at my own risk and there likely won't be any warranty if anything happens later, even if not by my fault. Nice to know that this is not the case, at least for Alphacool blocks.

[@mahartma]

Well if you damage something when putting the block on, it's still your fault.

[@thorstel531]

​@@mahartma It is and should be always, nobody should expect manufacturer to pay for your own mistakes, but in case the card dies by itself sometimes later you still have normal warranty, and can even send the card in for repair as it is with waterblock installed, that is very good.