Ninja [contact] surface looks defective

king of snake · Post by **king of snake** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:27 pm

Hi,

I just sat down to build my new PC, and to my surprise, it seems there is a problem with my Ninja. See for yourself:

It looked like this out of the box.

You can still see the imprint of the safety sticker, and a few discolored spots, which I would argue actually look like "clean" spots. Am I correct to assume that the whole surface should look like those spots?

I thought what the heck, I'll try to clean it off; so I used ArctiClean 1 and 2 on it. It didn't help or hurt at all. It looked like this both before and after.

Has anyone had this problem before? What should I do?

Thanks for your time.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:01 pm

Hello,

Is the bottom surface flat? You can check this with a straight edge, like a metal scale (ruler) -- hold it against the surface and see if you can see a space. Can you feel these blemishes with your fingernail? (Close your eyes and try to locate them.)

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:18 pm

Looks like a corroded old penny.

king of snake · Post by **king of snake** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:21 pm

Hi Neil,

Yes, I think I can feel it very slightly. And it seems to be scratching off a bit under my fingernail ...

So, what do I remove it with? The Arctic stuff obviously didn't work ... any other suggestions?

Even if I manage to clean it off, is this thing safe to use in my build?

kieran45 · Post by **kieran45** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:51 pm

Looks to me like someone has tried to run it with the protective sticker on it, and this has meleted the sticker onto the surface. I would guess that if you cleaned this off with some very fine grit sandpaper it would be good as new, but would think that the shop you got it from should probably give you a new one instead.

If you don't want to take it back, you could lap the base, which should restore it to perfect condition as well as make sure it is perfectly flat.

king of snake · Post by **king of snake** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:29 pm

kieran45 wrote:Looks to me like someone has tried to run it with the protective sticker on it

Wow, that's so obvious, I'm surprised I didn't think of it. You're probably right!

That's pretty ironic, seeing as you can still read "peel off before installation".

Upon closer inspection, the whole thing looks "used" to me. There are other blemishes elsewhere, even in the photo. This was from a retailer which is fairly popular around here, too...

I don't feel comfortable taking sandpaper to this thing, so I'll be trying to RMA it now. Thanks again for the help SPCR.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:30 am

Man you could fix the thing in a few minutes with a sheet of #1000 grit sand paper and a sheet of glass......do it all the time. Unless the store is local and you can take it right back, there is no sense shipping it again.

Lapping a slight surface imperfection is an easy mod, much easier than actually installing a Ninja......

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:19 pm

When I peeled of that protective thing off my Ninja or Mine coolers, I got that imprint left on the base too. I think its now wanished after 1,5 years use... That the other thing looks like spot where has been corrosion affected.

yamahaSHO · Post by **yamahaSHO** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:26 pm

If it's a flat surface I wouldn't worry about it. You could lap it or clean it up with some emry cloth, but otherwise I wouldn't worry.

king of snake · Post by **king of snake** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:46 pm

OK, I need one more piece of advice from you guys. I'm in the process of installing the Ninja right now on my Biostar TF7050-M2.

I've got it sitting on the CPU with TIM underneath it.

The little retention clips on the Ninja are not hanging nearly as low as they need to in order to clip into the mobo's AM2 bracket.

It seems I would need to actually bend the metal on the Ninja AM2 adapter to get them low enough to clip in place.

I would understand if they had to bend a little, but this seems totally excessive.

Sorry for such a "general help" kind of question, but I know the Ninja is very popular around here, so there's no one better to ask. I did search the net real quick and came up with nothing.

I'll post a pic in a few minutes so you can see just how far it needs to bend ...

Pauli · Post by **Pauli** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:16 pm

Doesn't look excessively high to me. Go ahead and clip that sucker in!

king of snake · Post by **king of snake** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:33 pm

Wow. Just bit the bullet and went for it when I saw your reply.

Just to give you an idea of the force needed, I couldn't even do it with my left thumb (i'm a righty), I had to actually use both hands for that side!

Well, that was a horrifying experience. But, you gotta learn sometime.

If anybody's wondering, there is TONS of clearance for the Ninja on this board. No problems whatsoever.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:13 pm

Hello,

It takes a lot of pressure to hold any big heatsink in place -- and more pressure helps you get lower temps.

tehcrazybob · Post by **tehcrazybob** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:57 pm

I don't think there's anything I can add to this discussion, but I would like to mention how refreshing it is to see a close-up photograph showing the details of a situation which is actually in focus.

Lots of people post camera-phone and webcam pictures, and the results are usually so blurry that they might as well have not bothered.

king of snake · Post by **king of snake** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:15 pm

Well, at least I'm doing something right!