Broken ATI 9800se AIW - HELP

I have a friend who has a 9800se AIW and recently put a Vantec Iceberq4 CCB-A4C Copper VGA cooling kit with Blue LED which is rated for a ATI9800.

The problem is that he now gets blocks and lines on bootup, although it does boot into wondows. I thought this could be overheating, so he is currently redoing the mod. I also suggested that he use some newly applied Arctic Silver on the heatsink as he used the stuff from the old Heatsink. Am i right in thinking epoxy stuff is conductive btw and its the AS thats not? Even tho it should be ok providing a neat job is done.

He also said he put a small scratch on the PCB, although i am not sure how big as he hasnt got a digi camera to show. It sounds superficial tho. I sugested getting some Electrically Conductive Silver Paint and carefully applying it with a pin head to the scratch and using a pencil rubber to remove it.

I'm also thinking thats its possibly that the GPU core has been crushed by the newer heatsink. Is this as common as it is with CPU's?

He has tried most of the obvious like trying it in another computer, reseating the card & reinstalling drivers.

Has anyone got any other ideas/comments?

Did he remove the shim when he replaced the cooler?
If not, did he check that he actually was getting contact between the core & the hs?
He certainly should have used new TIM rather than the old.

AS is conductive (not certain but pretty sure).

If he didn't remove the shim then it is highly unlikely that he crushed the core.

I have exactly the same problem when I applied the Vanteq Iceberq 4 to my Hercules 9800SE AIW - blocks and lines on bootup.
It looked like the new cooler may have touched part of the PCB and shorted something out.
I used the thermal paste that came with the new cooler and I'm pretty sure that a good contact was made.
Assumed that the card was beyond repair so I bought another card as a replacement.
Would be interested if any more people have had this problem.

A mate screwed up his 9800 Pro by fitting a ZM80C - crushed the core. When I had a look, it appeared the heatsink was on the shim on one corner, but not the other...

Defo check contact. The shim could be stopping contact with the core. Just be careful when applying the hsf after you take it off.