MSI R9 280X Oil Leakage?

[wizkid]

Hi,

I have recently purchased the MSI R9 280X GPU from Scan and have now noticed that there is a sticky substance on various areas of the card. I have looked online and this card does seem to suffer from oil leakage but at the moment I can not see any leakage around the fans or the heat sink. I have attached a picture of it below and would be grateful if someone could advise if this does look like oil leakage from the fan bearings?

Also on the serial number it starts 1402 so does this mean that it was made second week in 2014? or the second month?

http://i59.tinypic.com/98rszo.jpg

I would also be appreciated if someone from Scan could advise me what there position is on this matter ?

I notice that the initial image I uploaded was deleted by Chris P of Scan. So I have re-added it again I as I am still awaiting a response.

[Chris P]

FYI, Link was removed as it sponsored with pornographic images.

[herulach]

FYI, Link was removed as it sponsored with pornographic images.

That'd explain the sticky stuff...



I'm here all week.

OP, its not really clear where that is in the context of the card, but it looks like the top edge? You sure its not used in a room with smokers, hair spray etc?

[wizkid]

@ herulach,

The photo is of the bottom of the card where metal plate is. The sticky residue is on several different places on the card, and was there when I opened it. The card seems to work okay but I am just confused as to what it could be maybe some kind of flux gel used when the PCB is soldered together? Or could it be the oil leak issue?

[Mark@SCAN]

From my experience MSI do seem to use a lot of flux in the manufacturing process compared to others, my best guess it is just residue from the manufacturing process.

The only other time recently that we have seen oil leaking on these cards in particular is when a large number have been together in a bit coin rig and they get stupidly hot and the fan bearing literally seizes up and sometimes leaks.

I would just keep an eye on fan speeds/temps for the time being.

Regards

[Jellyfish]

Well, i would class this as the oil leakage that has happened to alot of the twin frozer cooling solutions. It has been rampant on the AMD cards and prevented me from even considering the graphics card from them. It should be RMA'd and surprised that this isnt under consideration, considering ANY form of leakage is a faulty product.

Ocuk were refusing RMA's at first aswell, until enough people complained and MSI actually responded. Although they claimed it was for bit coin/mining etc... when in actual fact many people were just gaming with it. An excuse i imagine for cheaping out on some parts. Any form of oil leakage = should be accepted for an RMA, especially considering of our consumer laws in the UK. If there is leakage, a fan failiure will occur at one point or another.

Some links to the problem.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18582154

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=178153.0

A response post 29:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18585437

Hi Guys,

Thanks to OCUK Staff members for bringing this forum topic to our attention.

We are aware that some customers have been experiencing issues with our latest AMD GAMING Graphics Cards, notably the R9 Series.

MSI takes this issue seriously.

What is the issue?
Some cards manufactured pre-January are experiencing oil leakage from the fans.

How is this caused?
Oil leaks from the fans hub when the fans are spinning at 100% over a long period of time under high heat conditions.

Why is this happening?
We have seen a huge spike in sales numbers since late November when the BitCoin-Cryptocurrency mining craze started to kick off. Thus, customers have been using our R9 Series of GAMING Graphics Cards since mid-December to mine coins over a 24-HR, 7 days a week period which these cards are not designed for.

The details...
Basically our cards are designed mainly for one thing.. gaming (the clue's in the name). They are not intended for use under "industrial" load conditions where they would be needed to run flat-out continuously day after day, week after week with potential high heat levels.

MSI HQ have been working on the fix since late December to make some changes to our Twin Frozr coolers to stop this from happening. At the centre of the fan there is a 3mm gap inside where a specially made gel is inserted to keep our fans running smoothly and quietly to give you the award-winning silent conditions during idle and gaming modes you have seen and/or heard about. MSI has since reduced this to 2mm. This doesn't sound much but has in fact solved one of the issues whereby there was extra space for air to squeeze inside the area alongside the gel to cause tiny air bubbles that (while at 100% fan load for a long period of time) forces the gel to leak out onto the fan shroud and surrounding area.

The final issue that was fixed was simply not to put as much gel inside the fans core. We intentionally put more gel into this area during production to ensure your cards would continue to run smoothly and that durability would never decrease. Sadly our good intentions came back to hurt us since many customers are using R9 Graphics Cards (and R7) to mine for coins jumping quickly onto the Cryptocurrency bandwagon. Our cards we're not designed for this. Under normal gaming conditions this would not happen (rare cases it may). MSI HQ wanted (yet again) to improve our award-winning Twin Frozr coolers further by solving any and all reliability questions of the running of our fans... hence more gel.

Unlike our competitors, our bearing is made from a special ring made from a mixture of pressed cooper shavings and oil – This unique design avoids the need of ball bearings so the fan can run quieter.

