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How To Service a Nvidia 8800GTS Graphics Card

By David John Hughes

Servicing the 8800GTS (320MB and 640MB) is recommended and is a relatively simple process that can be completed in as little as ten minutes however please be aware that if your card has any remaining warranty then you risk the warranty being voided so keep this in mind.

Equipment Needed

In order to service your card you will need the following items:

• Philips Screwdriver
• Citrus-based Solvent
• Can Of Compressed Air
• GPU Thermal Paste (recommend using Akasa or Arctic Silver for best results).
• An Old Credit / Debit Card (not essential but helps to apply the thermal compound correctly)

1. Remove All Screws From 8800GTS

Remove the 8800GTS from your system to begin with and lay this on a flat area with enough space to work. The standard 8800GTS heatsink has a total of 11 screws that need to be removed before it can be separated from the printed circuit board (PCB).

Firstly remove the 8 screws from the underneath of the card (be sure to keep all screws in a safe place). Then you will need to remove 2 further screws located near the monitor output sockets (these will be DVI ports and will be white in colour). The last screw can be found on the top corner of the card, joining the metal PCI slot into the circuit board itself and once this has been removed you will now be able to proceed to the next step.

2. Remove Heatsink

The vast majority of 8800GTS cards have an excess of thermal paste applied to them in the factory and consequently when you come to remove the heatsink you may notice that it does not initially want to come off despite the fact that you have removed all of the screws. This is quite normal and is simply a case of the thermal paste hardening over time and forming a light bond between the heatsink and PCB.

The best thing to do is use your screwdriver as a lever between the two and gently apply pressure to separate the two components (be careful to position the screwdriver so it does not touch the memory modules or capacitors on the PCB). Once the two parts are separated you will need you will see that they are connected only by a thin wire from the fan. Locate the plastic connection at the end of this wire where it plugs into the PCB and gently wiggle this to unplug the cable from the PCB.