Hi all.

i‘m having a problem with finishing my new build.
basically I finished putting the waterblock on the GPU nearly a week ago now. It’s a 3090.
It’s been sitting on my table because I can’t work out what’s going on and EK support with this is rather lacking responses.
the problem is when I took the backplate off to check contact of thermal pads, I have some contact in places and no contact in others.
I will upload the same photos I sent to support.
as you can see the bottom single VRAM chip is making good contact, the four chips on ether side of the core the left is making contact with three of four chips, the opposite side about two chips, the core no contact at all, the top VRAM’s no contact. The vrms on either side good contact.
the pads are definitely the size for the locations as stated in the manual.
the centre, two sides, bottom, and top are all 1.5mm, the two sides are 2.0mm.
the backplate screws in fine.
the only thing I can notice is that the four centre screws on the PCB and water block, well three in this case as one is removed and goes in from the backplate.
but from the looks they “may” sit a mm or two higher than the VRAM chips with the washers that EK states are to be used with all fourteen screws, thus could possibly be restricting the backplate from making the necessary contact in those places?.
im not sure if those screws indeed require washers as the one screw out of the four, for the core is removed and done up with the backplate and that has no washer, so I don’t see a difference at the end of the day.
however I’m not going to potentially fry my card over a guess.
so I’m asking with these pictures at hand and the information I have provided, and possibly anyone else’s experience could I please get some help in any way because I’m at a point where I just can’t proceed further.

thanks.

https://ibb.co/8gvMDHZ
https://ibb.co/kJzXz2r
https://ibb.co/hstr8dd
https://ibb.co/fYRTcP0
https://ibb.co/Cb5nVfS

It’s a backplate not a block mate.

Yeh, my bad I had to resubmit my post and forgot to add what card I’m even talking about haha.

or u can wait for ek 3090 active backplate to come out, im waiting for them to come out

Those are all pre-order, the active backplates will start shipping soon.

Yeh true, but the manual says 1.5mm for those locations not 2.0mm.
EK support verifies that, then proceeded to say contact with half of what should be making contact is “strange”, gee really?, and their response is now to open a RMA.
I don’t see how a backplate that’s laser cut from a blueprint to precision can be “faulty”.
Sounds like an I don’t know, and what’s easier for them is to replace it instead of trying to solve what the actual obstruction is.
I don’t think using a bandaid fix of thicker pads for one set of VRAM and not the other is the way to go.
Thicker pads might gain actual contact but then the heat isn’t transferring through and out of the backplate.

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/EK-IM/EK-IM-3831109832622.pdf
My apologies again, it’s not a FTW3.
This is the only forum I have history with, and apart from EK support this is my last avenue for reaching out.
Definitely followed the guide to the letter, and even verified that EK didn’t change any pad locations or sizes with their support.
Everything in red in the diagram 1.5mm and orange 2.0mm.

Thanks.