2011 27" Gpu

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

How does one know if he gets a 2010 or 2011 glass? Sellers usually advertise them as fitting 2009, 2010 and 2011 models.

Look at the metal edge. They are carved differently to the position of the bluetooth antenna. 2011 has the open space on the middle left, while 2009 and 2010 have the open space on the top.

 

[darryn]

Pulled the 2010 (No3) apart and found I had missed the wifi board cable connection. Reinstated the original two connector board and now have working wifi, so another small bonus.

The constant rebooting is an indicator that your GPU is having a fault - also the artifacts and the dim screen are all related to the GPU.

Did you do the bake or simply reapply the paste to the board? It’s not the cooling that is the issue directly so doing paste does nothing the address the fault.

If you still had it, disassemble the board and take the MXM GPU and cooler off. Undo the 4 screws and remove the cooler so it’s just the bare board.

Clean and remove all thermal paste off using a q tip. Don’t need any alcohol. Leave the paste on the cooler side.

Preheat your over to 200°C (400°F) exactly and let it warm up until it beeps so you know it’s ready - obviously don’t have the card in there yet.

Get a pizza pan with the little holes in the bottom to allow better air flow. Put a single piece of tin foil, shiny side up, about 9 inches long on the pan.

Take another piece of foil, about 6 inches, and tear it into 4 equal lengths. Pinch the top and spin the bottom to make 4 equal triangles. They should be about 1/2 and inch to 1 inch tall and as close to equal length as possible with a point at the top and a flat bottom.

Place them on the pizza pan in the middle using the 4 X-bracket holes on the GPU to stand the board off the pan.

Make sure your rack is in the middle. Once the oven beep and it’s ready, throw the GPU in VERY CAREFULLY so it stays on the pan and close the door. Set a timer for 9 minutes exactly. Some day 8, some say 10, 9 minutes exactly works best.

When the timer goes off, turn the over off, and crack the door of the over about 3 inches. Do not remove the pan.

Let it sit in the over like this for another 9 minutes. After 9 minutes have elapsed, remove the pan and put it on the counter. Again, be careful not to let it fall off the standoffs.

Look below the card. Can you see and tiny pieces that have come off? If no - Good. If you do, the card was at a failure point and only micro soldering could have saved it so it’s junk. 95% of the time, you won’t have an issue at all.

Make a cuppa and wait about 30 minutes (so you allow cooling without thermal shock). repaste, be quite liberal, using a non conductive paste.

Reinstall the cooler and reassemble. You will easily have 6+ months added to the cards life where it will work like it’s brand new. Clean the fans out with compressed air to ensure proper flow, and it’s likely this card will last you another few years.

This procedure is not exactly “beginner grade” so not everyone wants to do it, but if you’ve taken it out and done the paste - you can do the bake easily.

Let me know what you decide!