rjbarker
No problemo....
 
Dont pay attention to the "fear mongers".....if it was that "risky" all of us thousands of "wet heads" wouldn't be water cooling and instead continuing to muck about with AIO and Hybrids.
 
I just never purchase a GPU that strictly is a WC Card, as resale is next to impossible, throwing the Air Cooler back on makes it easier to sell for sure (just end up with a stock pile of Water Blocks).
 
Its a great video.....there are many tutorials on you tube for GPU n CPU Water Block installation as well as building entire loops.
Mine has grown exponentially....3 radiators (Quad, Triple n Double)...13 fans total...fan controller...just havent moved to a dual loop (one for GPU and one for CPU) as single loop has been adequate for CPU + 2x1080Ti's or CPU + single 3080.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7YtQfdSMGw
 
Cheers

Oh, I know this one. I thought that you meant EK made some official video for installation after this issue with ftw3s broke out

I can't wait to get my water block I pray I won't run into issues, seems very difficult

Im using my card before with the stock cooler and its workinb fine but when i installed the ek water block mg pc wont boot but if I remove the card and put the display port on my motherboard it will work . Your not the only one man

@Filip1995 Have you installed the block on your new card yet?

RMA replacement 3090ftw3 showed up today. I'll be installing the alphacool block this time around. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
The replacement card has red lips this time, the bricked card had black lips.
SN of new card: 211413

So I hate to speak too soon. But I got the Alphacool block on and its POSTing. I haven't filled or plumbed the rest of the loop so the system was only powered on briefly to see that it did get to POST and then begin to load windows. My previous card with the EK block never got that far. So i'm pleased I don't have to send back another card.
 
I will say, the Alphacool thermal pads are a night and day compared to EK. Cut to size, labeled appropriately, and easy to peal off film. Not to mention they are significantly thicker on the backplate. Later this week I will put my mono block on, plumb, and fill the loop and see what kind of temps I'm getting under furmark, time spy, blender etc.
 
For those installing on the FTW3, get a heatgun or hairdryer and heat up the stock thermal pads from the back side of the card (backplate removed) and from the sides of the card. This helped A LOT with removal of the thermal gorilla glue EVGA puts on there.

I was reading new posts here and my EK waterblock and backplate just arrived. I'm amazed it only took 2 days to ship!

And... another one bites the dust...

Just finished installing EKWB waterblock and backplate on my 3080 FTW3, and I get VGA error when trying to POST.

I can ensure you all that disassembly of the aircooler and the following installation of the waterblock went flawlessly - I've read about so many dead cards, I took utmost care to do everything gentle and correct.

My card is a 2012 serial that has been in daily use since end of November.

loztb
And... another one bites the dust...

Just finished installing EKWB waterblock and backplate on my 3080 FTW3, and I get VGA error when trying to POST.

I can ensure you all that disassembly of the aircooler and the following installation of the waterblock went flawlessly - I've read about so many dead cards, I took utmost care to do everything gentle and correct.

My card is a 2012 serial that has been in daily use since end of November.

Does the card work if you put the stock cooler back on? I have had my EK waterblock on since mid-January on my system below and went from aircooled card to hybrid card and to waterblock and didn't encounter no such error. I have had my card since Oct. 27th.

DNAJAY

badboy64

loztb
And... another one bites the dust...

Just finished installing EKWB waterblock and backplate on my 3080 FTW3, and I get VGA error when trying to POST.

I can ensure you all that disassembly of the aircooler and the following installation of the waterblock went flawlessly - I've read about so many dead cards, I took utmost care to do everything gentle and correct.

My card is a 2012 serial that has been in daily use since end of November.

Does the card work if you put the stock cooler back on? I have had my EK waterblock on since mid-January on my system below and went from aircooled card to hybrid card and to waterblock and didn't encounter no such error. I have had my card since Oct. 27th.

If history is a guide, something probably fried when they went to power it on. Returning to stock likely won’t help. My guess is backplate shorted something.

I have a backplate on my card and did it twice but yes he could of shorted it out. We don't know even if he installed a backplate.

Spurious_ECG
The problem is definitely not the backplate shorting something, I don't know how you came up with that.

It’s just a guess. But if you look at the alpha cool backplate pads they are definitely thicker than EKs. Once the card goes down it doesn’t come back, so that points to a short of some kind. These are just guesses, couldn’t say for sure.

But I do find it odd that the hybrid kits and other water blocks don’t appear to have this issue. Maybe it’s just numbers, more people tend to do EK blocks, so we’re just not hearing about the other blocks.

Filip1995


I encountered only one person having the same issue with the alpha cool block so definitely its numbers. Tbh, I think the problem occures with cards them self being to fragile. And its basically Russian roulette whether the cards get bricked by cooler disassembly or wb installation.

Yeah equally possible. I know when I took my cooler off a capacitor popped off with it LOL. So there’s that.

Spurious_ECG
The exact same problem has been reported multiple times with alphacool blocks and teardown of stock coolers to repaste, so that rules out the issue being EK specific. Also, I can assure you the EK backplate doesn't contact any components and I had no issues with thermal pads being too thin. Alphacool's block is a different design so it is not directly comparable to EK's. All of this has been discussed to death earlier in this thread. We won't know the cause for sure until EVGA releases a statement. Trying to make guesses from an armchair isn't going to solve anyone's problem.

But EVGA already made a statement, that is: “we dont assure any compatibility with third party products” and from a business point of view, thats only statement we are gonna get. The issue occurs mainly in conjunction with removing cooler and installing wb. The cases where people change up thermal pads is next to noting ratio, cause the cards are still new, so EVGA can sum this up as ordinary failure rate. I understand they are business and they have to make these decisions as any other business does. Still gonna stick with them, replaced my 4 months old card with brand new in matter of 3 days. No other manufacturer is gonna provide this kind of warranty.

Hello there
 
Little sad update from my side..
I got an replacement from EVGA and installed the EKWB Block again.
But first a little through what I went through. The old bricked card worked actually for a couple of days water cooled.. great temps, everything was fine. Then from one day to another it just didn't boot anymore, just like you all guys wrote already, same Error Code.
RMA'd it and got a new one. Since I read a post that many 3080 Ultra stopped working without even the watercooling part I didn't think much of it that it could have been a fault of watercooling it.
Sooo I installed the block on the fresh delivered 3080, did everything very carefully and tried to boot my pc in full hope. Turns out it doesn't even start from the first time booting it watercooled. 
I checked everything.. everything looks great and the thermal pads are also all on point. Also installed the stock cooler again, but same Error code and the 4 LED's flash for a split second while booting the PC.
 
I reported my situation in a support ticket, but haven't got any answer yet. I doubt there will be a happy outcome of this, but let's see..
Has anyone gotten solutions already?
Btw, I checked all the Fuses as well, but they all seem to work.
 
Greeting Chris

yes, the flashing at startup is normal behaviour.

Sorry to hear about your issue. Can you please give more information about your card? SN and country of origin? Also can you provide more detail about your disassembly and wb installation?