Those customers with Graphics Cards pre-January that are worrying about oil leaking in the future causing harm to the fans.. don't worry. The oil leaking is from the fans hub and not from the bearing, thus will not impact the lifetime running of the fans.

Is it safe?
Yes. The gel which has since turned into an oil like substance during high heat conditions will not harm you, nor your surrounding components in your PC. This gel is harmless, it is non-conductive and will not harm components on the motherboard – The gel is designed to work up to 140C so it will not burn out.

What do I do now?
As mentioned, HQ knows about the problems you have been experiencing and recommends you RMA your Graphics Card to our RMA centre for a replacement card with the new fixes.

Can you not just send some replacement fans or coolers?
No. While there are 0 issues with the PCB's, we cannot send you replacement fans and/or Twin Frozr coolers to do it yourself. One reason is we want to ensure you do not damage the PCB or cooler during installation (and thus voiding your warranty), but another reason is due to how we design the Twin Frozr coolers. You may not know this, but unlike many of our competitors who simply use the same cooler for every batch of cards, we engineer our coolers differently per each graphics card to ensure each cooler we place onto each GPU can handle the thermals produced from that very GPU since every GPU is different (silicone lottery).

We are very sorry if you have been affected by this issue. We hold our hands up, however we did have good intentions. Please RMA the Graphics Card back to us for a swift replacement.

[kalniel]

If there is leakage, a fan failiure will occur at one point or another.

That seems to be at odds with the information you provide later on:

Those customers with Graphics Cards pre-January that are worrying about oil leaking in the future causing harm to the fans.. don't worry. The oil leaking is from the fans hub and not from the bearing, thus will not impact the lifetime running of the fans.

But as the OP notes this isn't that.

[Jellyfish]

Hey Kalniel. Yeah sorry, knackered today! From reading the ocuk posts a while back, people who had the leakage soon after had fan failiures (or the fan failed before some noticed) Having oil spurt onto other hardware though is not good at all.

The msi cards i was considering but with the thought of them leaking not only on the gpu/shroud but also other components really put me off even considering them. Msi's response as much as it was nice of them to, also claimed it was from mining with high heat/full fan power, when alot of these happened to people running them in normal conditions (with the fan at say normal 50%) I think Msi trying to cover themselves. But having leaking oil going over other expensive components is pretty bad aswell as over the shroud of the gpu. The ocuk thread was a good read a while back as more people were having problems. I'm not 100% sure but it seemed to happen alot more to the amd cards rather than the Nvidea's.

I would personally contact msi, hear there response then contact the retailer you purchased it from.

[kalniel]

Having oil spurt onto other hardware though is not good at all.

Well again, that's contradicted by what you posted earlier - it's a non-conductive gel which is completely safe to be in contact with other components But point taken that users are claiming fan failures.

I'm not 100% sure but it seemed to happen alot more to the amd cards rather than the Nvidea's.

That would tie up with the mining comment I guess - there's no reason MSI would change their philosophy between makes of card, but there's little point mining on nVidia cards when AMD cards are so much faster.

I would personally contact msi, hear there response then contact the retailer you purchased it from.

Or ask Scan to contact MSI on your behalf - but good to get them involved certainly.

[watercooled]

The fans used by MSI on their AMD or Nvidia cards are, AFAIK, *exactly the same*; if they are indeed more frequent on AMD cards I'd guess it was either a certain batch which happened to find its way onto AMD cards, or as MSI say, people are maxing them for mining. Or perhaps MSI simply sell more AMD cards than Nvidia?

As much as MSI may be covering themselves, people complaining of the problem could also be keeping quiet about how they're using them. Is everyone complaining about it after mining going to be completely forthcoming that they were maxing the card 24/7? I'm not at all suggesting this would be the case for every incident; coincidentally I've just noticed some oil on the cowl of one of my case fans, and a quick search turns up reports of it happening on a load of different brands, however it may be skewing the data somewhat.

[Jellyfish]

Yea, being non conductive is less worrying, but still leaking on a £100 mobo etc... not cool at all Yeah, you're right not everyone will say if they've been mining running the hell out of the gpu's. It's a real shame, the Msi cards are really nice, this is the only bad thing i read about them (having better vram etc... i think)

I can't remember but i think some people were finding out the fan manufacturer (Taking them apart/googling) and im not completely sure but they might have changed the company since then. I think a fair few people did probably mine with them and would obviously be naive to think otherwise, although probably some people had this happen when using them in normal conditions. I remember randomly reading that thread as i was very close to going with msi for their gpu. Didn't mean to sound as if i was ranting , had about 3 hours sleep so my brain is over fed with caffiene and needs a pillow to pass out on